Les Roseaux Pensants: plant-based cuisine in Cormery

A unique restaurant healthy, high-quality food

The name‘Les Roseaux Pensants’ doesn’t necessarily bring to mind a restaurant. If your philosophy lessons are just a distant memory, you should know that Blaise Pascal wrote in 1660:

Man is but a reed, the weakest thing in nature; yet he is a thinking reed. The whole universe need not take up arms to crush him: a puff of vapour, a drop of water, is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, whilst the universe is unaware of the advantage it holds over him. All our dignity therefore lies in thought. It is from this that we must draw our strength, and not from space and time, which we cannot fill. Let us therefore strive to think well: that is the principle of morality.

Stéphane Enault (in the kitchen) and Laurène Attia (front of house) did not attend any catering college, but are both… lawyers! Passionate about cooking and lovers of fine local produce, they have trained themselves in culinary and farming techniques. Stéphane left the Bar to take up a position in Parisian restaurants, where he learnt on the job, whilst sitting the CAP in Cooking as an independent candidate. Laurène has undertaken training in the cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants. Surprising, isn’t it?

Restaurant website

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Lorène, from the restaurant Les Roseaux Pensants, in Cormery.
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Elizabeth Froment

Around Cormery Near the restaurant Les Roseaux Pensants

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Restaurant Les Roseaux Pensants in Cormery.
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Elizabeth Froment

Trusting in life to tantalise our taste buds

Of all the techniques used in cooking, lacto-fermentation is certainly one of their favourites. A preservation method dating back thousands of years, it brings out new flavours in fruit and vegetables and boosts their vitamin content. For a healthy mind in a healthy body! Les Roseaux Pensants also produce 100% locally sourced tempeh, made from a blend of black beans grown by Théo Meneau, an organic farmer in Marcilly-sur-Vienne, and chickpeas from Ti’bio d’Aire, an organic farm in Courcoué. They then coat their tempeh in a barley miso-based mixture and serve it with a risotto made from Camargue round grain rice, Breton seaweed butter and brewer’s yeast, along with shiitake mushrooms grown in Loches by GAEC Saint-Paul. Tempeh is more than just a culinary discovery; it is also a way of diversifying one’s diet in line with the environmental challenges of our time.

Have you heard of tempeh?

An Indonesian speciality made from fermented soya, tempeh can be prepared in countless ways. It is made by inoculating a very specific spore (Rhizopus oligosporus) onto cooked pulses or grains and allowing it to develop under favourable conditions. After about 24 hours, a mycelium forms and binds the grains together. Tempeh is born, with flavours that are a real treat for our Western palates!

Highlights Les Roseaux Pensants

Reason #1

Unusual flavours

Reason #2

The 3 Ecotables certification

Reason #3

Nothing but positive reviews!

And let’s eat, How does that work out?

You won’t be surprised to hear that you’re in for a rather unique culinary adventure! As I write this, the menu features, for example:

Smoked trout, fennel, Granny Smith apple, herb yoghurt sauce, apple and celery gel, seaweed crumble, lacto-fermented pear, watercress snow
Perfect egg, leek velouté, lacto-fermented asparagus, ground ivy cake, fresh Sainte-Maure de Touraine with watercress and mizuna
Tacos with pulled chicken, red cabbage in vinegar, a selection of raw, pickled and lacto-fermentedvegetables, kimchi mayonnaise and salsa verde (vegetarian option available)
Pork loin, baby potatoes, spinach, white bean purée, roasted red onion, kimchi
Guinea fowl fillet cooked on the breast, roasted carrot purée, glazed carrots and turnips, black chestnut condiment
Quinoa tempeh, pan-fried mushrooms, celeriac purée, lacto-fermented shiitake, roasted pak choi, sage emulsion
Candied beetroot, beetroot cream, hazelnut praline, elderflower milk gel and foam, beetroot sorbet
Walnut tartlet, meadowsweet custard, miso ice cream.

If, like me, you’re not familiar with mizuna, kimchi, kombu seaweed or miso,Laurène will be happy to explain what these ingredients and dishes are all about. But whatever the case, your taste buds are in for a treat!

Apart from a few exotic produce items – which, of course, come from outside the Touraine region – ingredients are sourced locally, mainly from organic or sustainable farming suppliers. And, of course, directly from the restaurant’s own garden too. On my last visit, everything was absolutely delicious. The chef has even pulled off the masterstroke of winning over the local Touraine clientele with Sainte-Maure de Touraine! As well as superbly executed cuisine, Les Roseaux Pensants offer efficient and friendly service. The setting reflects the owners’ character: cosy and unpretentious. Laurène is constantly expanding her knowledge of plant-based dyes (dyeing, indigo, ecoprint), which allows her to enhance the décor and table settings with her own botanical creations. And in the warmer months,the terrace is very welcoming.

Upcoming workshops

Les Roseaux Pensants run workshops on fermentation, which have proved a great success. To take the experience of sharing and exchange a step further, they will soon be offering workshops on a variety of themes, all centred on making the most of plants.

From the fork to the pen

A gourmet and food lover, Hubert Giblet founded the Val de Loire Terres de Gastronomie association, which organises the Automnales de la Gastronomie festival, as well as monthly gourmet walking tours. At the Azay-Chinon Tourist Office, he also oversees events organised under the Vignobles & Découvertes scheme.