L’Artisan Provençal
L’Artisan Provençal is a family confectioner from the Var, in Provence, that specializes in chestnuts. Its marrons glacés are made in small batches from a grandmother’s recipe: chestnuts chosen one by one and candied slowly, over several days, in a sugar syrup scented with Madagascar vanilla. Clipperton imports them to Canada and the United States.
The house
L’Artisan Provençal is first the story of Thomas, who grew up in a family where taste was handed down from one generation to the next. As a boy he dreamed of becoming a chef; his grandfather was a confectioner, and in the end it was into his grandfather’s world that Thomas found his way. From his grandmother he inherited the family’s recipe notebooks, and among them the formula for the marrons glacés that have become the house specialty.
Thomas sums up his approach in two words, simplicity and quality, and the recipe holds to them: fruit selected one by one, sugar, and vanilla pods of irreproachable quality. The chestnuts come from carefully tended chestnut groves, a growing share of them certified organic. Candying a chestnut properly takes time: over six to seven days, the chestnuts pass from one sugar bath to the next, each a little sweeter than the last, until the syrup has slowly reached the heart of the fruit. The house works in small quantities, day by day, and many of the steps are still done by hand, so that every chestnut leaves the workshop fresh.
Beyond whole marrons glacés, the workshop makes chestnut pieces, organic marrons glacés, chestnut creams, candied citrus and a small range of ingredients for pastry cooks.
What they make
Clipperton carries the house’s whole marrons glacés in two gift presentations. The wooden box, with its white lid lettered in gold, holds eight marrons glacés; the Paris tin, illustrated with the monuments of Paris, also holds eight, 160 g in all. Both are vacuum-packed to keep the chestnuts tender.
In France, marrons glacés are a Christmas tradition, served with coffee at the end of a festive meal or brought as a gift for the hosts. They are also a lovely pastry ingredient: chopped over vanilla ice cream, or set on top of a Mont Blanc.
- Whole marrons glacés, candied with vanilla
- Wooden gift box of 8
- Paris tin of 8 (160 g)
Both are in the L’Artisan Provençal collection.
Why Clipperton chose them
Clipperton is a family importer, and we look for makers who still do things the way their family taught them. At L’Artisan Provençal, the recipe comes from a grandmother’s notebook and the trade from a grandfather’s workshop, and the method is never hurried: close to a week to candy a chestnut, with nothing in the syrup but sugar and vanilla. Marrons glacés are one of the great French Christmas confections, and these are the kind we wanted to bring to Canadian and American tables.
