One happy camper
I had a little taste of this lifestyle in the mid-’80s when I filmed the Simply Delicious television series in France and Italy.
The crew and I piled into a dormobile, as it was then called, for a two-week stint. It was a wonderful adventure, visiting markets, food producers and restaurants.
In Provence, we called in to see Roger Vergé at Moulin des Mougins near Cannes; he obligingly showed me his vegetable garden and walked up the garden path with a wheelbarrow full of vegetables for the cameras.
In Burgundy, we encountered the full force of the mistral as we made our way to Paul Avril’s vineyard in Chateauneuf-des-Papes. His lovely wife, Monique, showed us how to cook a succulent shoulder of lamb, stuffed with tapenade, and a delicious fresh apricot tart.
On to Venice where Marcella Hazan, the doyenne of Italian food, showed us around the Rialto market and then brought us back to her apartment to make a tagliatelle bolognaise.
We also cooked delicious breakfasts on the little gas stove in the dormobile.
Almost 20 years later, I hired a camper van for a few weeks. I searched in vain for a cook’s camper - one that had an oven - but there was no such thing. Eventually, I settled for a four-berth with a four-ring cooker, grill and microwave. I’ve always been hopeless and not a little scared of microwaves.
It was a delicious challenge and I loved it. Driving through the stunning New Zealand countryside, from Christchurch to Dunedin, it was a cook’s paradise. Every second farm offers produce for sale: free range eggs, fruit and vegetables, bacon, and occasionally we found organic beef and lamb.
Bread was a problem. Mostly it was soft and squidgy, the kind of bread with a long list of additives. Then we found buttermilk and baking soda, so I had lots of fun and considerable success making griddle bread on the frying pan.
Along the coast it is still very possible to catch your supper without too much effort. A little chat to the locals always resulted in a tip as to where to forage for mussels and pipis. It was the whitebait season so we bought bags of them from local fishermen. We tossed them in seasoned flour and cooked them in New Zealand olive oil until crispy. Locals make them into whitebait patties, a kind of whitebait pancake or flat omelette.
The back to front seasons take a bit of getting used to. We picked elderflowers to flavour a syrup for poached apricots, and shelled peas on Christmas Day - weird to have apricots and new potatoes and fresh asparagus in December.
