Pierre Koffmann

In 1970, Pierre Koffmann arrived in London with the hope of seeing France at Twickenham. Fifty years later, the former Toulon flanker is an icon of the food scene; a Six Nations regular; Coventry Rugby sponsor and most definitely not the biggest fan of Richie McCaw.

I was born in a rugby town. In Tarbes rugby was the main sport, the sport of the town. You had to do military service, and mine took me to Toulon, so I played rugby for them. It was different in Toulon, the mentality is different, it wasn’t the same camaraderie. In Tarbes, rugby is more friendly, everybody is a bit more like d’Artagnan you know? ‘All for one, and one for all’. 

In Tarbes we had a player called Jean Dupuy. He had a son who played for France many times, and Jean was the man in town. He was the first player I remember, he was so good. He could have been the mayor of town because everybody loved him. Nobody would criticise him, even if he had a bad game. I remember once he was playing, one of the spectators booed him, and he went to the stand to have it out with him. 

The stadium was always full. There were much bigger crowds than they have now, but back then rugby was the only thing to do – I’m talking about the 1960s – and there was only one channel on the television. You’d go to church, then you got to watch your rugby team, that was life. Now, they can go to see the likes of Pau and Lyon, or they’ve got the money to go skiing – but, then, Tarbes was a very working-class city, it was different, everyone was working in industry, building tanks for the army.

FC Lourdes always had a lot of money. In Tarbes, I’d say 90% of our players come from the town or within 20km of the town, but Lourdes had a lot of money because of the Madonna [an apparition of the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared in town], so they could buy players from Paris or other areas of France. They had Michel Crause, he had signed from Paris [Racing] and was captain of France.

In Tarbes, you might get a nice car. We never had the money and in France it was all about money under the table. If you were a good player, then you’d be the one owning the only bar in town. Or maybe they’d get you a car, one player who signed for us got a nice Citroen. But aside from one or two New Zealanders [and later Colin Charvis], I don’t really remember any players coming from even as far as Toulouse to play for us, it was all local players sweating for their village jersey. 

We’ve been champions twice. 1920 and 1973, and runners-up three times, but that was when rugby was all local, it was all south-western France: Toulouse, Brive, Mont-de-Marsan [Stade Montois], Dax, Pau, Biarritz... ... the only teams not from there were Toulon [south east] and Clermont-Ferrand [central]. 

Nobody likes Agen. We lost our last final against them in 1988, it was close though, 9-3. But everybody hates Agen because the president of the French Rugby Federation, Albert Ferrasse, was from there, and nobody liked him – he was kind of corrupt, you know? If you had a good player in any other team, and they wanted to be an international, they had to sign for Agen, that was his policy! And because of that, they’ve got a good record, because they had some of the best players in France go to play for him.

I played flanker for Toulon. I remember one game when we played Narbonne and that was a very, very hard game and they had Walter Spanghero’s brother, Claude. I thought he was even better than Walter, but didn’t do as well, but he was tough. That was a punching game for sure, definitely the worse game I’ve played in. I was on the flank, but I wasn’t dirty enough. I wouldn’t be the one to start the fight, but if one started, you got involved. 

I broke my leg playing for the French Army. We were playing against that crazy army we have in France, the French Foreign Legion, when it happened. After the game, I was limping but my officer at the barracks told me I had to get my new stripes sewn on to my jacket before I was allowed to go on leave. So, I got a train to the nearest place that did it, came back, eventually got to Tarbes, by which time my ankle was huge. It turned out I’d broken my ankle and my tibia. 

I only played rugby in France for a year after the military. I played for a small club called La Ciotat after Toulon, just 30 minutes away. The manager of Toulon had joined them a few of us went there with him, but I didn’t stay long because, ultimately, I was a chef and I enjoyed cooking more than playing rugby. After that I went to work in Switzerland and played for the cooking school there, and then I came to England.

I didn’t come to England in 1970 for the gastronomy. Like every other team in the world, France always wants to beat England, so I wanted to come and see them play at Twickenham, which was a temple of rugby. That’s why I came to England, to watch rugby. When I was there, by chance, I got a job at a restaurant called Le Gavroche, which I knew nothing about, and I only intended to stay for six months and then go to Australia. 
I saw France play at Twickenham [1971] they drew 14-14, but I never got to Australia so here I am, still in England, fifty years later.

It’s good for England to have so many people that don’t like them. The rivalry with the French and English is so big, it’s history, it’s the fishing today, the vaccines, all these things – it just carries on and on. But it’s not just the French, it’s the Welsh, Scottish, Irish [that hate them] – and that’s got to be good for the English, it means they’ve got to put out their best every time. England is always the one game you look for every year.

We did a book called Cooking with Balls. And we had chefs partnered with a rugby player to make a dish, and I was with Martin Johnson – he’s a very nice guy. He wasn’t good at cooking, Lawrence Dallaglio wasn’t bad, I think he’s got it in the family somewhere. But they were good guys, they were gentlemen.

Serge Blanco scored the greatest tries. When you think of the best, you think of him on his own line, he could run from there and score – he’s crazy, he’s fantastic, he had a spark. He was always the one that stood out for me.

Jean Pierre-Rives was one of the best. You always looked at him because he had blond hair, not dark; what a player. Now we have [Antoine] Dupont, what a player, one of the best, if not the best, in the world. He’s brilliant, and so young too.   

The one player I don’t like is Richie McCaw. I don’t mind saying, I couldn’t stand the guy, I didn’t like his attitude, he was always talking to the referee. I know in New Zealand he’s the top guy, but for me, no. One I like? Martin Johnson, a brilliant guy.

Rugby in south-west France is like Asterix. It’s the attitude, the fighting spirit, little villages fighting outsiders, fighting everyone, but doing it together. You fight for your village, your town, your city, it’s the national sport in the south-west of France, it’s just what we do. It was once just about working-class people in factories, farms, with the occasional doctor, but now the money has changed it.

At one stage I’d go to all the French games. When I was at the Waterside and when I had my own restaurant La Tante Claire we’d go to every Five Nations match with a group of French, English, Welsh chefs and people we knew. 

My wife’s nephew plays for Coventry. James Martin, he’s a wing, he’s a good player, I think he should play a bit more. We sponsor Coventry now, they’ve got Koffmann’s Potatoes on the shirt sleeve. Although we went up for the Saracens game last season and it was a disaster, they lost 73-0.

The French team seems more stable than usual. We can beat anybody but we can lose to anybody as well. We can beat the All Blacks, but then we can lose to Italy. That’s the French mentality. He’s still bringing in more and more young people though, so that’s a good thing.