PHOTOGRAPH: OLIMPIO FANTUZ/4CORNERS
Since the age of two, I’ve been a vegetarian and timidly stuck with the same few ‘safe’ dishes. I’m not much of a wine buff, either. I needed a foodie adventure, so I booked into the cookery school at Le Saint James, a farmhouse transformed into a hotel and restaurant in the village of Bouliac, near Bordeaux.
After an entertaining visit to the nearby interactive museum La Cité du Vin, I feasted in the restaurant of Michelinstarred chef Nicolas Magie at Le Saint James: a fivecourse vegetarian menu, bursting with flavour, and each course paired with a complementary wine. My favourite was a dessert of Clery strawberries, with fennel, basil and a sheet of green aniseed. I grew up fearing any food that was out of the ordinary, and to eat whatever was put in front of me under these inspiring circumstances took me out of my comfort zone in style.