Daniel
Sak

Speaker Profile

Born in Aix en Provence to a foodie diplomat's daughter and an American folksinger who had settled in the olive groves of Provence to restore an old stone mas, as a toddler Daniel Sak would totter down through the vineyard in order to share garlic scraped bread dipped in olive oil with the local shepherd stopping work for his casse croute.

The lure of a home that could move throughout Europe took his nomad parents to Amsterdam where a Dutch house barge became the roof over Daniel's head for the next ten years. Traveling and cruising through the schools, languages and cuisine of Europe's waterways made him adapt easily to meeting people and educated him in the many and varied cuisines of the continent. After Amsterdam was Paris, and then back to Southern France, a few years in St. Tropez, and the Canal du Midi.

At 17 Daniel went to work a season as a deckhand on a hotel barge traveling from Strasbourg to Dijon. Though the work was hard, much fun was had in the galley each evening creating 'fancy' dishes for appreciative passengers. It inspired Daniel to enter the French culinary school in Beaune, Burgundy, where he spent a year learning the skills of traditional French cuisine. Through the years, trips to Thailand, Mexico, the USA (with Chinatown in San Francisco a culinary favourite) and Australia, have all offered spices and ideas to make his own style of zany, wonderful, light and flavoursome dishes.

After having helped his mother create a first boutique hotel barge, Fandango, Daniel bought and renovated his own Dutch cargo barge, the Tango. A warm atmosphere reflects his tastes: retro chic decor, spacious cabins, a large deckside dining area, bar and sitting room and a great galley to welcome passengers into the life on the waterways he knows so well, teaching and trading food ideas with guests and sharing glasses of fabulous wine.

Daniel has made many friends in the Languedoc wineries, now specialising in organic wines to avoid pesticides, as he has done for years with the produce he purchases. He purchases vegetables and fruit from the growers, fresh fish from the Narbonne fish market and has a butcher source the best regional meats for his guests: veal, lamb from the Pyrenees, homemade sausages. Dedicated and enthusiastic, Daniel's passion for food, wine and good company is evident in everything that he does.

Travels from France