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Île-de-France
Beneath its crinkled, purplish-green leaves, this winter cabbage that Paris had almost forgotten owes its survival to a stubborn market gardener and a chef who likened it to a fine wine.
Vegetable from Île-de-France.
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A land of Île-de-France gastronomy since the Middle Ages, Pontoise saw its emblematic cabbage emerge in the 16th century, but it was in the 19th century that it truly came into its own: its cultivation then covered nearly half of the commune's plain, a vital hub supplying Paris with vegetables and grain. Its renown was such that it still marks the local geography today — the quartier du Chou, along the Oise in Pontoise, bears its name. The Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, who lived in Pontoise from 1866 to 1883, even made it the subject of a painting, "Le chou à Pontoise", painted in 1882.
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The expropriation of farmers in the 1970s, followed by the pressure of supermarket chains and urbanisation in the 1980s, nearly sounded the death knell for the purplish cabbage. Laurent Berrurier, a market gardener in Neuville-sur-Oise, considered giving up for a time, but held out and remains today one of the last to cultivate the vegetable's pure strain. His meeting in 2009 with Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alléno, then in search of forgotten produce from the Parisian terroir, marked a turning point: the chef was lavish in his praise for this cabbage, which he compared to a fine wine, "rustic, deep", with "character". Since then, Laurent Berrurier has supplied the tables of 130 top Parisian chefs with the 20,000 heads of chou de Pontoise harvested each year on his farm.
Appearance
A variety of Savoy cabbage, with dark green, slightly purplish leaves that are tightly packed and crinkled, forming a tender head less compact than white cabbage, with a characteristic purplish heart.
Taste
Sweet, mild flavour, more pronounced and deeper than that of green cabbage, without the acidity noted in hybrids.
Texture
Delicate, tender leaves, slightly crinkled — a puckering that lends it good resistance to the cold.
insecticides are used only as a last resort, in the event of a proven problem.
the crinkled leaves allow the cabbage to be sold throughout the winter, even during periods of frost.
chou de Pontoise is still harvested by hand, from October to March.
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Chou de Pontoise can be enjoyed shredded in salads, stuffed, simmered in a potée, or stir-fried in a wok — brief cooking is enough to preserve its crunch. Long neglected, it is now sought after by Parisian haute gastronomie, which has been rediscovering it since Laurent Berrurier and Yannick Alléno met in 2009.
Chou de Pontoise does not hold any official label. Its preservation and promotion are championed locally by the Confrérie Gastronomique du Chou de Pontoise, a gastronomic association registered in 2021, and by the annual culinary competition "La Belle & le Chou au Pays du Vexin", organised by the Ville de Pontoise together with the Parc naturel régional du Vexin français.
Brotherhood
EARL
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