Olivier de Guyenro

He knew how to get the children of Sorcière round a table. With a simple and shrewd idea, he needed no more than 10 minutes to convince François and Guy, well known for their love of great gourmet, to join in the venture. Since then, Olivier has sought everyday to stimulate curiousity, enthusiasm and the tastebuds. He wants to change our habits and replace the traditional boiled chicken with a fatted chicken aux Sunday truffles. The slightest chalky and sunlit soil is a potential truffle producing land, the slightest flea-bitten mongrel is a future champion truffle-hunter. He quickly got us used to always keeping an eye open and be alert. A bottomless well of exotic ideas, Olivier is to Sorcière what …

François Morin

He found the truffle ‘black diamond’ by accident in a risotto. It was a revelation. Since then, truffles would be in all meals, even if they were sometimes on a menu. Originally from the Hérault, he knows the byroads and the cutoff roads which lead to the truffles. With Francois, the lands are 10 minutes away from Montpellier, 10 minutes away from Béziers, 10 minutes from the family home, barely more than Sête and hardly further than the Gare du Lyon. For him, time is a relative notion. He transforms abandoned vineyards into finely run truffle production sites. He knows the old saying: ‘hoeing is better than watering three times!’ As soon as a plot is in site, armed with his garden fork, he digs the four corners of the plot to analyse it. Essential in the researching of future lands, François is to Sorcière what Amerigo is to America...

Guy Potier

In the same day, Guy may well sip coffee in a café in Rio de Janeiro, gather vanilla in Madagascar at lunchtime and in the evening dine on lobster in Ouessant. Guy is passionate about what he does and in so doing sometimes forget to live the simple life. Trained as a Vet, it was Agriculture that he really had his heart set on. He cultivates periwinkles in Brazil, seaweed in Ouessant, truffles in the Hérault as well as friends from all over. Sharing his time across all these different areas of the globe, he only too rarely goes to rest on his own. Blindfolded, he can recognise 264 soils, 328 wines and 756 plant species. He knows the depth of the earth. Essential in the choices made over areas and trees, Guy is to Sorcière what Gringo is to Jacques Vabre...

Florence Morin

She collects the figures in a pile in order to place them in columns. She knows better than anyone how to find the deduction which isn’t in the right place and without raising her voice to put it into a row. Thanks to Florence, expenses are reimbursed, VAT paid on time and glasses are cooled in the fridge for the working-apero's .

She understands things a ‘countryman’ would never imagine and draws up accounting plans as careful as those of building an Airbus A380. Florence knows that if three chickens lay three eggs over threw days, and that the first day is Thursday, well them on Sunday …we can easily make scrambled eggs. A skilled counter, Florence is to Sorciere what accounts are to apothaceries…

Aurélie Amouroux

She can, with just one or two techniques, relieve a calcified bag of bones or a knotted muscle structure. Coming from a line of coupeuses de feu and from Sorcières Médocaines, with a training in bone setting, Aurélie knows better than anyone equally well how to redresser ici ce chêne poussant de travers as the vertebral column of a truffle hunter exhausted by a day of truffle hunting. Everything which is twisting, winding, bending, or wedged fascinates her. She sees in the endings of Quercus ilex tuber melanosporum a certain polyarthrite rhumatoïde ankylosante which could be relieved by pruning (well at least that’s what she tells us). The partner of Olivier, Aurélie is to Sorciere what tenon is to mortise...

Jean-Philippe Guériaux

He mixes with all the great and good of the world, greeting cap-in-hand a Senator happy to be dining in his establishment on one hand, and conversing with a young actor looking for a friendly patron on the other … Jean-Philippe loves the Bourgogne and Périgord truffles, big tables and big tables of people … The cheerful expression, the pink cheeks, his two hands firmly grabbing the back of his jacket, he can take you on a tour of France's great Chefs, talking enthusiastically for hours on end, and remember exactly what legendary tie he was wearing on that day. To go and dine with Jean-Philippe in a restaurant of repute is to be assured of being received like a friend by a friend. The indisputable link between tradition and gastronomy, Jean-Philippe est to Sorciere what tornedos is to Rossini …

Philippe de Guyenro

Philippe is to trufficulture what an umbrella is to scuba diving ! He would not recognize a green oak from a Christmas Tree if the latter wasn’t decorated with balls and tinsel. On the other hand, Philippe knows better than anyone how to get hold of a Châteauneuf-du-Pape or a Pic-Saint-Loup to go with a truffle omelette over here or a blanket of raised veal à la tuber melano over there. He holds a pen like he would a knife and fork, firmly and with an assured hand. As much as his handwriting is tiny, his appetite is enormous. Finally, we can rely on him to draft up legal documents and put together finance plans, he knows how to cross the t's and dot the i’s. Essential in juridic-tax-adminstrative affairs, Philippe is to Sorcière what Moro-Giafferi is to justice...

Bruno Taly

He drives his Massey-Ferguson like Sebastien Loeb drives his Citroen WRC. Criss-crossing paths, armed with his tonne of water, he looks after the oak trees like a shepherd watches over his sheep. At the slightest warning, Bruno intervenes forcibly. He needs less than two days, helped by his team, to water the whole 5400 oaks of Ronds de Sorcière. He is like these men of the earth. He speaks little, he speaks well and doesn’t repeat himself. That’s why one should prick up one’s ears. The arm winged of Ronds de Sorcière, Bruno is to Sorciere what le fire-fighting plan is to the barbecue...