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Christmas menus and recipes with the chefs from Les Plus Beaux Villages de France
Christmas menus and recipes: our chefs in action in Les Plus Beaux Villages de France!
As we do every year, it’s time to find inspiration for your Christmas menus and recipes! To help you treat your taste buds and impress your guests, we’ve enlisted the help of a few chefs from restaurants in the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France, who’ve agreed to share their favourite ingredients and Christmas recipe ideas with you...
Olivier CLOTEAU’s Christmas recipe – head chef at the bistronomic restaurant La Petite Grange in Tournemire (Cantal)
17, rue Edouard Marty – 15310 Tournemire – Tel: 04 71 43 39 26 – contact@lapetitegrange.fr – www.lapetitegrange.fr
What is your favourite ingredient for the Christmas festivities? What do you enjoy cooking?
OC – For festive menus, I’ve chosen to work with free-range capon, and more specifically the breast.
Where do you source this product? From a local producer? In your garden? From the other side of the world?
OC – This product is the result of the passionate work of farmers from the Cantal region: the Soule family. For many years, on their farm, the GAEC des Thuyas Dorés, situated in the village of Saint-Poncy, they have been rearing free-range poultry. Their high-quality produce often inspires me, and I regularly feature it on the menus at La Petite Grange restaurant.
What is your favourite recipe using this product?
OC – On a daily basis, on our menu, I offer young food lovers free-range chicken breast served with potato mousseline. It’s an excellent way to introduce children to the flavours of Cantal produce from a very young age. And for the festive season (Christmas and New Year), at La Petite Grange, I’ve chosen to showcase an exceptional dish: ‘Slow-cooked free-range capon supreme from Mrs Soule, with fermented cabbage and Albuféra sauce’.
A Christmas recipe by Louis GIROUD – Head Chef at Maison Oppoca in Ainhoa (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)
303 Rue Karrika - 64250 Ainhoa - Tel.: 05 59 29 90 72 - contact@maisonoppoca.com - www.maisonoppoca.com
What is your favourite ingredient for the Christmas festivities, and what do you enjoy cooking?
LG – The Christmas festivities are always an opportunity to cook with the finest seasonal produce available at the market. Large birds are often the preferred choice, both because they can be shared amongst guests – as they are cooked and served whole – and for their flavour and the variety of ways they can be prepared. Turkey with chestnuts and Bresse capon in cream sauce are generally the dishes you’ll find on our tables. As is guinea fowl.
Where do you source this produce? From a local producer? From your garden? From the other side of the world?
LG – The guinea fowl comes from ALDABIA, in Ossès, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Born in the Basque Country, reared free-range, fed a natural diet, slaughtered and processed in the brand-new production facilities of this wonderful local company, this guinea fowl is an exceptional meat that will take centre stage on our New Year’s Eve menu, and young and old alike will feast on this reimagined version of the dish…!
What’s your favourite recipe using this product?
LG – In keeping with December traditions, the basic marinade will be like an Alsatian mulled wine with spices, full of aromas and citrus notes, and the sauce will be rich, thick and mellow, like a salmis. The accompaniments will be simple yet effective, with a nod to Lyon, our country’s gastronomic capital, and to Yorkshire in England, for a touch of ‘crispy-soft’ contrast…
-> Download the full recipe courtesy of Chef Louis GIROUD
A Christmas recipe by Kevin HARDY – head chef at L'Ancolie restaurant in Rochefort-en-Terre (Morbihan)
112 Rue Saint-Michel - 56220 Rochefort-en-Terre – Tel: 02 97 43 33 09 – lancolierestaurant@outlook.com – L'Ancolie Restaurant
What is your favourite ingredient for the Christmas festivities? What do you enjoy cooking?
KH – Scallops
Where do you find this ingredient? From a local producer? In your garden? On the other side of the world?
KH – I personally find them in Saint-Brieuc, but you can find them all along our beautiful Breton coastline, at fishmongers or even in supermarkets.
What’s your favourite recipe using this ingredient?
KH – There are loads of ways to prepare scallops; whether raw or cooked, they’re simply magnificent! Raw as a carpaccio with a watercress coulis, or cooked with vanilla-infused cauliflower purée, or even seasoned with tandoori spices. There are so many possibilities, and you can even use the bard, the part around the meat, to make a sauce – just rinse it well and use it to make a stock.
Renaud DARMANIN’s Christmas recipe – Head chef at the Auberge de la Tour gourmet restaurant in Marcolès (Cantal)
2 Place de la Fontaine - 15220 Marcolès - Tel.: 04 71 46 99 15 - contact@aubergedela-tour.com - www.aubergedela-tour.com
What is your favourite ingredient for the Christmas festivities? What do you enjoy cooking?
RD – Chestnuts, of course. They’re a local produce from our region, the aptly named ‘Cantal chestnut groves’.
Where do you source this produce? From a local grower? In your garden? From the other side of the world?
RD – In the woods around our village, but also from our local producers, particularly Mr Henri Monnier.
What’s your favourite recipe using this ingredient?
RD – It’s the recipe for chestnut cake, a family recipe that’s very easy to make at home.
Ingredients
100g eggs, 100g sugar, 200g chestnut cream, 50g chestnut flour, 50g T45 flour, 100g butter, 3g baking powder, 10g rum, 3g salt, 60g chestnut pieces.
Method
Mix the eggs and sugar, then add the chestnut cream, followed by the flour, baking powder and salt. Finish by adding the rum, chestnut pieces and melted butter.
Bake in the oven at 150°C for 45 minutes.
