When I was around 12 years old, my father’s French postdoc Lionel (the first French person I remember ever having met), told me “The best food in the world is in France, the best food in France is in Lyon and the best restaurant in Lyon is XYZ” (the latter I don’t recall). And indeed,…
One of my few regrets during a trip to Lyon in May was not ordering andouillette à la moutarde at a bouchon lyonnais. We ordered pretty much everything else… from frog legs and oysters in Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse to the oeufs en meurette and Bresse chicken at Daniel & Denise. But somehow…
We loved Périgord so much the first time around, we returned this summer with my dad, brother and his family, renting out part of a picturesque château in Chalais. During what was the first of a series of very concerning heat waves this year, we splished and splashed with water guns at the pool, hunted…
December to February is truffle season in Périgord and each Saturday the Sarlat Truffle Market is abuzz with local producers selling their harvest to truffle-lovers from around France. These bumpy black bundles live a peaceful life buried underground in a mycorrhizal relationship with the roots of oak trees, until they are dug up by keen-nosed…
We arrived in the picture-perfect village of Domme on a Sunday at 1pm-ish on our way back home from Périgord, with no reservation and no hope about the prospect of finding anything decent to eat for lunch. So many Sundays spent stranded in like-sized French villages have given us a gloomy outlook on this subject…
One eats well in the Périgord. This is especially true in the colder months, when one craves the hearty, nourishing ingredients for which the reason is best known. Duck and goose, their magrets, their foie, their rillettes and terrines. Garlic, potatoes, walnuts, nut cakes. Mushrooms of all kind and, of course, the king of mushrooms:…
A while back, my father attended a neuroscience conference in Portugal and I joined him for some sight-seeing and a dinner in Lisbon. The morning after a fun night of catching up over bacalhau a minhota I dropped him off at the conference center and headed to Bélem to see the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Jerónimos…
Whisperings about a collaboration between two of Bordeaux’s culinary giants began back in June and reached my ears through water cooler gossip with colleagues in wine by mid-summer. A promising new adventure for 1-Michelin-starred Tanguy Laviale of the now-closed fine dining institution Garopapilles, who would be teaming up with Chef and Owner of Racines, Daniel…
Ah, the “bouchon Lyonnais.” Staunch and unwavering bastion of French culinary tradition, where some of the country’s most learnèd chefs devote themselves fully to the time-tested and eternal classics of French food, fiercely proud of their nation’s gastronomic heritage. Some of them rise to considerable prominence, as in the case of Chef Joseph Viola, whose…
Named after the rue on which it can be found, just a stone’s throw from the Hospices de Beaune, is the restaurant Le Maufoux, the ‘tit bistro of Meursault institution Le Soufflot. Run by Chef Jean-Luc and his FOH side-kick Laurianne, this pint-sized eatery offers a rather reasonable lunch menu and an only slightly pared…
That Best Bite 