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What It’s Like To Eat At Maison Bras In France

Maison Bras awed us with its innovative food and stunning views. This French restaurant is the ultimate destination dining experience.

Maison Bras Sunset
Behind Maison Bras, the sun sets over Laguiole and the Aubrac Valley. The restaurant and luxury inn’s location provides one of the most stunning locales in the world for destination dining. | Image: ©2foodtrippers

Immersion. It’s what fine dining is all about – the ability of a restaurateur to transport diners away from their day-to-day struggles to another place through smells, sights and flavors.

The greatest of these fine dining restaurants allow us to forget about the stresses of the world for a few hours over a romantic dinner and create a memory – a place where diners can experience a fantasy world teeming with lush green meadows, winding dirt trails and glowing pink sunsets.

At Alinea in Chicago, Chef Grant Achatz goes as far as inflating pillows with burning leaf smells to simulate childhood memories of roaming through wooded paths. At Ultraviolet in Shanghai, Chef Paul Pairet places diners’ minds in a tizzy by carefully beaming controlled images on the walls of a windowless dining room while servers perform choreographed routines to trumpet the arrival of each course.

This may sound silly, but, in the ultra-competitive world of fine dining, chefs push envelopes to impress top dollar guests. We’re sure the food and experiences are wonderful, entertaining and immersing at these high-end restaurants, but it makes us wonder if chefs can approach culinary art without pretension and fabrication to allow the beauty of the food and its surroundings to speak with honest force and breadth.

At Maison Bras, they can.

Where Is Maison Bras?

Maison Bras Lounge
Before dinner at Maison Bras, guests enjoy drinks and starters in the lounge while viewing the skyscape through the wraparound glass windows.

Le Suquet, the Bras Family’s Relais & Chateau, is located high in the Aubrac hills, overlooking the nearby town of Laguiole. Horned Aubrac cattle drive the agricultural industry of the region, and these cows ubiquitously inhabit the grassy, sloping landscape.

And what a landscape it is. Founding chef and nouvelle cuisine legend Michel Bras built the glass-encased Maison Bras to integrate into that landscape with clouds and sky serving as walls around dining room guests. The extraordinary nouvelle cuisine of Maison Bras has evolved timelessly, much like a classical composition from Bach or Beethoven.

Signature dishes like The Gargouillou of Young Vegetables continue to amaze and surprise. In a way, the glass-enclosed building functions like a great cathedral or concert hall where the natural view contributes to a timeless dining experience.

Since founding the world-famous restaurant in 1992, Bras handed over the kitchen reigns to his highly capable son, Sébastian, in 2009. Chef Sébastien Bras has some serious kitchen chops of his own, having previously worked for Paul Bocuse and Pierre Gagnaire. The 2012 film Entre Les Bras documented the switchover and inspired us to wake up in the middle of the night to reserve a space for our getaway to Le Suquet.

Destination Dining At Maison Bras

Maison Bras View
Pink clouds recede over the Aubrac Valley at Maison Bras, immersing diners into the landscape.

We decided to stay at the Suquet for many reasons. Sure, there are some charming inns and B&B’s in Laguiole but not many offer the experience of waking in the morning to the stunning Aubrac landscape.

Michel Bras built the hotel rooms into the hill so that the rear door of every room slides open to the most scenic overlook in the area, and our room was no exception. After a few hours of ogling at the cloud painted scenery, we made our way to up the stairs toward the dining room… or should we say dining heaven.

The Experience Begins

From the hotel, we climbed a staircase toward the lounge and began our dining experience.

In our eyes, any Michelin 3 star experience should have an epic flow much like a great performance. At Maison Bras, the lounge serves as an opening area – almost like a great proscenium in an opera house. The sunset bathes the guests from the windows, lighting the room with brilliant orange hues that emanate from the sun setting over Aubrac pastures.

For our dinner, the light bathed the amuse-bouches which included egg custards with pine nuts, a cep tart and a surprising cracker flavored with spices like cumin and coriander.

Maison Bras Amuse Bouche
Our time in the lounge provided a perfect opening to our epic meal at Maison Bras. We enjoyed amuse bouches like these hollowed eggs filled with egg custard and then topped with pine nuts.

The pre-meal allowed us time to scan the large (as is standard for this kind of dining) yet manageable wine list curated by sommelier Sergio Calderón. Calderón steered us to a great value wine from Gaillac, which he brought to our table at the start of dinner service.

Many of the Bras staff said that we were fortunate to witness such a rare, beautiful skyscape that night. Rare or not, it was certainly a sunset to remember.

Ushered To Our Seats – Time Stops

The view from our dinner table left us breathless – two chairs placed on the far side of the window overlooking the sunset on the valley. We felt like passengers about to ride on a dining ship sailing toward the infinite skies ahead of us.

