Brad Pitt mystery for jam-maker

Christine Ferber says she was too busy in kitchen when foreign man bought dozens of jars

BRAD Pitt may have bought 60 pots of hand-made jam at Christine Ferber’s shop in the Alsace village of Niedermorschwihr but Ms Ferber does not know – “I was in the kitchen making jam, cakes and chocolates as usual,” she said.

The Hollywood star is reported to have bought hundreds of pounds worth of jam when he turned up at the shop with son Maddox after falling in love with the flavour at his farm at Brignoles in the Côte d'Azur.

Ms Ferber – who is known as the Jam Fairy – said: “He didn’t say anything and I don’t know if it was him, but if it was that would be a great pleasure – and it would have been a great pleasure to have shown him our kitchens and my workshop, especially as he has many children. I would have loved to have shown them how the jam is made.”

Pitt was reported in papers as having visited the shop to try her unique recipes, which are sold in exclusive restaurants worldwide and are much in demand by chefs such as Alain Ducasse and the Maison Troisgros but also hotels such as the Crillon and Georges V in Paris and the Connaught in London.

However, he did not spend time in the kitchens as Ms Ferber said she was busy working and did not know until afterwards that a foreign man had bought a large amount of jam.

Every step of the jam-making is done by hand and at the moment she is in the middle of working with rhubarb – cutting it into small cubes and cooking no more than 4kg of fruit in copper pans. She still fills every pot herself.

However, no matter the superstar’s order and the resulting publicity, patissier-chocolatier Ms Ferber said: “I can only make what I can make. People already have to wait for orders. Today I have some Japanese importers coming in – and I cannot deliver to them until September.”
Photo: Georges Biard