The Cuisine of Château de Mercuès, Mercuès, Cahors (Quercy) - France

Thanks to the new general manager, M. Bernard Denègre, who arrived in 1992 to take the reins of Château de Mercuès and completed the extensive renovations and work to bring this glorious small château hotel into the 21st century of delux hostelry, Executive Chef Philippe Combet became the creator of fine cuisine and has put Château de Mercuès back on the culinary map. I say back on because at one time Château de Mercuès was famous for its fine food, but that was well before we experienced it in 1987 and later in 1989 when it was hard to evaluate the food because most of it never made it to the table in time to eat.

But happily that is far back in history, and Chef Combet is forging new history with his dual approach to his menu. He is offering a selection of dishes that satisfies those who want excellent traditional food of the region such as Foie de Canard Poelé, Lobe de Foie Gras de canard confit or something with the famous huge mushrooms of the region called Cèpes. On the other hand, if your tastes lean toward the light and modern, the chef uses local ingredients with a deft touch in rendering delicious tastes and combination of tastes that never conflict and always satisfy such as Saumon Fumé et Tourteaux aux baies roses et wasabi or a marvelous palette of tastes in a garden plate with a bunchette of baby greens, julienned carrots, zuchinni, bean sprouts endive all wrapped in a thin skin of smoked salmon, served with a crab mouse set in a mousiline of avocado and topped with crispy shaved vegetable cloud plus a cold roast tomato and broccoli head. Yum!

There is a menu that changes with the seasons called the "Menu Château" which is more original than the name might suggest. There are two starters, a fish dish, two red meat dishes, cheese selection, and two desserts. You can order a greater or lesser combination of the dishes which affects the price you pay. The choices in Spring 2006 appealed to us a great deal. Our meal read like this:-

A palatte stimulator of a Velouté of Fave Beans
topped with a whipped cream of garlic
+++
A Garden Vegetable dish that included Smoked Salmon wrapped baby greens
A crab mousse sitting in an avocado mousilenne jacket topped with crispy veggi shavings
Cold roast cherry tomato, head broccoli and chip of beet
+++
Roast Medalion of Lot sitting on a bed of shaved spring Asparagus
Served with whole spears of asparagus and sffron squid tentales
plus a couple shell fish
+++
Roast loin of Quercy Lamb in a sauce "Espelette"
(a chile pepper from the Basque village in southwestern France of the same name)
with a disk of Eggplant Moussaka and a roast tomatoe in a coat of zuchinni
+++

The cheese cart
+++
Fondant of Chocolate Araguani
with an emulsion of Earl Grey tea and streusel

The tastes were excellent, the combination of different tastes seamless. An excellent meal. Even though the lamb was cooked more than I had asked for, it was only a little over done and the taste sublime. We put ourselves in the hands of the sommelier who chose a young Château de Mercuès red for the fish dish, a choice that until tried seemed a mis-match. It was perfect. The more aged Château de Mercuès (about 8 years) was a perfect companion also for the lamb. Worked nicely with the cheeses as well.

It was the kind of meal we really appreciate. It is not designed to knock your socks off with ingenious new exotic matches of tastes, rather it is a refined and quietly elegant set of gastric chords that melted in the mouth and flowed effortlessly one after the other and allowed to you sleep afterwards without digestive aids. A joy if you are focused on the food itself as the event and excellent if you are with company and want to enjoy your meal without it intruding on your social event. Also for those who have dietary restrictions, you will alwayus find something that will fit in with doctor's order. What more can you ask?

The "Menu Château" for summer 2006 has prices that range from 65 -110 € (83 - 141 USD) and reads like this:-

SAUMON FUME ET TOURTEAUX
aux baies roses et wasabi
Ou
JAMBON DE PORC NOIR DE BIGORRE
joue en salade, boudin aux pommes
* *
FILET DE ROUGET POELES ET ENCORNETS
poêlée d'artichauts aux olives, jus de tomate au fenouil
**
AGNEAU DU QUERCY
frotté au piment d'Espelette, moussaka d'aubergines
Ou
PIECE DE BOEUF
en croûte de poivre, primeur des jardins sauce soja
* *
LE PLATEAU DE FROMAGES
* *
FONDANT DE CHOCOLAT ARAGUANI
émulsion au thé Earl Grey et streusel
Ou
CROUSTILLANT DE FRAISE
crème brûlée à la vanille, sorbet litchi

- - - - - -

Then there is the "À la Carte" Menu which is arranged in an interesting way, but principal ingrediant. Prices range from 75 -110 € (93 -141 USD) per person. The summer 2006 "À la Carte" Menu reads like this:-

LES AMANDES TRUFFES D'ETE EN SALADE haricots verts et amandes fraîches DOS DE BAR nage parfumée, purée d'amandes nouvelles et côte de sucrine FOIE DE CANARD POELE crumble aux pêches et tuiles aux amandes

LES TRUFFES RISOTTO DE TRUFFES au jus de céleri et croustille parmesane TRONCON DE TURBOT courtisé aux truffes, raviole en impression d'herbes et fèves au jambon COTE DE VEAU DE LAIT cuites en cocotte, artichaut bouquet aux truffes

LES NOIX LOBE DE FOIE GRAS de canard confit, gaufrette aux épices et noix AIGUILLETTES DE SAINT-PIERRE en croûte de noix, légumes au jus de roquette AIGUILLETTES DE SAINT-PIERRE en croûte de noix, légumes au jus de roquette

LES CÈPES PAPILLOTES DE LANGOUSTINES au céleri, bouillon crémeux aux cèpes FRICASSEE DE CRUSTACES et homard, purée de petit pois et cèpes RIS DE VEAU ROTI ET CEPES primeurs des jardins, jus au Château Chalon

LES FROMAGES Régionaux et d’ailleurs affinés

LES DESSERTS Nous vous recommandons de choisir votre dessert en début de repas

Note: Toutes nos viandes bovines sont d’origine Française. (All the beef is raised and slaughtered in France. This became a meat provenance during the mad cow disease in Great Britain and has stuck).

Good eating!

Château de Mercuès
46090 CAHORS - France
Tel : +33 (0) 5.65.20.00.01
Fax : +33 (0) 5.65.20.05.72
e-mail: mercues@relaischateaux.com
Web: http://chateaudemercues.com

Weekly closing: Rest.: Monday all day, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday noon
Annual closing: From November 1st to Easter

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