Cooking with Sylvie Pragout – Agen, France

Arriving at Sylvie’s Place – May 2009

Sarah and I caught a late morning TGV from Paris via Bordeaux to Agen in the Acquitaine region. We disembarked and wandered the station for a moment looking for our contact. A petite brunette waving a wooden spoon approached us and our week of cooking in the south of France began.

Sylvie Pragout lives in a beautifully restored early 19th century stone farmhouse near the Lot River and about 30 minutes from Agen among plum and cherry orchards, fields of sunflowers on gently rolling slopes, small farming communities and ancient towns and villages bearing the artistic mark of people who have worked this land continually since Neolithic times. She showed us around the several attractive room options available on both floors of her big square sided home. We selected a downstairs room with a large walk-in bathroom and a private patio outside overlooking lawn, swimming pool and a distant copse of trees. We were Sylvie’s only guests for the week!

We sat in her screened veranda our first evening sipping cocktails and becoming acquainted. Reviewed the plan for the week. Sylvie explained that each morning we would visit a different local village market, see what fresh produce was on offer and select the ingredients for our culinary lesson and evening meal. There would be time before and after lunch to relax – poolside, patio or wherever. Then afternoons of food preparation…..and evenings of fine dining experiences. We talked about dishes we like and would like to learn, our favorites and what to avoid. We talked about places in the neighborhood to visit. We had stayed in the Dordogne the previous year, loved it, and had to come again…….this time also to take home some of its special flavors.

Next morning we breakfasted on toast, cereal and yogurt with pots of proper English tea before driving up the road to Villeneuf-sur-Lot – a bastide town matured into a center of regional commercial activity and a lively Tuesday market in the old square.

Under Sylvie’s expert guidance we bought fresh lettuce, carrots, peas, white onions all pulled from the fields that morning. We smelled fresh garlic and tasted five different varieties of strawberry. Picked up a baguette from the local patisserie and fresh hind leg of veal at the butcher’s. Back home we lunched on a fabulous onion tart, tomatoes drizzled with balsamic and seasonings, and greens fresh from Sylvie’s garden. A chilled rose served as perfect accompaniment. A bit of downtime spent reading about cultural differences between French and Americans and then our first cooking lesson.