Michel Bras's La Gargouillou.

[robert brown]

I found a slide show on the Wall Street Journal's site http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123792944253730201.html that shows the assembling of Michel Bras' most famous dish. When I looked at the photo of the finished creation, something didn't look right. My wife and I were there at the conception, so to speak, in that we were among the first to have it. I think this was in his first year in his new hotel-restaurant, having been for several years in a rather simple one in the town center (and where we thought he did his all-time best cooking and catering to his clients and their financial well-being). However, since we first had the dish circa 1997 and only the year after that, we can't exactly put our finger on how it has changed (other than the usual mix of seasonal ingredients) Was it more compact; did it have a larger ratio of cooked to uncooked; was it more shaped; was it more copious? Perhaps the answer lies in his cookbook from that time. Maybe there's a former apprentice out there who can tell us? Or perhaps one of you can.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123792944253730201.html

[julot-les-pinceaux]

Bras' Gargouillou was never an actual dish. In fact, I think it is emblematic of Bras' cooking in that it brings the emphasis not on the garden or nature as it speaks, but on the cooks' gesture, act. In fact, this is why I consider Bras to be one of the chefs de file of the narcissistic school of cooking

No one can say how the Gargouillou tastes since it is made of so many distinct flavours (between 30 and 40) and its composition changes depending on the market+harvest. Sometimes it has sauces and sometimes it doesn't. Of course depending on the season you have more flowers or more root vegetables. The same vegetables are sometimes cooked, sometimes raw, sometimes in -between.

I think as Bras style evolved, it became even more brainiac, and maybe that's what you see changed from your early experiences, when he was still making food with the extraordinary ingredients he uses.

[robert brown]

So far we don't know if the dish was bigger or more generous, or used more expensive, or a wider range, of ingredients. I bet he didn't have, as the WSJ photo shows, so many portions prepped. Then it was offered a la carte like just about everything else. ( I do recall that in deference to the locals he offered a 60 franc menu of classic dishes of the Auverne). Not having been to Bras since it became so difficult to score a table, I can only tell by looking on-line year-to-year that in his younger, two-star days, the menu seemed in retrospect very much overhauled from year to year and with several dishes that were added to it according to whim. I wish I had saved my menus, and in those days only Japanese took pictures of their plates.

Once and for all, the folks out there pronounce it "BROSS"

Edited April 2, 2009 by robert brown (log)

[robert brown]

Oy, I forgot that the Bras feature requires a WSJ subscription. No wonder no one is commenting directly. But if someone can add to the discussion, that would be nice. I should add that the odds are short that if Bras has "menuized" this dish, it's not all that it could be.

[Carlovski]

Oy, I forgot that the Bras feature requires a WSJ subscription. No wonder no one is commenting directly. But if someone can add to the discussion, that would be nice. I should add that the odds are short that if Bras has "menuized" this dish, it's not all that it could be.

←

I managed to read the article, and I'm fairly sure I haven't got a subscription! Maybe it allows a couple of article reads for free?

[robert brown]

Thanks for the news. I hope it's universal.