The meal of the South-West is not ordered as starter-main-dessert but around a foundation and a reserve. First the soup-foundation (garbure) which opens and nourishes; then the grand piece for feast days; always in the background the reserve of preserves (confit kept in its fat) from which one draws all year; and finally the market and fair sweets, plus a homemade fruit or walnut drink to aid digestion and loosen tongues.

Soul of Gascon cuisine: used for confit, for pan-frying, for binding soups. It replaces the butter of the North and the oil of the South, giving that round, lingering taste that sticks to the body during the long workshop days of Falguière.