Stéphan Paroche, chef, & Lise Roche, green spaces manager, in Castigno

Castigno is first and foremost a winegrowing estate, and not, as you might think, the name of a village, for it is in fact the name of Assignan. To clearly identify the Castigno project, just follow the red thread, pink and purple, coloring the doors, shutters, parasols... There are three restaurants, a spa and rooms scattered around the village. It is clear, however, that Assignan would not be what it is without the intervention of the Belgian owner, who first acquired the estate in 2007, converted it to organic and then biodynamic farming, and annexed part of the village, giving it a timely boost.

The gastronomic offer - a bistro, a Thai restaurant and a gastro - allows guests to explore different types of cuisine and encounter local produce, in particular from a kitchen garden under the supervision of green space manager Lise Roche. Having already worked in Gilles Goujon's gardens, she is well acquainted with the demands of chefs. Here, it's with chefs Justine Viano and Stéphan Paroche, at the helm of La Table de Castigno (3 toques), that she cultivates vegetables, herbs and flowers to help create a gastronomic cuisine that's as beautiful as it is vibrant.

What was it about Domaine de Castigno, after several years spent in Vietnam, that made it so irresistible?

Stéphan Paroche: It was Covid that forced us to come back. It wasn't obvious at first. We had other proposals that made sense, but this one best suited our philosophy. I liked Montpellier, but the city isn't my thing. In Hoï An, in the middle of rice paddies, we were surrounded by nature. When we left the house, we could see buffaloes, ducks and other animals roaming freely, and we lived in the heart of a plant village, where everything grew easily. We had to find something similar.

Was the wine-growing context also interesting?

S.P.: Honestly, if I hadn't been a chef, I think I would have been a winemaker. The only thing I wouldn't like is not being able to control the climate, the sun and the natural elements. You can suddenly lose your crop, your life... but otherwise, I think winemaking and cooking are very similar. I don't necessarily think about the wine when I'm cooking, but rather about the philosophy behind its production, and it goes without saying that everything must be in correlation.

Alexia Roux

Is the soil of the Saint-Chinian appellation suitable for market gardening?

Lise Roche: No, that's why we work mainly in containers, which doesn't prevent exchanges with the soil. After that, even if the soil isn't really suited to market gardening, the fact that we work it biodynamically and permaculture, with mulching and manure inputs, means we can nourish it to obtain good yields and beautiful vegetables.

Did you set up the kitchen garden?

S.P.: Not at all, I only arrived in March 2024. It was already there, organized by Romain from Ferme Campesina, an organic producer with whom the chefs work a lot. There's the main kitchen garden on the wine estate and another near the restaurant for flowers and herbs.

L.R.: Cultivation is all about surveillance and observation. Time, in fact. It's like looking after a child from morning to night, and even at night, you think about it! It's true, you're never safe from hail or anything else, but that's part of the job. When you're working with the land, you have to know how to adapt. In fact, you have to. For example, we had a lot of humidity, a lot of rain. For the tomatoes, I had prepared a tansy purin, as we do in biodynamics. But it didn't stop the spread, and as I still have a production to maintain, I can't let diseases and fungi eat my crops. So I had to treat with copper and sulfur. But that's the only one of the season. I put carnations between the rows of crops, which is quite common. Already, it attracts pollinators, and their roots secrete a substance that repels all nematodes. I've also made a "three sisters" combination: beans, zucchinis and corn, as they do in South America. The zucchini acts as a ground cover. The corn, as it rises, will provide shade and support the bean. In permaculture and biodynamics, we work as much as possible with associations.

Is your ambition to become self-sufficient?

S.P.: No. In the beginning, with local producers, we had to show our credentials. We had to gain their acceptance, observe them and take part in the exchange. So it took a while. 4 years in fact. What we're trying to promote on the Domaine is not ourselves, but the region, the département, the terroir. And then we were lucky enough to meet Romain, our market gardener, with whom Lise works in correlation. So what we're doing here today is a test. It's a step towards finding out what products we can and can't have. Always in the spirit of doing things right.

L.R . In terms of adding value to the product, it's great that my vegetables are worked on by chefs. It's true that this year I haven't yet had the time to look for unusual vegetables. But there are a few: mini-vegetables, Vietnamese coriander, shiso, a cultivated variety of samphire...As I don't have enough space, the priority is the Table du Castigno (3 toques) and my aim to bring in plant diversity.

How does the kitchen garden contribute to the restaurant experience?

S.P. : By promoting it to our customers. We have to make them understand that, at any given moment, they have the chance to taste vegetables that come from the garden in small quantities. We're talking about a really short circuit. I think a chef has to adapt to the place he's in. Here, for example, we don't raise pigs or cattle, but at the Domaine, we're right in the middle of the vineyards and we know how to grow vegetables. On the other hand, the sea isn't far away, and neither is Aubrac. So it goes without saying that we also work with these products, but a large part of our menus are plant-based. We build our menu like a trip to Occitanie, but far from the beaten track. Our role as chefs is also to teach people to eat differently.