For my upcoming ’ twice postponed ’ European trip ( mainly Spain and France ), my son would love to try the iconic French luxurious dish ’ Hare Royale '. Since our itinerary does not cover Lyon, a visit to Paul Bocuse restaurant to try out the dish is out of the question. A quick internet search provided me with a Parisian option - ’ Au Bascou '.
Question: Apart from their Lievre a la Royale, how’s the quality of the rest of their cuisine/offeings. The rest of the party are not fans of rabbits and will be settling for something different. I also noticed comments praising their ’ Basque ’ cuisine. Since we will be spending some time in Basque’s Barcelona, Bilbao and San Sebastian before heading into France. Will our visit to Au Bascou constitute a ’ double dip ’ waste in using up our precious eating itinerary spot?! …if so, any better ’ bisro ’ recommendation that might please both my son and the rest of party? A good Boeuf Bourguignon from Josephine chez Dumonet, may be?
Thx in advance!
What time of the year are you going? Last October, I also saw Lièvre à la Royale on the “specials” menu at L’Assiette, as well as several other places whose names I don’t recall.
It won’t be till the middle of April, next year.
However, I have booked airline tickets and hotel/airbnb already!
Also, managed to secure tables at ’ Disfruta, Barcelona ’ and ’ Assiette Champenoise, Reims '.
Still planning a Paris meal itinerary. So far, I have picked Clamato, Montee and Granite.
My son and daughter would like to try La Grange aux Canards for all things duck and Cassoulet.
Also looking for a really good Middle Eastern place for great Shawarmas and skewered lamb brochette.
Au Bascou has a small menu. There are some items on it that are not particularly Basque, but it reduces the selection even more. You could look at the online menu.
I was surprised at first when you called liėvre a la royale a luxury item, since I know it as a hearty stew. Apparently the name was co-opted at some point and can be served as a luxury item.
In game season, it is not obvious what version is served at the restaurants that will have it on their menu.
Though it’s a stew, but I thought its emblematic French stature, complexity in preparation and accorded a ’ Royal Court Dish ’ status renders it automatically ’ luxurious '?!..at least that’s what Anthony Bourdain and Daniel Boulud said when having it in Paul Bocuse restaurant?!
It is. First, you need to hunt a “wild bunny”, so you can have the dish only in the relatively short hunting season, usually around mid October - December. Secondly, the preparation to cook this is rather complex and takes hours up to days depending on the recipes.
Why is it royal?
Louis XIV loved eating game meat, but his age and dental problem, it was a problem for him. He ordered his royal chef to conceive a dish that he could eat.
“The preparation of which would have delighted a toothless Louis XIV as the long cooking over a low heat had melted the flesh. However, the recipe did not appear until much later, from the pen of the famous chef Antonin Carème (1784-1833): a hare completely boned and stuffed with offal, bacon, foie gras, truffles, vegetables, 'spices… Then rolled and cooked with wine for hours over very low heat. The dish is generally served in sections and generously drizzled with a sauce enriched with blood and cognac, necessarily the darkest. A good century later, Senator Aristide Couteaux - a predestined name for a fine gourmet - would create a version that is simpler in its realization since pieces of hare are stewed with the other ingredients (but without the truffle or the foie gras). Inevitably, this second interpretation will divide the schools.”
(From le Figaro)
I had this dish integrated into our tasting menu in le Clarence in 2021. They replaced a pigeon dish that other diners were having. You can write to them beforehand to know when they will be available each year.
This is a list of restaurants serving this dish in France:
Do you know there is the annual world competition of this dish, since 2016?
You can check out the winners to see which version of the dish you like the most and reserve the restaurant.
The lievre is normally an autumn dish. https://petitmarguery-rivegauche.fr/ Is know for that dish as well. I haven’t been there in at least 8-10 years, but it was pretty good.
For game biche au bois is pretty solid.
As others have noted, it is a very seasonal dish (Oct to Dec/Jan) and, unfortunately, April, is not the season. I can’t imagine any good restaurant serving it out of season.
Just FYI, Au Bascou doesn’t have it on the current menu. Neither does Paul Bocuse.
I for one don’t like boeuf bourguignon and Joséphine Chez Dumonet but it could be a fine tourist experience in April. Their menu does not take account of the seasons and is basically the same year round. It can be very unpleasant in heatwaves and so far less of a good tourist choice in summer.
BTW, lièvre is hare, not rabbit. Much more gamey. And hunted, not farmed like rabbit.
Au Bascou features it on their website at the moment. Listed under Specialties. But maybe they don’t keep the site updated?
I was at Au Bascou a few weeks ago. No evidence of lièvre being served.
Yes, i had it once in the hills above Cannes. Tasted and smelled like liver to me. Truly wild, not like the so called wild game we get in the states. Very gamey.
I ate this dish in early January at Chez L’Ami Jean! V. rich, v. delicious! Apart from the beautiful stew, I loved the special spoon/fork (spork, maybe?) they served with it. And sublime pureed potatoes. I do think for seasonal, traditional French food in a lively setting, you might enjoy this restaurant. Everything I had there was delicious.
Maybe they don’t (keep their website updated), many do not. Lièvre (hare) à la royale is the epitome of the seasonal dish and I don’t think there’s any chance that you’ll find it outside of its season (October-January). In season you’ll find it all over the place and I wouldn’t pick Au Bascou for that. There isn’t a lot that is Basque at Au Bascou, by the way. Going there won’t jeopardize your trip to the pays Basque.
There are basically two types of lièvre à la royale. The original version dates back to centuries ago and is of Southwestern origin (Quercy, Limousin, Périgord). It is called Lièvre en cabessol and the hare is whole, stuffed with its liver, onions, shallots, and veal or pork ground meat, then shaped in a ring by joining the legs together and slow-cooked for four hours in a red wine sauce eventually enriched with the hare’s blood. Even ‘lièvre en cabessol’ is an 18th-century name pasted onto the much earlier version of the dish.
So one type of lièvre à la royale is the Antonin Carême version, based on lièvre en cabessol but more sophisticated: boned, stuffed with a forcemeat and foie gras and sometimes truffles, and stewed for hours in the red wine sauce. That is the version you’ll most commonly find in restaurants.
The other version is Sénateur Couteaux’s and it is basically a puree of hare, red wine sauce, onions, shallots, and the hare’s liver. It is the version that was fed to an aging Louis XIV (it existed long before the king) but Sénateur Couteaux put his name on it in the 19th century because he improved on the dish, sort of, or rather wrote about three or four pages to describe it. The version you see from L’Ami Jean above, posted by @ninkat, is a Sénateur Couteaux. But not many chefs will propose this version of the dish.
If you’re in Paris at the right season, think of other places. High-end: Jérôme Banctel’s lièvre à la royale at Le Gabriel is rightly famous. It is the Carême fashion and very neat. Aside from that, many excellent bistrots will have it, but the best one IMO is undeniably Julien Duboué’s Carême-style lièvre à la royale, served at BOULOM.
Better than Lièvre à la Royale (a rather heavy dish at times), I’d go to Chez Dumonet-Joséphine in Fall and Winter when they have Salmis de Lièvre on the menu. Simpler, lighter and better than Royale.
THANK YOU!! Great read!!
