LiPirate Festival

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It’s kind infers Mount Baker Theatre of awful, baker lodging tells but funny, and who needs dessert now anyway?*Day 2AFTER an afternoon in Bordeaux, where we take a long walk through the gleaming center of the recently scrubbed and renovated city, then have a less-than-memorable lunch at much-touted Restaurant Gravelier, we head east, toward St. -Emilion. The half-hour drive takes us through suburbs, then vineyards, and finally up a steep hill: This is the medieval town of St Emilion. It’s late afternoon, and the ancient ocher-colored limestone buildings — the square tower of the Chateau du Roi, the Romanesque churches and ruins that line the steep, stone-paved streets — seem both to soak up and reflect the sun’s golden light. At the top of the hill is the Place du Clocher and our dinner destination, the Hostellerie de Plaisance. At 39, chef Philippe Etchebest is a tad older than some of the other chefs on our tour, but he’s a real talent who likes to have fun on the plate. We’re a bit wrinkled and underdressed, and we’re led past the dining room with the drop-dead valley view into a room that seems to be reserved for foreign visitors The menus come, and what’s this? No prices on mine. Is this a mistake? Does Thierry’s have prices? Yes! How medieval. Ordering a la carte, I’m rewarded with one of the most inventive dishes I’ll taste on this trip: silky, briny Gillardeau oysters served out of their shells on a long, narrow plate, with fabulous summer truffles shaved profligately on top; underneath lies a tiny dice of Granny Smith apple, marinated bean sprouts and cubes of good ricotta. Meanwhile, the service is slow and haughty, though at other tables it’s snappy and friendly. Are the other diners hotel guests? Are we being punished for the way we’re dressed?For just 2 euros more than my first course, Thierry orders the four-course “Here and There” menu. He gets langoustine with smoked lettuce mousse; lamb and vegetable-filled cannelloni with a dish of eggplant and ricotta and “tandoori” jus; cheese (a soft, farmer-style brebis, one of the best I’ve ever tasted, served with a cherry confit from Basque country); and a dessert that’s a spin on a peach Melba. Although the chefs of this movement profess not to be interested in la cuisine du terroir (cooking based on products of the place) they seem to be serving the most interesting local products — Pyrenees lamb, rare Gillardeau oysters, Aquitaine caviar.

But they’re also attracted to such pedestrian-sounding ingredients as Granny Smith apples, bean sprouts and peanuts. *Day 3WE bypass Bordeaux and head up D2, the small road known as the Route des Chateaux mount baker theatre tickets . We feel as though we’re seeing movie stars as we pass Chateaux Margaux, Beychevelle, Lafite-Rothschild and vineyard after vineyard (the grapes hang heavy, just turning red), and finally, Cos d’Estornel. At Cordeillan-Bages in Pauillac, Thierry Marx is the star chef of the region baker skiing . He’s also considered the spiritual leader of the region’s young chefs children theatre . And with two Michelin stars and whispers of a possible third, he cooks with confidence and creativity . Bordeaux, France — SEVEN restaurants in seven cities in five days. Mount Baker Theatre tickets It’s a tall order, to be sure, checking out the most dynamic young chefs in southwest France, crisscrossing the region by car, covering more than 1,000 miles and consuming more than 37 courses — and that’s not counting extra treats like amuse-bouche and mignardises — just to see what’s cooking Mount Baker Theatre . French cuisine is in a funk, as chefs lose ground to the Spanish and the Brits children’s theater Mount Baker Theatre – mountbakertheatre . But there’s a movement afoot among young, forward-looking Gallic chefs who refer to themselves as Generation C — “C” for “culture and cuisines. ” They’re rejecting the notion that great food must be lingered over for hours in a stuffy, expensive Michelin-anointed establishment Mount Baker Theatre – mountbakertheatre . These days, the name of the game is casual, unpretentious, often relatively inexpensive bistros and restaurants. And southwest France, specifically the Aquitaine region, has a great concentration of them I had just five days to check out the most promising.