At the table of a counselor at the Parliament of Toulouse, the meal proceeds in several courses set out together on the tablecloth: it opens with the potage (a soup base in which wheat bread soaks), continues with entrées and the roast (meats on the spit), then comes the issue de table with preserves, spiced wines, and fruit pastes that aid digestion. Goose fat and garlic command the cuisine of Languedoc.

In the Southwest, everything is cooked, confit, and bound with goose fat rather than the butter of the North. Combined with blanched garlic, it gives soups and meats that round, warm flavor that distinguishes the table of Toulouse from that of Paris.