Michel and Sébastien Bras - Maison Bras

July 12, 2011


It's a long way to get there. Michel Bras landed his restaurant on top of the hill above the little town of Laguiole (it's pronounced 'Lah-yol'). The rooms oversee the meadows where the majestic Aubrac cows are raised.

Michel (the father, now retired) and Sébastien (the son) have been working together for a long time. Nowadays cuisine owes a lot to Michel Bras. His simple locally-sourced dishes have inspired a great number of chefs to date. I even think he might have been inspirational for the now fashionable (and often talented) Nordic chefs who focus on regional products with a restrained preparation.

Who remembers that Michel invented the chocolate coulant with a running center? It is one of those ubiquitous recipes that we have thought it is timeless. This creation is yet a calculated design of 1981.

It is the same for the famous "Gargouillou", this dish of young vegetables. Sure, many just ignore the unconventional name and have forgotten where it comes from, but every foodie have encountered so many cheap imitations. At the Bras', a collection of about 20 to 30 young vegetables, flowers and seeds are put together in a beautiful and fragrant bunch. This preparation is so much associated to Michel Bras that when the son Sébastien took over, the question arose: "should he take the Gargouillou off the menu in an attempt to kill the father or shall he keep it and manage to establish an identity on his own?"

It is said that Sébastien has pondered his decision for a long time and even took counsel from Michel Troisgros, who had to deal with the exact same issue with his father's illustrious sorrel salmon. After a long reflexion, Sébastien took a different decision than his friend Michel Troisgros, and kept the Gargouillou on the menu. The key factor in this decision was he fact that both father and son realized that they only partially owned the recipe as it was a gift of the Nature and the Season. No two Gargouillous are the same. It is made with the daily pick. So there's no risk for Sébastien to replicate exactly the dish of his father.

Porcini mushroom tart

Le Gargouillou
young vegetable medley, seeds, herbs, hazelnut milk

Seared Turbot

Foie Gras, onion jam, squash, dill

Roasted pear, bacon, valerian and pepper

Green peas, green pea sprouts, truffle cream

Lamb saddle,
roasted on the bone, blond peas puree with lemon and olive oil,
basils

Traditional Aligot

Revisited leaking cake
(after the famous original chocolate cake from 1981)
Red berries, elderflower icecream

Roasted peach, glazed with vinegar, cherry toast

The Maison Bras leaves a strange feeling, as if everything has always been so obvious and simple. But if that is the case, how come we can't get that perfection elsewhere?

Maison Bras
Le Puech de Suquet
Route de l'Aubrac,
12210 Laguiole
France
+33 5 65 51 18 20