La Pinte des Mossettes, serenity on earth!
Lunch at La Pinte des Mossettes has to be earned! The road leading to this country-style institution is winding but invites us to indulge in gourmet reveries. A true mountain getaway. We let ourselves be carried away by the beauty of the landscape. Our gastronome’s soul wanders as we imagine the culinary journey that awaits us. Chef Nicolas Darnauguilhem is in total harmony with the environment and has made the cultivation and mastery of local produce his own, giving us the power to reconnect with our senses. As a guest, I’m delighted to see that this talented chef is more in tune than ever with his gastronomic philosophy.
Herbal infusion
A ray of sunshine happily warms us as we take our aperitifs, while a glass of champagne immediately draws us into Nicolas Darnauguilhem’s world. The cocoricos of the barnyard below are heard as a message of welcome and an invitation to taste a vegetable broth full of finesse. Consumed like an infusion, we’re won over from the very first sip. The trout topped with a sorrel leaf and the bell pepper croustade with crayfish bisque are a worthy continuation of this gourmet prelude.
Rose-scented cherry tomatoes enhanced with onion slices from the chef’s garden are a gentle invitation to discover the chef’s world. This plant poetry is followed by a more committed mushroom dish with a duxelle of cooked mushrooms, chicory and pumpkin praline with sage. When earth and plants become one in a judicious harmony of cooking and texture.
Angel hair
Lake trout takes center stage at this Sunday lunch. A delicate dish accompanied by autumn turnips. Three versions of lamb, from the Sapalet farm, in a single dish: braised and lacquered, topped with an exceptional leek reduction. A full-bodied sauce that could be the sauce of the year? A piece of lamb breast, confit for four hours, and finally a kefta dumpling covered with a nasturtium leaf. Even if the whole thing is disconcertingly minimalist, the dish is a total success. After the famous Pinte des Mossettes salad, freshly picked from the garden, and the regional cheeses, it’s time for the desserts created by talented pastry chef Romain Caschera.
Angel hair with jellied Chasselas juice, presented with fig leaf ice cream, is a dessert as technical as it is elegant. Anchored in his terroir and uninfluenced by the trend towards molecular cuisine, the chef delivers the same instructions for the sweet part: simplicity, legibility and gourmandise. Mirabelle plums from the garden and reines-claudes with buckwheat ice cream complete a magnificent gastronomic opus on Fribourg soil. On his verdant hillside, Nicolas Darnauguilhem, free and detached from the world and the crowds, achieves a form of inner peace that suits him so well. Take care, Chef, and see you soon for new adventures…
