Tender treats from France's Quercy

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The fresh country air and the traditional way of rearing livestock to ensure prime quality meat play a vital role in shaping the characteristic flavors of the Quercy region of southwest France.

Fresh Quercy flavors were served by master chef Eric Mommejac from the four-star restaurant Le Lion d'Or, part of the three- star hotel of the same name, during a recent French food and wine promotion at the Jakarta Hilton International.

"Among the popular ingredients in Quercy dishes are goose, duck, wild mushrooms, foie grass and truffle ... and it is also famous for its quality lamb," Eric said.

"Duck is the most popular meat, and is used in various everyday dishes," he continued. "It is also considered the red meat in the region because beef is quite expensive."

Meat from the lamb of the region, Eric said, has a mellower flavor compared with that from other regions, thanks to breeding and the livestock rearing techniques in which the lambs are fed their mother's milk, and then nourished with a cereal-based diet.

The meat is labeled as a guarantee it is of superior quality.

"Many people in Quercy, however, are still rearing chickens and ducks in their backyards for their own consumption," he said, adding that many people also grow herbs for cooking in their gardens.

Quercy also produces various kinds of goat cheeses and wines from vineyards in Cahors, one of the oldest wine-producing regions in France. It is said that Peter the Great of Russia served his important guests wines from Cahors.

To obtain their daily food needs, like bread and meat, local people continue to go to different shops in small marketplaces where everybody knows each other.

Unlike in bigger cities like Paris, Quercy offer a more relaxed and enjoyable dining experience, where people are not rushed to savor the dishes on the tables before them.

"As for the food, Quercy dishes obtain their characteristic flavors from the use of duck fat or lamb fat for cooking the meats," Eric said. "We also add walnuts in our salads and use particular Cahors wines to make ragout and sauces."

Eric is the third generation to run the family-owned Le Lion d'Or. During the promotion, Eric prepared some delicious Quercy dishes, including pan-fried duck liver with mascarpone polenta and caper sauce, lobster soup with baume de Venice served with sweet melon, Quercy farm lamb with roasted kidney and sweetbread and pan fried wild mushrooms.

For dessert, there was mango with cream of gianduja and mango basil compote, among other dishes.

Eric also has eight years' experience working in Southeast Asian hotels, namely the Borobudur Intercontinental Jakarta, Shangri-La Jakarta and its Singapore chain.

He explained that working in foreign countries has enriched his knowledge about the ingredients, spices and cooking techniques in other countries.

"I sometimes add spices to my dishes," he said. "Many French people think that spicy dishes are always hot, which is not the same thing."

Eric said he often likes to add a personal touch to his dishes, but stressed the dishes are neither a fusion of foods, nor a combination of French and Asian food all on one plate.

"It's my personal touch," he mused. "It's like a song -- people can sing the same song differently."