James Bourdin est un jardinier passionné par les courges. Il enrichit chaque année son potager avec de nouvelles variétés qu'il dégote dans les catalogues spécialisés. Fasciné par leurs formes et leurs couleurs, il présente quelques spécimens qui poussent dans son jardin : une citrouille de 80 kilos, une galeuse, et explique comment cuisiner la fameuse courge spaghetti. Les cucurbitacées sont souvent vendues comme d'objet de décoration.
Benoit WOLF is a cucurbit producer. This year, its harvest is satisfactory, despite unfavourable weather conditions. Offered for direct sale in his shop, squash is becoming increasingly popular with consumers, especially butternut. A client describes a recipe she is used to preparing. Surfing on this passion for these vegetables, the farmer even decorated the facade of his store with squash of all colors. It also sells coloquinte, an inedible vegetable, but prized as a decorative object.
Paul BOCUSE realizes under the eye of Marthe MERCADIER the recipe of the squash soup. After hollowing out the squash, he adds to the flesh the ingredients: bread, butter, salt, pepper, cream floret, before baking the whole squash that will serve as a soup tureen.
At the Marjolaine Organic Agriculture Fair, a product little known in France is exhibited: the pumpkin. Gabriel GUET, farmer, explains that the pumpkin is easy to grow because it accommodates many poor land. Originally from South America, this thousand-year-old "fruit vegetable" from the cucurbitaceae family has real nutritional assets that could make its success. It is widely grown on the island of Hokkaido in Japan under the name of Chinese squash.
The chef Edouard LOUBET chooses for his winter menu Provencal specialties, including cucurbitaceae. He goes to a producer to make his choice. This season he prepares a pumpkin cake veiled in bitter chocolate and a coffee ganache. Imagine recipes to make products light, fresh, unctuous, for him it is "Provencal years 2016", the tradition brought up to date. Edouard LOUBET, head of the Capelongue estate in Bonnieux and Marcel SERRE, producer of butternut squash in l'Isle sur la Sorgue talk about their jobs.
The pumpkin is a source of inspiration for the restorer Marie Christine KLOPP. Passionate about vegetables, and especially pumpkins, she puts them in the spotlight in her restaurant in Roye. Tasting, greed and imagination insiprent the research of new recipes that she leads with her chef Eric GACHIGNARD. Raw or cooked, they explore all the flavors of this old vegetable.
Daniel DANNEYROLLES presents in front of the camera a whole variety of squash: the Hokkaidô pumpkin, the Hubbard squash, the turban giraumon, the confectionary watermelon, the Siam squash, the butternut squash and the squash with Albanga trunk.