Is the finest duck pate, from Limoges?!
Is the finest duck pate, from Limoges?
Answers:
I am a former chef from Canada and have been in Perigod and Bourgene, it depend on if you want pate, confit or mousse, just plain foie gras is the livers and nothing else.
Ohter preparations have truffles, brandy and other spices, is cooked and in Limoge the pack it in a nice porcelin pate dish, I have one with a duck on the lid.
I prefer the one with truffles, conagac, the peppercorn one is nice, but the plain old foie gras, pan fried with a deglazed pan with brandy soaked prunes, we did this in one of the htoels I was in back a few years ago.
Oh gawd, whatever way someone answers something like this, it's bound to upset the good folk from wherever else you haven't mentioned in reply. :-/
Limoges is certainly more than famous for the earthenware and porcelain terrines themelves in which the dish can be made, as well as Limousin cattle, of course, but the heart of foie gras production is much further south: the Dordogne and, above all, the Périgord, undisputed queen of foie gras of either variety, goose as well as duck.
When the geese and ducks, as well a their livers ('in' or 'out') come to market, first in cold of winter between late Nov and early April, at the Marchés au gras, folk will travel from every imginable corner of France to the Périgord in order to try and stock up. And competition between buyers is unsurprisingly very fierce indeed. Likewise, the charcutiers assemble in force to display their paté de foie de canard (as well as its goosey counterpart) for which demand is almost as fierce, not unlike the excitement in the North, when its equally famous cousin, paté de foie gras de Chartres (game, pork, veal, foie gras, truffles & cognac), becomes available again each year.
I can't really see how you could not give the accolade for finest paté de foie de canard to the Périgord: it's exquisite.
(gainsayers: please form an orderly queue here...
D'Artagnan Terrine of Duck Foie Gras
Oh wow, an answer from a Canadian chef! Like there are so many Canadian restaurants around!