Let's first stop in to see Annie Féolde (Enoteca Pinchiorri), whose cooking is a reflection of her two homelands, Provence and Italy. Into her tapenade, she grates some bottarga (dried salted fish roe) which marries so well with the olives and their oil.

Cook, business manager or gardener depending on his mood, Jean-André Charial (Oustau de Baumanière) takes liberties with tapenade, creating a new recipe which he calls "la Rossa," in which the main ingredient is no longer olives, but sun-dried tomato, combined with fresh basil, pine nuts, olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. The pleasure of spreading it on some good toasted bread, however, remains unchanged…

For a delicious use for tapenade in its original form (250 g / 9 oz. black olives, 3 anchovy fillets, 10 g / 2 tsp. capers, 100 ml / 6 tbsp. olive oil), Charial suggests cooking a rack of lamb in the usual way, in a very hot oven for about 15 minutes. Let it rest, then brush with tapenade, coat with bread crumbs and brown under the broiler.

Twin sons of a winemaker who share a love of gustatory pleasures, Jacques and Laurent Pourcel (Jardin des Sens) are unsurpassed in the four-handed game of contrasting flavors, creating plates in which the oppositions are complementary, as when the straightforward flavor of green olive tapenade is mellowed and refined by the addition of almonds.

Simply add 1 tbsp. of tapenade to 100 g (3 1/2 oz.) whipped cream with a grinding of pepper to make a tapenade cream. Place a layer into some puff pastry tartlet shells, then add in order: tomato wedges, avocado and a piece of cooked tuna, seasoning each layer with a pinch of Camargue salt and a little olive oil. Or why not drizzle it with vinaigrette? Whisk together 65 g (2 oz.) tapenade, the juice of half a lemon, 1 to 2 tbsp. water, 3 tbsp. olive oil, salt and pepper.

In the heart of the countryside surrounding the city of Grasse, Jacques Chibois (Bastide St-Antoine), though not a native Provençal, can make olive oil sing like no other, giving black olive tapenade a new depth of flavor with the addition of the faintly bitter note of walnuts.

Give in to the temptation!