Michel Bras, Laguiole

[Stephen Jackson]

Michel rarely cooks, even these days. He tends to sit in his office, observing, creating etc. whilst Regis and Sebastien run the brigade. Last time I was in the kitchen, Sebastien was running the pastry section, and Regis (who's been with Michel and Ginette since the early days down in the village) pretty much covered the 'savoury' elements.

And no, Bux, much as I wish I'd been at my house all along, I have a busy restaurant to run over here; this was the second visit to our little place since the New Year. Believe me, the minute I get the chance, I'm going to go there for good. I am smitten with the Auvergne. The price chez Bras did indeed cover board and lodging (in the two most expensive rooms, I might add - although as you say, it's still brilliant value)

[missmarple]

I am planning a week long trip to France in May, flying to Toulouse, as a treat for Mr Marple's birthday. I would like to take in Michel Bras along the way but am not sure how long to book. Would two nights and two big dinners be too much, or should we do two nights there and eat elsewhere in Laguiole for the second evening? We are big fans of modern architecture, and part of the experience for us would be staying in such an unusual setting.

Thank you for your help.

[Matthew Grant]

We visited last year and regret not staying longer than one night. The food is fantastic and the location breathtaking, especially if you get a clear sky for sunset. When we were there they were advertising special deals on midweek trips, 3 night and 3 dinners for €1100 per couple - an absolute bargain. IMO the style of food is light enough to allow for at least 2 dinners and it would not be too much of a chore to have 3 dinners there

[tony h]

I don't know about Bras (unfortunately) but if passing through Toulouse, Michel Sarran is well worth a visit. I had a superb meal there last year

[missmarple]

Will look up Sarran, thank you!

Matthew - thank you for that. We once spent three nights at a Michelin starred hotel/resto in Derbyshire and regretted it as the food was very heavy, service very formal and the menu didn't change. I shall make sure we're around for the sunsets!

[Stephen Jackson]

Well, it's still my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world, and it'll take something pretty impressive to sway me. The whole adventure chez Bras is magical. A drive up into the clouds, the fresh air, the space; ambrosial, witty food, and great service from everyone (especially our friend Sergio, the sommelier. He even jump-started our hire car last time...)

I could eat there for a week and not get bored. I would, however, steer clear of sharing the rib of beef more than once. Twice I've had it now, and twice I've not been able to finish it. And I'm massive.

Oh, and if you're staying the night, ask for room 13. It's the nicest, although all the rooms are pretty special.

Great sunsets, and if you're lucky, terrific thunderstorms at dusk.

In Laguiole, you'd be silly not to at least lunch at the Auguy, and I never miss the opportunity to polish off a chou farci or two at the Aubrac, after spending far too much on knives and assorted trinkets at the Coutellerie next door. (www.layole.com)

Edited March 3, 2004 by Stephen Jackson (log)

[missmarple]

Thank you Stephen - will enquire about Room 13 (counter-intuitive!). Have planned a couple of days canoeing down the Tarn to purge the excess calories.

[Bux]

As I've noted elsewhere on the site, I'm a fan of Forge de Laguiole for Laguiole knives and things. My understanding is that they're the only fabricator in town who do all of their production in Laguiole. They have a showroom/salesroom downtown prominently located near that large parking area and the main showroom/factory is in a Philippe Starck designed building just out of town on the road to Michel Bras. You can't miss it. There's a giant knife blade projecting above the roof line. There are often specials and markdowns of slight imperfections on sale at the factory and one can take a brief tour. It's not a very large operation.

[edm]

In Toulouse, Sarran can be superb indeed. And the lunch deal is pretty good, especially now that he has 2*.

But you could go to Le pastel, a 1* that gets 17/20 in the GaultMillau. I heard so many good things about Gerard Garrigues' cuisine... This is a guy who doesnt get much press, and keep it kinda low key.

I lived in Toulouse for 3 years, and i regret that i never tried it.

Another alternative could be the Lycee Hotelier's restaurant. 25 euros for diner, an absolute bargain. There's some hit and miss, but you can not beat that value.

And yes, you should get to Auguy and have a choux farci, with a bottle of Gaillac, Madiran or a Cahors... Yeah, now we're talking.

About Bras, do stay 2 nights/2 meals if you can ! Even if you take the degustation menu twice, they'll come up with different dishes. And try the chocolat coulant (w/ glace au lait entier, hummm), my favorite chocolate dessert on earth...

Lucky you !

[Bux]

Even if you take the degustation menu twice, they'll come up with different dishes.

My recollection was that there were really two tasting menus the night we were there. One was a bit bigger than the other and probably too much to do two nights in a row. They were both very interesting.

[missmarple]

This has probably been asked before but you have all been so helpful I will take a chance: is there an online version of Gault Millau (along the lines of via-michelin.com)?

Thank you all again for all the input, this is going to be a feast to remember.

[Bux]

is there an online version of Gault Millau (along the lines of via-michelin.com)?

Yes - http://www.gaultmillau.fr/ - but I don't think it's as useful. Check it out.

Edit: I just took a closer look than I had the first time. It appears all the text is there. Searching for restaurants or hotels may not be easy, but I need to check that better as well. Nevertheless, you will find the restaurant descriptions all there. I did a search on four toques and all the 19s came up.

[missmarple]

Bux, thank you....more hours to be spent on the Net for me!

[schaem]

I would, however, steer clear of sharing the rib of beef more than once.

Could someone translate this dish for me? I'm intrigued...

