La Recreation, Les Arques, Lot et Garonne, France

La Recreation is a restaurant with an interesting story. It was set up by Jacques Ratier and his wife, Noëlle, in an old school in the tiny village of Les Arques which has very little other infrastructure – no shop, bar or other restaurant; and is deep in the heart of the rural Lot et Garonne region. Its excellent food and cheerful ambience soon built up its reputation locally but then something happened to give it a much wider audience – the American writer Michael Sanders went to live in Les Arques for a year with the specific intention of writing a book about the restaurant and the village. That book, From Here You Can’t See Paris, has been an international bestseller.

We have been to La Recreation twice on this French holiday and we have had two wonderful meals there. The menu is always a set 5 courses but there is plenty of choice for 3 of those. On our first visit we had mushroom soup, lobster ravioli (which has apparently been on the menu since the restaurant started), zander in filo pastry on a bed of spring onions, a cheese course and finished up with a creme brulee or chocalate parfait. All the cooking was first class with some great touches such as stuffed courgettes flowers and potato pancakes with the zander. On our second visit we enjoyed fillets of red mullet with a tomato caviar, scallops with a passion fruit sauce and two more impressive desserts. Once again the amazing value of dining out in France was illustrated since this 5 course menu was only 29 Euros. The service was very friendly and efficient. Noëlle runs the front of house and takes all the orders, she is very knowledgeable about the menu, the source of the ingredients and accompanying wines in both French and English. The dining room is airy and has ideal restaurant acoustics (an article on such matters will appear soon) though it is little changed from its classroom origins.

The effect of the book on the dining experience is interesting. This is a lovely unpretentious restaurant in a rural setting, not aiming for Michelin stars but keen to provide a great meal for all sorts of diners including local people, however its exposure in the best-selling book has altered its clientele. Some diners came with copies of the book already signed by the author with the intent of getting Jacques and Noëlle’s signatures as well. There was much conversation between different tables of diners which revolved around the book and its sequel about the local vin de Cahors. Did any of this detract from the experience? – we didn’t think so, it was a bit different to most restaurants and perhaps we would have liked less distraction so that we could concentrate more on the great food but it was very agreeable to be amongst a group of diners who were so enthusiastic about the restaurant and the food.

Presentation of restaurant food – L’O à la Bouche, Cahors, France

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