How do you bring 41 villages and their family recipes to life without locking that
heritage inside a book that gets closed after one read? The Alpes Provence Verdon local government
(CCAPV) chose video to extend its “Régalades” book, dedicated to the area’s culinary heritage. Ten
short films shot with BMAX give the floor to residents, producers and craftspeople who pass on
their recipes on screen rather than on paper. Here is what this series reveals about turning local
heritage into video content, and how it was built.
In this article:
- The Régalades project, a book extended into video
- Passing on a recipe on screen, a different exercise from a book
- The faces carrying the area’s heritage
- Why a local government benefits from filming its heritage
- How BMAX organised filming and distribution
- Frequently asked questions
The Régalades project, a book extended into video
Under the leadership of president Maurice Laugier, the Alpes Provence Verdon local government
(CCAPV) chose to extend its “Régalades” book with a series of short videos. The book gathers
recipes and culinary traditions from the area’s 41 villages, following an earlier producers’
directory and a “gourmet region” label; the videos are the natural next step, bringing to the
screen what the book fixes on paper.
Ten films were shot with BMAX: an institutional presentation of the project, then nine recipes
each carried by one or more local residents, from chard tart to chestnut cream, aioli and
mountain-style leg of lamb. Each video runs one to three minutes, filmed where the person passing
on the recipe actually lives or works.
Passing on a recipe on screen, a different exercise from a book
A recipe book freezes a gesture into a list of ingredients and steps. Video shows something else:
the rhythm of kneading dough, a hand that measures “roughly” by instinct, a smile when the tart
comes out of the oven. That is the material the filming went looking for, rather than a plain
cooking demonstration.
Each person filmed presents their recipe in their own words, sometimes their own accent, often a
family anecdote that would never make it into a standard recipe book: beehives moved down to the
coast for winter, a mortar used for thirty years to make aioli for a village feast, a chestnut
grove planted by a grandfather. These lived-in details are what give the series its real value,
well beyond the recipe itself.
The faces carrying the area’s heritage
The strength of this series lies in the people carrying it: producers (a beekeeper in
Lambruisse, a sheep farmer in Castellane, a fruit grower in Clumanc), craftspeople (a baker in
Saint-André-les-Alpes, a processing workshop in Annot) and residents from several villages across
the area, each passing on a family recipe sometimes several generations old.
A common thread runs through several films: the Petra Castellana association, chaired by a
teacher-researcher who appears in two films to place a recipe in its historical context (aioli as
a Provençal identity dish, Christmas culinary traditions). This handover, from someone who knows
the area’s heritage to the person actually cooking the recipe, structures the storytelling in
several videos of the series.
Why a local government benefits from filming its heritage
A tourist office, a local government or a joint association already documenting its culinary,
natural or craft heritage in writing gains from extending it into short video, for three concrete
reasons. First, distribution: a one-to-three-minute video travels on social media and on a website
far more easily than a book or a brochure, at close to zero distribution cost once filming is
done. Second, embodiment: seeing and hearing a local resident tell their own recipe creates a
closeness no text can replicate, grounding the heritage in real faces rather than an anonymous
collection. Third, shelf life: unlike a one-off event, a “recipe” or “heritage” video series stays
relevant all year round and can be republished at the right moment (a chestnut recipe in autumn, a
Christmas recipe in December).
How BMAX organised filming and distribution
BMAX handled the photo and video coverage of the whole series for the CCAPV, filming village by
village, at or with each contributor rather than in a studio. The final edit gives each recipe a
short format designed for multi-channel distribution: YouTube for the full version, then a social
media adaptation (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook) and a Google Business Profile post for each film,
spread out over time rather than published all at once.
This approach, turning one shoot into content that lives on for months rather than a single
release, is the same method BMAX applies to its institutional and local heritage
projects.
Frequently asked questions
How many videos does the Régalades series include?
Ten videos in total: an institutional presentation of the project and nine recipes carried by
residents and producers from the Alpes Provence Verdon local government area.
Who filmed the series?
BMAX handled the photo and video coverage of all ten films for the CCAPV, filming directly at or
with each local contributor.
Can a local government commission a similar series for its own heritage?
Yes: the format (short films shot on location, featuring local residents or producers as
contributors) adapts to any local heritage, culinary or otherwise, that a local authority wants to
bring to life beyond a written format.
A series that extends a book through video
This Régalades series illustrates a broader method: heritage already documented in writing
gains from being extended into short video, released over time rather than all at once. If your
local government, tourist office or organisation wants to showcase local heritage the same way,
BMAX can support you on this kind of project.
Want to talk about a similar project? Book 30
minutes with Benjamin.
Written by Benjamin MAXANT, BMAX manager, published in 2026.
