Fontevraud le Restaurant
While flipping through my Food & Wine magazine in Colorado, I came across an article entitled The Ten Best New Restaurants in France. Much to my delight, one of the restaurants happened to be situated directly on our planned cycling route. Too good to be true, I knew it was meant to be. I decided to splurge and booked a table for two at Fontevraud le Restaurant, in the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud not far from Saumur.
Located in the cloister, and one time prison, of Europe’s largest abbey, young chef, Thibaut Ruggeri, (only 34-years-old), and winner of the 2013 Bocuse d’Or (an international gastronomic competition), serves up extremely stunning haute cuisine in an intimate and peaceful setting. The tables surround a courtyard filled with fresh and colorful herbs where the very kind and attentive wait staff trim and pick fresh ingredients for each course.
No doubt about it, Chef Ruggeri is an artist. Visually his plates are exquisite. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such beautiful and creative plating. Our dinner was like an edible trip to a fine modern art museum. In addition to the freshly picked herbs, the chef uses local ingredients, like honey from the abbey’s bees and mushrooms grown in the limestone caves surrounding the abbey. While not every plate was a homerun on the palate and flavor sometime took a back seat to art, it was an unforgettable evening.
MENU ABEILLES \ 20€
Layers of fresh goat cheese
Chicken with mashed potatoes and lemon
Chocolate and nuts
MENU MENU \ 58€
Including wines in keeping with the meal \83€
A springtime revolution
Pollock, and pots herbs
Chicken from Racan, Swiss chard end goat’s cheese
Goat cheese and basil
A symphony of lemon and black olives
GRAND MENU \ 95€
Including wines in keeping with the meal \ 130€
The Paris mushroom at Fontevraud
Fario trout marinated, pinewood
Poached monkfish with shellfish and striped with squid and squid ink with a braised fennel bulb and a dill and red wine sauce.
A pigeon fillet with almonds and covered with a cognac marzipan, honeyed carrots and giblets with 4 spices.
Cheeses from the length and breadth of the Loire
A little sweetness without butter or cream
A symphony of lemon and black olives
365+ Things I Love About France 