lycee pre de cordy | Maison Travers

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dinner, lycee pre de cordy, Sarlat, truffles

Stuart and I recently attended a dinner based on truffles, the famous black mushroom of the Perigord, at the École Hotelière, Lycée Pré de Cordy in Sarlat. Being at the hotel school, we were served by final year students and the entire meal was cooked by final year students as well (obviously with supervision from teachers as they are only 17 and 18 years old). The invitation was for only 35 people and the evening was Euro 50 per person, including an aperitif, wine pairings with dinner and a eau de vie de noix (walnut eau de vie) with coffee. You cannot beat that anywhere, that’s for sure. Now, you might be thinking, well, only Euro 50 including all that alcohol, the meal cannot possibly be good. But, you would be very wrong indeed. The food was excellent, worthy of a very fine dining restaurant. A similar meal, especially seeing as it included truffles, would put you back at least 4 to 5 times the price we paid. The price this week for truffles is Euro 850 per kilo! We were incredibly lucky to be given the opportunity to attend this superb evening thanks to our good friends, Michel and Carole, as he grows truffles on his land and is part of the truffle cultivators of the Perigord association.

The evening started with a cooking demonstration by one of the chefs then we were offered an aperitif and the meal began. Amuse-bouche of chestnut cappuccino with truffle shavings and assorted breads, including obviously a truffle bread roll and bread sticks served with truffle butter. I was so hungry by the time this arrived that I only realised once I had finished the last mouthful that I had not taken any photos. Oh well, you can imagine it, I am sure. It was actually very similar to my post from a few weeks back, the chestnut and foie gras cappuccino, but included truffles instead of foie gras. Chestnut and foie gras “cappuccino”

Luckily, I took photos of all the other dishes to share with you, except the cheese course, I forgot those as well! Every single course was absolutely delicious and beautifully presented. It is hard to pick my favourite but I think I would go for the tongue and foie gras starter, Langue Lucullus. It simply melted in your mouth and the textures and flavours were perfect in every way.