The cooking competition involved two teams of trainee chefs producing gastronomic dishes for a 28-strong jury. There was duck with blackcurrants, and confit apples, all washed down by Esprit de Corps, a wine from the château in Provence, where the vines are tended by former members of the French Foreign Legion.
French television cameras were present, although this was no reality cooking show. The cameras from the M6 channel were there to record the “gala meal” staged by the legion this month as part of a drive to maintain a tradition of culinary “excellence” within the country’s armed forces.
The French army may not be the biggest in the world, or the best equipped, or even the most successful, but it provides the finest food