Last night we ate out in a restaurant in Cahors. It is an establishment that is recommended in guide books and by the owners of the house we are renting but there are at least half a dozen equally recommended restaurants in this small city. We had a three course meal from the 25 Euro menu and it was extremely good. There were many aspects of the restaurant that impressed us, the professional service, the excellent modestly-priced wine, the décor and furniture, but what caught our eye, and taste buds, most was the care and effort which had gone into the construction and presentation of each dish.
One of our starters was a trio of tomato dishes. On a rectangular white plate there was a shot glass filled with delicious gazpatcho, a small tomato stuffed with fine raw salmon and a slice of tomato terrine with some Rocamadour cheese in its centre. Our other starter was a round Parmesan biscuit covered with a courgette caviar and topped with a mound of crab and mussel rillette, on the plate around it were small piles of finely diced vegetables in a mild curry sauce. That is a lot of preparation for two starters!
The main course and desserts were also high level culinary creations with much thought and preparation. When the waiter took our order for starters and main courses he also wanted to know our choice of desserts. We were surprised at this as we feel it is better to make a choice of dessert in the context of post-main course satisfaction, however he explained that if we did want one of the desserts that contained chocolate cake then the kitchen did need to know because it took 30 minutes to bake the cake! We don’t think many UK restaurants would have that level of dedication to freshness for individual customers. This dessert was very good with the small rich chocolate cake with a sunken centre, a shot glass with fresh coconut milk, a triangle of mint marshmallow and small pools of crème Anglaise.
France is of course the world centre of tradition and expertise for high level cuisine so we might expect high standards of cooking in small restaurants in modest regional cities but the contrast between the standards here and in the UK is staggering. In the UK we live in a conurbation of a million people yet there are only two restaurants of a comparable standard to the one we ate in last night. Both are very good but their prices are three times that of L’O à la Bouche.
L’O à la Bouche, 134 Rue St. Urcisse, Cahors. 05 65 35 65 69
Food Matters 