AMB Cote d'Azur

Saint Valentine’s Day is, without doubt, one of the most gastronomically sensual and passionate days on the calendar! It is all about the brilliant and slightly wicked ‘reds, the subtle pastel ‘pinks’ (rose petals?), and the irresistible seduction of the many aphrodisiacal foods: plump green asparagus tips, mouthwatering oysters, the heady spiciness of chili and ginger, the juicy succulence (and softness) of ripe fresh figs and purple passion fruit, the dusky temptation of dark chocolate, and, of course, lobster and caviar. And we still haven’t got around to cracking open a bottle of well-chilled Ruinart Rosé!

My menu of temptation is to follow, but, before we get around to the indulgences of the table, it is worth finding out a little more about the patron saint of lovers, Saint-Valentin. Believe it or not, he was in fact originally a priest whom the Romans turned into a martyr.

Valentin had aroused the anger of Emperor Claude 11 who did not wholeheartedly approve of marriage and commitment. He found that married men made poor soldiers, because they did not want to leave their families, and he eventually abolished marriage completely. It was Valentin who then encouraged young fiancés to meet him in secret to receive the benediction of marriage. Unfortunately for him, the Emperor did not appreciate this romantic gesture and had Valentin put into prison. While awaiting execution, he became ‘very close friends’ with the daughter of his jailor, and managed to restore her failing sight. Just before being beheaded, he offered her a heart of leaves, containing the message, De Ton Valentin! Perhaps this is why it is said that ‘love is blind’, and, when someone is in love, ‘they lose their head’!

Before this time, a pagan festival, the Roman Lupercalles, was celebrated in the middle of February and involved every young man picking the name of a girl who was then assigned to him for the rest of the year. A sort of love lottery! In 496, the Pope forbade it as being disrespectful to women. He then chose Valentin to be the patron of lovers, and decreed 14 February as the day for celebrating love.

Valentine Cards. When the ‘lucky dip’ of the pagan Roman festival, Lupercalles, was abolished, the young men of Rome started expressing their affections in writing. The oldest known Valentine Card was sent by Charles, the Duke of Orléans, whilst he was imprisoned in The Tower of London. In the 19th century, the postal service became a quicker, less expensive way of sending love notes and, unlike the pony express, it became possible to send them anonymously.

Why ‘X’ signifies a kiss? In the early days of Catholicism, ‘x’ represented the cross, a symbol of the sworn faith, and it was common practice to kiss the cross when making an oath or a promise.

The foods of love. “If music be the food of love, play on!” is often quoted, and yet music was never an integral part of Valentine’s Day, whereas food was, especially if it had the aphrodisiacal properties to boost the general level of amour. Many of the foods that possess these attributes have already been mentioned above, but, top of the list is surely chocolate. It exudes a profound sensuality and contains a hormone of desire, phenylethylamine (better to say that before the third glass of champagne!) which has a very direct and positive effect on the libido.

And so here is my Food of Love Menu:



Let’s raise our glasses to Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy and Madame Carla Bruni-Sarkozy!