Les Loges de Aubergarde (Michel Trama)

The restaurant is situated on the main street of the sleepy village of Puymirol, which is about 78 km north west of Toulouse. The building is a former monastery with a cosy courtyard. We stayed in room 1, which had access to a secluded roof-top area where you can bask in the sun. The dining room is quite large, which appeared all the more so on the evening we visited since there were so few other diners, just four other couples all night aside from a private party sponsored by Davidoff cigars (the chef, Michel Trama, is very fond of cigars). We had our amuse-bouche by a real wood fire in the reception area. These consisted of a very delicate tart with goat’s cheese mousse (20/20), two crispy wafers in between which were onions and walnuts (17/20) and two further wafers containing a sliver of smooth foie gras terrine (18/20) and a baby tomato stuffed with herbs (19/20). A final amuse bouche was a cornet of daurade (sea bream) in the form of a fluffy fish mousse laced with wasabi at the top of the cone, and tiny pieces of daurade at the bottom of the cone. The wasabi was an excellent way to enliven the flavour of the fish mousse, and was judged just right so that it added to, but did not overpower, the fish. The ice-cream cornet was sweet, and perhaps this was one idea too many, as a savoury taste would have been better here, but the crisp texture added substance to the very light mousse (20/20).

The breads comprised mini loaves, a white baguette with a delicious crust (20/20), a brown baguette with seeds, the first one of which I have to say was a little burnt (19/20 for the non-burnt version!) a soft potato bread (18/20) and breadsticks with Parmesan (18/20). In general the bread was well-seasoned and had excellent texture and taste. My wife started with cod brandade. This was served as a piped mousse, arranged in three rows of six little pieces, the rows separated by ultra-thick potato crisps. One row of the salt cod was topped with a little tomato sauce, one row with basil sauce and the other with mango sauce. At one end of the plate was a pool of tomato coulis, at the other end a pool of basil coulis, and a little jug on the side with mango coulis. The salt cod was most impressive, light and fluffy yet retaining its true flavour (20/20). I had the signature dish, which I should warn you was an absurd 95 euros. It was a combination of pieces of potato and mashed potato wrapped in a cabbage leaf and cooked with slivers of black truffle, the potato resting in a pool of black truffle sauce. The potato was very fine and the earthy taste of the truffles permeated the potato well, but one has to wonder at the price (18/20).

For her main course, my wife had a lasagne of lobster with black truffles, chunks of tender lobster with very finely diced vegetables wrapped in extremely fine layers of pasta and garnished with a sprig of coriander. The pasta was surrounded by a black truffle sauce. This was very classy, the pasta tender and the vegetables excellent (19/20). I had a “cassoulet” that turned out to be no such thing other than being served in a pot. It consisted of lamb sweetbreads and morels in a creamy mushroom sauce, topped with baby green asparagus. The morels were stunning, the sweetbreads tender and the creamy sauce delicious (19/20).

The cheese was the only let-down here, a rare occurrence in France. There was no board, just a selection of four local cheeses (two goat, two cow). When they arrived they were clearly taken straight from the fridge as they were all very cold. Though they were in good condition there is no excuse for this, especially as I had indicated early on that I wanted cheese (you have to pick dessert at the same time as the other dishes). 15/20. They were served with a good salad of baby mixed leaves with a nicely-balanced dressing.

For dessert my wife had raspberry tart. The chef seems to have a linear presentation theme, since the tart arrived as a very long, thin tart, just one raspberry wide and eighteen raspberries long. The fruit was of the highest quality, which for no good reason had been sprinkled with balsamic vinegar. The shortbread base was excellent, topped with fine crème patissiere (19/20).

I had a pear shaped arrangement of chocolate wafers hiding a rich, dark velvety chocolate mousse inside. This was made from very fine chocolate, and the mousse had great depth of flavour as well as fabulous texture. As an added dimension there were a few griottines steeped in alcohol embedded in the mousse, and three additional ones as garnish. On the side was a little jug of what turned out to be crème anglaise, and this may have been the best I have ever tasted, with a consistency that was just on the balance between lightness and yet thickness; it was of the highest quality (20/20).

The coffee was very good, served with a few petit fours: a Chinese gooseberry with caramel was about the best I have seen anyone do with this overrated fruit. There was a further chocolate tart within which was the same perfect chocolate mousse, and a pastry base with a little crème patissiere on top (18/20 for the petit-fours).

Service was patchy. The female sommelier was excellent, and given the tiny number of diners one would expect that there would be a good level of attention, yet as soon as the private party next door reached its peak the service faltered badly, and the dining room was left for minutes at a time with no waiting staff at all. This is not typical in top French restaurants. Oddly, there was also fairly poor muzak played at a surprisingly high volume all evening in the dining room. Overall, I found the cooking to be technically excellent and innovative. This thoroughly deserved its three stars, and indeed is much better than many restaurants with this accolade.

One minor note was that when we checked out we were presented with a bill with two coffees we did not have (EUR 8) which were only gracelessly taken off the bill, and a charge for a beer and glass of house wine of EUR 28. Yes, read it again, one bottle of beer and a glass of wine in the room for EUR 28. This was absurd, and yet I was forcibly told that this was the correct charge and I would have to pay it. I found this left a sour taste in my mouth after a magnificent meal.