Towards Pont du Gard: at the Bégude table | Gilles Pudlowski’s blog

The good surprise of Bégude Saint-Pierre? Gourmet pleasures, classic but chic, light and very well managed, by the wise Christophe Aldin. This native of Montauban, who had his restaurant in Nîmes (the Jardins d’Hadrien), worked at Lauriers Roses in Cabrières, but also at Colombier, on the right bank of the Pont du Gard, after working as a caterer in his hometown and in Paris, formerly, at the South West Embassy, ​​rue d’Odessa in the 14th.

The plates are often rich, sometimes even overloaded, but they put the product in the spotlight. Thus the Ardèche trout in lime ceviche with crunchy radishes, the Aubrac beef in tataki, with its crispy risotto and wasabi cream, the Cévennes goat’s cheese in panna cotta, with tomato compote and herb salad with roasted sunflower seeds, which make delicious and generous hors d’oeuvres.

We add the main dishes, such as octopus tentacles, black garlic sauce and Provençal ratatouille, the vegetarian dish of the moment (a seductive vegetable tian with Carnaroli rice risotto and Vieux Rodez cheese, plus a demi-sauce sauce). vegetable ice cream) or the exquisite and tender supreme of sweet and sour farm guinea fowl, with its Noilly-Prat sauce, its mashed potatoes with chanterelles.

We add the three cheeses of the day (goat, cow and sheep) with fig jam, peaches in syrup with peach coulis with basil and vine peach sorbet, homemade frozen nougat with lavender honey, almonds and pistachios with raspberry coulis or the chocolate finger with dark chocolate and pecan nuts, hazelnut praline mousse.

As for wines, by the glass, we give in to the charm of the viognier from the Saint Firmin estate in the Duchy of Uzes or the UBY2 in the Côtes de Gascogne, but also to the exquisite syrah/grenache red from the Mourgues du Grès estate in Costières de Nîmes. A good address, generous and modest!

La Table de la Bégude at Bégude Saint-Pierre