His title of world champion of pâté de Nîmes in 2011 can still be found in his Pork Epique stall in the Halles de Nîmes. Sunday November 26, Stéphane Meyer puts his title back into play in a competition launched by Midi Libre and street vendors.
In 2011 you won the competition promoted by Midi Libre with the street vendors of Les Halles, the petit pâté world championship. What brought you?
Lots of visibility! I was also a bit overwhelmed. But if you want to keep the artisanal, and therefore tasty, character of the petit pâté de Nîmes, you can only do it by hand. So that limits the quantities. A lot has been asked of me in these ten years, even by other traders or restaurateurs, but I can’t produce more.
Meaning what ? What is your daily production?
I don’t prepare it every day and in my stall I only offer it on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. A little more during the holiday season. But I normally count an hour to make 100. I usually make 500 with the meat, 500 with the brandade.
You are not originally from Nîmes, how did you learn?
I am truly Alsatian and the son of a policeman. But because of my father’s work, we moved a lot and I found myself in Roanne, training as a butcher with Dupuy, the best worker in France. Great workout! Then I arrived in Pont-Saint-Esprit, met my partner Mireille and we stayed in the Gard. I was first employed at La Fourchette des Arènes, then at Bosc in Les Halles for 8 years, before starting my business in 2000. I learned the technique by observing, trying, redoing… I tried the brandade pate, I refined my meat recipe. The petit pâté is very particular because there is no written recipe.
Above all, you have to create your own tool to make the dough cylinder…
Yes, I fiddled with the end of the handle of a pickaxe! The trick is to dry the shortcrust pastry well, make it adhere, garnish with a filling that is neither too dry nor too greasy. Even if the price of butter has increased, replacing it with margarine distorts its taste! For my part, I add a little pistou, for taste.
In your opinion, is he known outside Nîmes?
No, but it is a flagship product of Nîmes that the people of Nîmes want to taste when they have guests from elsewhere. At the request of my customers, I launched the “mi-Nîmois”, a small bite as an aperitif that I sell for ten. It’s the petit pâté for an aperitif. But otherwise, I didn’t develop the packaging or the promo at all, due to lack of time. There are only two of us, me in the kitchen, so never present at Les Halles and Mireille for sale, and that’s fine with us. But we always work a little!
Contests and events
The Petit Pâté World Cup will start on Thursday with entertainment on rue Guizot. The “mobile kitchen”, a truck that allows live cooking, will be installed in the street, with the butcher-restaurant Thierry Bosc giving demonstrations. Animations that will also have an artistic touch with the artist Melvyn Barros who will create, live, the trophies for the winners and offer lithographs. Many prizes up for grabs for the general public during these days of entertainment in the Halles. Saturday will be competition day for amateurs, and Sunday for restaurateurs and professionals. The jury, like eleven years ago, will be presided over by Michelin-starred chef Michel Kayser.