We arrived to this blissful position after visiting the kitchen and meeting Chef Sébastien.

In the kitchen, a variety of vegetables sat on a table next to the expediting line displaying various fruits, vegetables and herbs currently available in Bras’ home region of Aveyron – white asparagus, white and romanesco cauliflower and various radishes along with an assortment of flowers – all of which would make their appearance later during dinner.

Maison Bras began our dinner service with a crudo of mackerel over millefeuille – a mere introduction to our legendary first course.

Gargouillou

Gargouillou at Maison Bras
The Gargouillou at Maison Bras, an oft-imitated dish, is a touchstone of the Nouvelle Cuisine movement.

More of a culinary construct than a strict recipe-driven dish, Gargouillou, the classic conceived by Michel Bras in 1978, remains grounded in the present. Our visions of the dish were firmly placed not only by the images in the Bras documentary but also by countless photos of the dish on the internet showing a wide collage of separate ingredients conveying the essence of the Valley d’Aubrac.

However, the tight plating of the dish surprised us. We expected to see everything but could not.

But as we dug our forks into the gorgeous arrangement of flowers, herbs and vegetables, what appeared to be a mixed salad was actually a melange of elements prepared in varying forms of doneness. Radishes, carrots and beets were cooked, peppers were puréed and herbs were plucked straight from the grassy hills.

Discover more great salads around the world.

It’s no wonder that countless chefs have chosen to imitate the dish or, in many ways, make it their own. Some of the flavors in the gargouillou were shocking like bitter field herbs that carried a super intense anise flavor. Others were comforting, like the small bits of fatty meat that counteracted some of that bitterness.

In its best interpretation, the gargouillou represents gastronomy as a living art much like a constitution is a living document. This dish is no museum piece but rather a vivid conveyance of flavor and form executed by chefs who are firmly in control of their craft. Chef Sébastien’s gargouillou is no exception to this.

And it doesn’t stop here.

Parade Of Dishes

Langoustine at Maison Bras
Ultra-fresh Langoustine with Sauce Maltaise and Quinoa at Maison Bras.

The gargouillou tends to grab the ultimate spotlight at Maison Bras, but other menu items also shined during our dinner like shockingly succulent and fresh wood-fired langoustine with citrus butter and quinoa. We don’t usually love quinoa and its appearance on a French standard- bearing menu seemed somewhat surprising, but this competently seasoned grain counterbalanced the buttery meat with wonderful earthiness.

We can’t say that foie gras excites us at quite the level that it used to, but its ubiquity around France makes it a mandatory menu item at a starred Michelin restaurant. Pairing the tender sautéed duck liver with asparagus and fennel kept the delicacy fresh and springlike.

However, if the Gargouillou transmitted the essence of the region, the Poached Aubrac Beef shined a culinary light on its heart and soul. Long-horned Aubrac cattle are as common in Aveyron as they are in Texas. These cows produce some of the finest grass-fed beef in the world.

Poached Filet of Beef at Maison Bras
The Poached Filet of Beef at Maison Bras was a fine example of a locally farmed product executed to perfection.

The French think about beef differently from Americans. Their cows are primarily grass-fed, and their steaks are lean with big funky flavors whereas Americans are used to big fatty steaks.

The beef served at Bras approached the closest level of meat perfection that we’ve ever tasted. Although we could still taste that great funky grass-fed flavor so common in France, the steak literally melted in our mouths.

We would be remiss not to mention the aligot – mashed potatoes mixed with Aubrac cheese, garlic and butter, a dish that stretches when melted. We first enjoyed similar mashed potatoes at Montreal’s Au Pied de Cochon, a version made in classic poutine style with cheese curds.

Aligot at Maison Bras
Stretchy, cheesy Aligot at Maison Bras. The dish, a combination of potatoes, Laguiole cheese, garlic and butter, provides a delicious example of the Bras family’s heritage.

But Maison Bras’ simpler version, featuring Aubrac cheese, dates back centuries when monks would supply pilgrims with nourishment on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Unlike the PDC version, our potatoes stretched almost uncontrollably and had a nutty flavor that conveyed the region’s wonderful grass-lined pastures.

Aligot is so popular in the Aubrac region that it’s sold prepackaged and refrigerated. Yes, we later bought a box to enjoy at our apartment in Lyon.

Cheese Course

Cheese Course at Maison Bras
The cheese course at Maison Bras is epic. The best part: you can enjoy as much as you want… or can handle.

In our humble opinion, French farmers produce the best cheese in the world, differentiating the French 3 star Michelin experience from all others. Sure, there are amazing upscale restaurants in the US, Japan, Spain, and Scandinavia that offer cooking that is on par or at times better than in France, but, for us, there is nothing like seeing a server wheel an epic French cheese cart around the corner toward our table.

