l'ardoise
The lunch menu might be a little hard to make out: soup, duck liver paté, mique, petit salé, a chunk of Camembert, and a fruit salad. If this is not what you are in the mood for, you can go eat somewhere else. But all of the 44 seats were reserved in advance which is why "complet" ("sold out") is scrawled across the menu in pink chalk.
I went over at half past seven when I saw from my own kitchen window the lights in the restaurant kitchen. 
le petit salé, soaking
Someone had already put out the petit salé, salted pork ribs, in water at least overnight to reduce the saltiness. The unheated kitchen was immaculate and even on a chilly morning it was a lot more inviting than any dusty old woodworking shop I could ever remember working in. On the other hand, there were 44 people who were going to be very hungry at 12 noon; it didnt bear thinking about, what they would do if we screwed up or ran late.
Mique for 50
Marcel, who until last July worked in public relations in the next departement over, was setting out the ingredients for the mique like a well-organized efficient professional who had always cooked for a living: white flour, eggs, salt, yeast. The yeast he weighed out precisely on a scale.
Mique is essentially an egg bread that is cooked by boiling in vegetable broth. It's a local-regional dish with variants that seem to run almost from town to town. In the Dordogne, they serve individual little round balls of mique for example while here in this part of the Lot they make a loaf and serve big slices.
When the yeast was proofed, Marcel spread out enough flour on the stainless steel table for three big loaves of mique and began breaking eggs into a hollow in the pile of flour. He added the yeast and water. It wasn't yet 8 am and, looking at the mass of eggy flour he smiled and said, "Now comes the disagreable part."
désagréable
Like with challah dough, the stickiness from the eggs diminishes after a while and then you just knead. It was cold in the kitchen and I welcomed the heavy exercise of kneading. They got the recipe they use from an old woman who they said was very stressed out doing them a demonstration mique for fear it would fail to rise.
empêtré en pétrant
Before too long, Philippe showed up and it would be unkind to mention here that he had overslept, as he said, for only for the third or fourth time in his life, particulary unkind in light of the fact that he is always insinuating that I am a slacker when really I am just too darn busy most mornings to remember to open the shutters much before 9am. No, all of this I must pass over in silence.
Philippe brings out the heavenly mousse de canard
The three loaves of mique rise near the radiator at the back of the restaurant, as it is only 50°F or so in the restaurant. Meanwhile, Philippe pulls out a crate of carrots and turnips and a burlap sack of potatoes for me to wash and peel. He cleans and chops cabbage for the soup, boils the petit salé / pork ribs, tweaks the thermocouple on a reluctant stove burner, sets two big pots of broth to boil to cook the mique, and answers one phone call after another. All this time Marcel is helping with the stove and putting together a really well balanced and delicious fruit salad for dessert.
Before too long, the dough has risen and it's time to toss the mique into the huge pots of boiling broth. The only way to avoid collapsing the dough is all at once to just give the basket the old heave ho into the boiling water. There's scalding water all over the place which requires alert backpedaling by the hurler. There is no graceful alternative.
Philippe takes the time to describe the truffle market at Lalbenque and to encourage us to go see it next Tuesday, "not to buy, just to absorb the folklore."
He brings out the restaurant's own stash of truffles, set atop some eggs in the fridge. He says that at 1,000€ per kilo, this handful of truffles might be worth around 400€. What an aroma.
He brings out the restaurant's own stash of truffles, set atop some eggs in the fridge. He says that at 1,000€ per kilo, this handful of truffles might be worth around 400€. What an aroma. All of a sudden, it's time for the restaurant staff to have a quick bite before the hungry mobs descend. Here's the petit salé:
And here's the mique:
and the complete dish prepared for the client with cabbage soup broth on top and a big carrot, turnip, and potato:
