Les Roseaux Pensants: plant-based gastronomy in Cormery

A unique restaurant healthy, high-quality cooking

The name “Les Roseaux Pensants” doesn’t necessarily conjure up that of a restaurant. If your philosophy classes are but a distant memory, you should know that Blaise Pascal wrote in 1660:

Man is but a reed, the weakest of nature; but it is a thinking reed. It is not necessary for the whole universe to arm itself to crush him: a vapour, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, and the universe knows nothing of the advantage it has over him. All our dignity therefore consists in thought. It is from there that we must rise and not from space and duration, which we cannot fill. Let us work at thinking well: that is the principle of morality.

Stéphane Enault (in the kitchen) and Laurène Attia (in the dining room) did not come from some hotel school, but are both… lawyers! Passionate about cooking and good local produce, they have trained in culinary and farming techniques. Stéphane left the Bar to work in a number of Parisian restaurants, where he trained on the job, passing a CAP in cookery as an independent candidate. Laurène trained to grow aromatic and medicinal plants. Amazing, isn’t it?

Restaurant website

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

Around Cormery Near Les Roseaux Pensants restaurant

©Restaurant Les Roseaux Pensants in Cormery.|Elizabeth Froment

Trusting the living world to awaken our taste buds

Among the techniques used in cooking, lacto-fermentation is certainly one of their favourites. An age-old preservation process, it reveals new flavours in fruit and vegetables and boosts their vitamin content. For a healthy mind in a healthy body! In fact, Les Roseaux Pensants make a 100% local tempeh, using 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 with a barley miso-based preparation and accompany it with a risotto of round Camargue rice with Breton seaweed butter and brewer’s yeast, as well as shitakés grown in Loches by GAEC Saint-Paul. Tempeh is more than a taste discovery, it’s also a way of varying your diet in line with the ecological challenges of our time.

Are you familiar with tempeh?

An Indonesian speciality made from fermented soya, tempeh can be made in an infinite number of ways. It involves inoculating a very special spore (Rhizopus oligosporus) onto a legume or cooked cereal and allowing it to develop in conditions that are favourable to it. After around 24 hours, a mycelium forms and binds the seeds together. Tempeh is born, with flavours never before seen on our Western taste buds!

Highlights

Reason #1

Unusual flavours

Reason #2

The 3 Ecotables label

Reason #3

Unanimously positive reviews!

And to the table, How does it work?

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that you’re in for a rather unusual culinary adventure! At the time of writing, you’ll find à la carte, for example:

Smoked trout, fennel, granny apple, herb yoghurt sauce, celery apple 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 of shredded chicken, vinegared red cabbage, a selection of raw vegetables, pickles and lacto-fermented vegetables, kimchi mayonnaise and salsa verde (vegetarian version available)
Pork loin, pommes grenaille, spinach, white bean purée, roasted red onion, kimchi
Guinea fowl breast cooked on the chest, roasted carrot purée, glazed carrots and turnips, black chestnut condiment
Quinoa tempeh, pan-fried mushrooms, celeriac purée, lacto-fermented shiitake, roasted pak choï cabbage, sage emulsion
Candied beetroot, creamy beetroot, hazelnut praline, elderberry 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 products or preparations are. But in any case, your taste buds will be conquered!

Apart from a few exotic products obviously from outside Touraine, the produce is sourced through short circuits, essentially from organic or sustainable agriculture suppliers. And, of course, also directly from the restaurant’s garden. On my last visit, everything was absolutely delicious. The chef even managed the master stroke of seducing a clientele of Touraine residents with Sainte-Maure de Touraine! As well as masterful cuisine, Les Roseaux Pensants offers efficient and pleasant service. The setting is a reflection of the owners, cosy and unpretentious. Laurène is constantly expanding her knowledge of plant dyes (dyeing, indigo, ecoprint), which allows her to enrich the decor of the premises and her tableware with her own plant creations. And in fine weather, the terrace is very welcoming.

Workshops to follow

Les Roseaux Pensants run workshops around fermentation, which have been 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, always with a focus on enhancing the value of plants.

From fork to pen

Gourmet and gourmand, Hubert Giblet works in the Val de Loire Terres de Gastronomie association, which organises the Automnales de la Gastronomie festival, as well as gourmet strolls once a month. At the Azay-Chinon Tourist Office, he is also in charge of events initiated as part of the Vignobles & Découvertes label.