By this point in the meal, diners may feel at their limit, but this is no reason to stop. We mentioned that Aubrac is known for cows – well, in addition to beef, these cows produce amazing cheese too. During our cheese course, we especially loved the amazing aged Tomme de Laguiole with its nutty, yet slightly grassy flavor.

Other cheese cart standouts included super intense Roquefort Vernieres – a salt crystallized, sweet, funky wonder that we don’t often see in the United States. There was also fresh sheep’s cheese, chèvre of all types and blue Fourme d’Ambert that had been aged for so long that its paste resembled a caramel-like gold. We previously enjoyed a similar cheese experience in Burgundy’s Maison Lameloise, but this cheese cart gets extra points for its region specificity.

The Maison Bras restaurant has an especially strong dedication to local products. In fact, there were so many local, distinct cheeses that even Daryl couldn’t identify them all despite his extensive cheese background. This was a serious cheese cart!

Dessert

Chocolate Coulant at Maison Bras
The exterior of the classic Chocolate Coulant at Maison Bras shatters to reveal a molten liquid center of milk chocolate.

We don’t know why there are three dessert courses at Maison Bras. But we’re not complaining. After all, this is a country where French desserts reign supreme.

At this point of the epic meal, we felt like distance runners who had just passed the 20-mile mark of a 26-mile marathon. It was also at this point in the meal when Mindi’s face said “No Mas!!” But who were we to resist?

The Chocolate Coulant arrived first, a Maison Bras classic in which special Trinidad sourced milk chocolate is frozen and melted inside a warm cookie shell with a side of barley malt ice cream. Next came Flausone, a rustic kind of sheep cheesecake/tart typical of Aveyron and scented with orange.

Ice Cream Cones at Maison Bras
Our dinner at Maison Bras ended with ice cream cones!

Finally, cones were served with an assortment of ice creams. Yes. It was probably too much, but, when you’re in the Bras house, too much is never enough. We returned to the lounge, enjoyed a memorable tea service and headed downstairs to bed.

Tea Service at Maison Bras
After our dinner at Maison Bras, we retreated to the lounge and enjoyed an unexpectedly delightful tea service. It was the perfect cap to an extraordinary evening.

To us, this dinner was a special dining experience that was well worth the price – an epic meal that transported us to another place where the beauty of nature became reality. Except, in this case, the fantasy didn’t only exist in our imagination.

Maison Bras is a real place and we were lucky to be there for 24 hours.

Maison Bras is located at Route de l’Aubrac, 12210 Laguiole, France. Advance reservations are absolutely mandatory.

Maison Bras Video

Watch our YouTube video to see the highlights of our 24 hours at Maison Bras and then keep reading for more details about our amazing destination dinner.

Maison Bras Planning Checklist

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About The Authors

About The Authors

Daryl & Mindi Hirsch

Saveur Magazine’s BEST TRAVEL BLOG award winners Daryl and Mindi Hirsch share their culinary travel experiences and recipes on the 2foodtrippers website. Since launching the site in 2012, they’ve traveled to over 40 countries in their quest to bring readers their unique taste of the world.

Disclosures

Article Updates
We update our articles regularly. Some updates are major while others are minor link changes and spelling corrections. Let us know if you see anything that needs to be updated in this article.

Funding
We self-funded our dinner at Maison Gras.

Original Publication Date: June 2, 2016

Raymond Mohan

Wednesday 17th of January 2018

Amazing work, keep it up

Estefania

Wednesday 27th of December 2017

HATED WHEN YOU TOLD YOUR PARTNER TO "STOP TALKING"

Daryl and Mindi Hirsch

Sunday 4th of March 2018

All in good fun Estefania.

Matteo

Sunday 13th of August 2017

its look so delicious, Cheese one of my favorite part:) I love it when they make flowers work along on your plate. Thanks for sharing !

Christina

Friday 16th of December 2016

Your review of Maison Bras is definitely complimentary. It's great that you enjoyed the food and ambiance to that degree.

Brian

Wednesday 16th of November 2016

Looks like an incredible dining experience! I'm getting hungry just looking at pictures of the food. Thanks for sharing!

Daryl and Mindi Hirsch

Wednesday 16th of November 2016

It really was Brian. Many other restaurants currently have received higher ratings and more acclaim but Maison Bras has some of the most timeless cuisines in the world. In our eyes, an ingenious dish like the Gargouillou will never grow old. But we were even more wowed by the experience. Maison Bras' building sits in a remote location that, when the conditions are just right, is one of the most beautiful in the world. Our meal was an all-encompassing experience that no restaurant, in our minds, can match.

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