[Gavin Convery]

Hope you've got your room booked - I tried to book today for beginning of May and the receptionist seemed to know immediately that the hotel was full.

If you are booked then you have a lot to look forward to - I went there 8 years ago with food poisoning from the night before and we couldn't have had more sympathetic hosts. Sunsets are to die for....

[marcus]

Yes - http://www.gaultmillau.fr/ - but I don't think it's as useful. Check it out.

Just noticed this. Actually the GM search engine is better than viamichelin because you can search on restaurant names as well as locations, with viamichelin, you must provide a location which is very restrictive, especially when searching for a restaurant in the boondocks, where you know the restaurant name, but not where its located. However, viamichelin is up to date, whereas GM online has not been updated since the 2002 guide, which is now 2 years out of date.

[Bux]

Is it my imagination or could one search on a restaurant name at viamichelin in the past? It seems to have gotten easier to use, but less useful. I guess if you remove a few functions, it gets easier to use. I didn't realize the GM listings were two years old. The wide world web is terrific, but only if the information on it is up to date. pagesjaune.fr may be the best site if all one wants is the phone number. At least it's up to date.

[annieb]

More than one night, although my budget does not allow for Bras. Laguiole and the surrounding countryside are so beautiful. We were there in May last year, coming from near Clermont-Ferrand on back roads and the high meadows were stunning with miniature wild daffodils in bloom.

And the next day in Conques (well worth a trip, especially if you approach by back roads) loads of Jupiter's Beard growing in the stone walls, and beautiful climbing roses. Conques was a stop on the Route of St. James to Santiago de Campostela, and you will see people who are taking trips by horse along the route who are stopping in Conques. Touristy (lots of postcards and bric-a-brac) but I also had a wonderful discussion with an old man in a storefront that consisted of a single small room carved out of the hillside who was selling the local walnuts and walnut oil, from his plot of land down in the valley. It was superb. It reminded me of Guadalupe, where among all the tourist bric a brac (and tourists, and we visited in late November, dead season) I purchased wild raisins and moronos (missing the ning ning on the n, there) that I then saw in Bosch paintings in the Prado and growing on trees among the ruins at Medina al-Zahra, the summer home of the Moslem Cordoban rulers.

In addition to knives, we purchased some fabulous foie gras products in Laguiole. I'm sure there are lots of great producers, but La Drosera Gourmande (19, av. de la Violette) provided us with an excellent foie gras and Galantine de Chataignes (20% bloc). Both, sadly, now gone, but I had the pleasure of introducing my teenage nieces and nephew to foie gras. They were skeptical, but upon being reminded that they liked liverwurst a lot when they were young, tried and had to be restrained.

After all, who can afford to feed teenage appetites on foie gras?

[schaem]

I posted something obscure here a while back; what I meant to ask was:

Can anyone translate this dish from Michel Bras for me, I'm intrigued:

"Le filet de Boeuf Aubrac - pure race - rôti à la braise ;

beurre mousseux au lard & à l'ail, riz au gras et blette."

[Bux]

"Le filet de Boeuf Aubrac - pure race - rôti à la braise

Purebred local Aubrac cattle. Roasted, but I'm not sure about à la braise. Braise could be embers in this situation although I think it usually means much the same as it means in English. I'm guessing it means simply grilled on a hot grill over live embers here.

beurre mousseux au lard & à l'ail, riz au gras et blette."

A butter sauce whipped with air, pork/bacon fat and garlic, rice with fat and swiss chard (or related greens). Once again, I assume the fat is lard or pork fat, although it could conceivably be anything including butter or a combination of fats, but I think gras alone is likely to mean lard.

[Jonathan Day]

Riz au gras is just pilaf, rice cooked in some sort of fat before stock is added. The fat (matière graisse) would most likely be butter or olive oil.

[schaem]

"Roti a la braise" was one of the things I had trouble translating, as it seems to be two, contradictory, cooking techniques.

Could the butter sauce perhaps be a whipped, compound butter of butter, beef fat, and garlic, served at room temperature to melt over the meat? Or is it more likely to be a foamy beurre blanc with fat emulsified into it?

Edited April 1, 2004 by schaem (log)

[Jonathan Day]

lard in French is not pork fat or "lard" as in English. It's bacon.

[degusto]

lard in French is not pork fat or "lard" as in English. It's bacon.

Lard is in French actually used for cured or fresh pork fat. It is also used for streaky bacon. But normally one uses words like lard de poitrine, lard paysanne or just poitrine when referring to streaky bacon. However, lard de poitrine smoked or salted never tastes the same as British bacon. The French can also call virtually any kind of salted pork cut in small pieces lardons. It can be confusing.

Michel Bras likes using pork fat in various preparations, such as mixing it in sauces or drying it to crispy crackers. I do not remember eating the dish referred to in this thread but my guess is that he for the dish in question uses pork fat cooked, grilled or fried at high temperature that is then mixed with everything else into an emulsion.

[Steve Martin]

"Roti a la braise" was one of the things I had trouble translating, as it seems to be two, contradictory, cooking techniques.

Could the butter sauce perhaps be a whipped, compound butter of butter, beef fat, and garlic, served at room temperature to melt over the meat? Or is it more likely to be a foamy beurre blanc with fat emulsified into it?

Bras cooks the beef on a vertical rotisserie, very close to an open grill at the base of a fire - hence embers.

He has been pairing beef filet with pork fat (lard), so I would guess the butter, lard and garlic froth is a development of that.

I'm not sure how he removes all the taste though.