Par
Fabien Hisbacq
Published on
Nov. 24, 2024 at 7:32 p.m.
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Last year, when the famous gastronomic guide was published Gault&Millauthere had been no notable development in the Gers. The restaurants that were lucky enough to display Toques stuck to their bill. This year it's different. The 2025 guide has just been released and inside, three restaurants saw their appreciation evolve. Better.
Let us first recall the principle of Toques. The yellow guide lists more than 2,500 establishments. But if everyone is tested and evaluated, not everyone has Toques. The best have five. The guide calls these “Exceptional Tables”.
Still no 4 and 5 Toques
There are only 16 in France, their rating is between 19 and 20 out of 20. In Occitania, only the Auberge du Vieux-Puits, in Fontjoncousse, in Aude, which also has three stars in Michelin is at this stratospheric culinary level (with a 19/20).
Then there are the 4 Toques. “Prestigious tables” with a score between 17.5 and 18.5. In Occitania, there are six, almost immovable: Le Suquet, chez Bras, in Laguiole (Aveyron, 18 out of 20), Alexandre, in Garons (Gard, 18), Michel Sarran in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne, 17), la Table de Franck Putelat in Carcassonne (Aude, 17), La Table Lionel Giraud in Narbonne (Aude, 17) and Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier (Hérault, 17). Still no Gers…
A restaurant in Auch wins an additional Toque
You have to go to the Trois Toques, the “remarkable tables”, to find a restaurant in the department. There again, it's always the same, the Saint-Jacques Well in Pujaudran. The restaurant of William Candelon gets a 15/20.
It's after that there is change. There Large room of the Hôtel de France, in Auchwins an additional Toque and thus enters the family of two hats (“Chef’s tables” with a rating between 13 and 14.5). The Auscitain restaurant still had a 12 last year. He is now a 13.
Vincent Casasus serves a “good lunch menu at €35”, estimates the guide, with a “good emphasis on regional products, including wines from Saint-Mont, Gascony, Madiran and organic beer from the Gers…”
“At the gastro, in the “Grande Salle”, if you don't avoid a few modernist tics, you really enjoy these generous flavors, semi-cooked foie gras in jelly with rapier pusher, torte of duck and foie gras, sweetbread meunière jus with walnut pickles and timeless and unmissable desserts, the Armagnac soufflé and its prunes or the Norwegian omelette flambéed with Armagnac.
There are only four
This restaurant is the exclusive club of the three other establishments with two Toques in the Gers:
- The Florida in Castera-Verduzan (14/20)
- The Gascon Bastide in Cazaubon (14/20)
- The Relais du Bastidou in Beaumarchés (13/20)
Progress among a Toque
We now move on to “Gourmet Tables”, restaurants with a Toque which have a rating between 11 and 12.5. Two establishments which were already in this category are gaining strength. The Auberge de la Baquère, in Préneron goes from 11 to 11.5 and L’Echappée belle, at Isle-JourdainAlso.
In the first, held by Thibault Lagoutte“the terroir is well defended through the €36 menu with titles evocative of musketeer cuisine (“Audace”, “Ardeur”, “Fougue”, “Fierté”…)”, notes the guide.
“A sincere and well-crafted plate: grilled pigeon breast, chanterelles and roasted hazelnuts, Gascon poultry vol-au-vent with square peas and small vegetables, beggar with prunes, chocolate sauce, Armagnac ice cream. And some great suggestions of the moment, like the hot foie gras escalope or sweetbreads confit with duck fat.
In the second, Anthony Loriot has “renovated the kitchen, bringing very modern touches while keeping the fundamentals, with studied dressings: dome of beef shank in aspic, carrot cream with gribiche sauce, almost veal in a hot-cold herb crust with broccoli in textures and pear, full-bodied meat juice, mushroom dessert and creamy chocolate mushroom caramel, in a well-executed sequence, with choice, for €40.”
These two restaurants are thus clinging a little closer to the establishments with a Toque in the department. IThere are 14 of them (with the two mentioned above).
- Racinein Lectoure (12.5 out of 20)
- The Bastard Hotel in Lectoure (12)
- The Blue Falène in Lannepax (12)
- Bellevue Castle in Cazaubon (12)
- The Oste Table in Auch (12)
- Saltwaterin Nogaro (11)
- The Hall in Jégun (11)
- The Inn in Larressingle (11)
- Le Pardaillan in Gondrin (11)
- The Barn in Auch (11)
- Camille's Castle in Saint-Jean-le-Comtal (11)
- With Gourmet Duck in Samatan (11)
In the latter, Elodie Le Clanche was crowned “Young Indoor Talent” by Gault et Millau last year.
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