In 2010, UNESCO added French cuisine to the list of cultural objects that are called ‘intangible cultural heritage’. South west cuisine is known to be one of the best in France with its high quality products, delicious tastes and savoury dishes. The region will offer you high quality poultry, hams and dry sausages. The finest sausage in France is commonly acknowledged to be the saucisse de Toulouse, which also finds its way into their version of cassoulet of Toulouse. The Cahors area produces a high quality specialty “black wine” as well as high-quality truffles and mushrooms. The region also produces milk-fed lamb, unpasteurized ewe‘s milk is used to produce the Roquefort in Aveyron, while in Laguiole is producing unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese. Cabécou cheese is from Rocamadour, a medieval settlement erected directly on a cliff, in the rich countryside of Causses du Quercy.

You can discover great places to eat & drink in Toulouse around you in Toulouse on La fourchette office tourist, restaurants Michelin, le Petit Tou.

The most popular dishes are:

Cassoulet

Cassoulet is a rich, slow-cooked casserole, containing meat (typically pork sausages, goose, duck and sometimes mutton), pork skin (couennes) and white beans (haricots blancs).

The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, a deep, round, earthenware pot with slanting sides.

Foie gras

Foie gras is a luxury food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened. It is a popular and well-known delicacy in French cuisine.

Its flavor is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of an ordinary duck or goose liver. Foie gras is sold whole, or is prepared into mousse, parfait, or pâté, and may also be served as an accompaniment to another food item, such as steak.

Confit de canard

Duck confit is a French dish made with the leg of the duck. It is prepared in a centuries-old process of preservation that consists of salt curing a piece of meat (generally goose, duck, or pork) and then cooking it in its own fat.

Garbure

Garbure is a thick French soup or stew of ham with cabbage and other vegetables, usually with cheese and stale bread added.

It differed from one home to the next and varied with the rhythms of the seasons, the resources of the cook, and with household income. The basic principle behind this dish is the lengthy simmering of an assortment of vegetables and meats, generally meats preserved en confit.

As far as vegetables go, anything is possible. The cabbage may be accompanied by broad beans, fresh or dried, mange tout peas, potatoes, turnips, peas, onions, carrots, celeriac, kohlrabi, beets, lettuce, chestnuts, nettles or borage.

Wine:

Toulouse is undeniably the capital of the wines of the Southwest of France. The kings of France but also those of England loved the wines of the Southwest. They encouraged the continued practice of growing the local grape varieties which still make them stand out today: Tariquet, Armagnac, Gaillac vineyards, Fronton vineyards and Cahors appellation are the most famous one.

Cheese:

To taste Roquefort, Rocamadour and Pyrenean tomme is to travel to landscapes and traditional skills that turn fine unpasteurised milk, whether from sheep, cows or goats, into the finest products of the French cheese-making tradition.