Andrew's tour of the South East Orson's awesome cassoulet

Date Published:

31/10/2008

I popped into the Clos du Marquis added to the Map by Shadytree who described it as: "A magical, rustic French restaurant with friendly service and simply mouth-watering food"

Once inside and snug by the fire I met chef patron, Germain Marquis, who talked me through some of the highlights of his menu, in particular the cassoulet. The dish has a rich history; taught to Germain in the 1970s by Alain Dutournier in Paris, it was a favourite of Orson Welles whenever he visited the city. "He used to come especially for that cassoulet," says Germain. It's topped with mashed beans, rather than breadcrumbs, and contains lamb rather than pork.

It's a pleasure to find a classical French chef of the old school still working hard in the UK and there's a sort of wonderful timelessness to Germain's lovely, roadside restaurant nestled in the English countryside. In the kitchen gearing up for a busy lunch service he describes a sauce he's making for an order. "Escoffier first made this sauce," he says. "Over my dead body will I serve 'new style' food," he adds.

As well as the cassoulet, Germain cooks me a mousseline of pike from the nearby River Test. Pike's popular in France but as the Wild Gourmets found out, rather underrated in England. One of the team get a pike for me to look at. It's a mean looking thing, yet in this kitchen it's transformed into something light and delicate. You can see Germain talking about how he makes the distinctive cassoulet and pike dish below.

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