Ariane Daguin, the dedicated heir to the Gascon legacy of naturally raised meat and delicacy supplier, D’Artagnan, (who sometimes goes by the street name “Ms. Foie”) spent two recent nights at The Royce at Pasadena’s legendary Langham hotel to celebrate the cuisine of southwest France with chef David Féau, a native of northwest Le Mans. Féau’s menu for the occasion drew in the chefs from Animal to dine, as well as one of our favorite food critics, while Daguin defiantly spread the word of a counterinsurgency she’s helping to organize against California’s upcoming foie gras ban, which she obviously finds detestable.
Féau took the path of a silent assassin, demonstrating his passion for the product in dishes like foie-filled armagnac prunes, a salad of butter lettuce, confit gizzard, and foie, and dry-aged steak topped with the fatty liver, in addition to stunners like a pork belly sausage and riff on cassoulet with duck confit. Take a look at the meaty menu this collaboration between Féau and D’Artagnan produced at The Royce in our slideshow of this southwest celebration.