:: About the restaurant… ::

France Culture (28/01/2007), French radio (MP3)

Departure : « During some business travels this year, I came across two restaurants and one hotel that rate a mention.

First, La Petite Marmite at 178 Rue de Bourgogne in Orleans France. It is traditionally French-the building dates from the 16th century. The selection of wines from the Loire Valley is excellent, and the food is outstanding-from the warm foie gras in a puff pastry with apple and mushroom sauce to the Normandy tart with calvados and creme anglaise… »

(KEITH V. LEIGH-MONSTEVENS Auburn Hills, MI)

Orléans Loisir : « This pot simmers in the 178 of the street of Bourgogne (Burgundy) since two decades. It is easy to find, next to the prefecture and the front is always decorated with flowers, so that one is always welcomed to push the door.

The inside is warm, with its classic arts half-timberings, its shiny and multicolored stone floor, its prints and its ancient earthenwares. Comfortable, cosy, cosy!

Marie-Ange, the feline, it is her who is going to welcome you and you won’t remain indifferent. The dark beauty leads its small world as a mistress : iron hand in a velvet glove.
You will rarely see François because the maestro is behind the piano where he always follows his partitions. His purple passage is his Regional Menu. The quiche of the skippers, the rabbit in the orléanaise (back stuffed in mushrooms), Jargeau’s andouille, Tatin, crème brûlée in the pear. Continuous and deserved success.
I examined the Gourmet Marmite Menu for the days of big wind. I moored near the greedy pot and near the tart of the Father François (to discover). I kept my opera glasses on the Snails from Burgundy cooked with roquefort cheese, the veal medaillons and the Duck fillet with pink peppercorns. Please, keep a small place for the frozen nougat with a coulis of pear and ginger (is it very reasonable? You’re going to feel like Tarzan!)… »

« Bonnes tables » By JEAN-PIERRE CHAMAILLARD.

Petit futé : « Of this small pot take out big flat dishes. In a cosy atmosphere, protected well from the furies of the city, the dinner guest will collect himself with self-importance on mister Letellier’s finds: a smooth terrine of roe deer and sound jam of onions, followed by half a perdreau on his bed of liver of duck before finishing, in a casi-bliss, by one of the best cremes brulée in the pear of Orleans. »

They have come, they have enjoyed, they are coming back (french actors): Françis Perrin, Michel Piccoli, Claude Chabrol, Dreyfus, Claude Riche, Claude Brasseur, Jacques Fabri, Nicole Garcias, Pierre Préjan, Coline Serreau, François-Henri Houbard, Gérard Abiton, André Dussolier, Mylène de Montjot, Daniel Auteuil…

:: La petite Marmite Restaurant in Orleans ::