Once the Christmas festivities have been and gone and the new year has begun, it is customary to make pledges for a healthier and more prudent lifestyle. A noble endeavour, but often accompanied by a lack of balance, a sense of ennui, and an inevitable straying from the too strict and stringent path we set ourselves.

We have just the antidote.

On Friday evenings throughout January and February the Garden Museum Café will be running a series of dinners celebrating the regional cooking of France, to restore strength and sooth the soul through the cold and troublesome weeks of Winter.

Our head chef Myles will be taking us on a tour of some of his favourite French provinces, show casing some of the authentic cuisine and traditional dishes that have inspired his cooking over the years.

Each week the menu will be prix fixe – three courses for £29.

The fourth edition of our Tour de France series takes us to the Southwest. Gascony is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West, the Pyrenees mountains to the South, and is marked by the power-house region of wine making, Bordeaux in the North.

Home to d’Artagnan and the Musketeers, this is rural France at its most undulating and idyllic. Rolling hills, sprawling vineyards, a sunny climate and a relaxed pace of life.

The food is rustic, soulful, and defiantly rich. Ducks rule the roost, duck fat is the local currency.
Cassoulet seems the only real way to celebrate – as chef Andre Daguin said, “it’s not really a recipe, but a way for villages to argue.”

There’ll be some suitably rugged and robust wines to try alongside.
Santé!