Fontevraud le Restaurant
Thibaut Ruggeri, Bocuse d’Or, one Michelin star, found in Fontevraud the ideal place to realize his desire: to engage in a contemporary kitchen, sensible and refined where the superfluous and the pageantry have no place. His motto: reconcile the beautiful with the good!
Opened on to the cloister and adopting the architecture of a former priory, Fontevraud Le Restaurant combines heritage, history and haute cuisine.
menu
Menu Lune
€89
In 4 services, renewing with each new moon (29.5 days)
Menu Pierrot at 25€
Children’s menu
3 servings. Up to 10 years.
Thibaut ruggeri
“Perfectionist, reserved, respectful, humble”, this is how Alain Solivérès, Head chef at the Taillevent kitchens in Paris, describes Thibaut Ruggeri, the young chef at the head of Fontevraud Le Restaurant. Qualities that fit well with the image of the Abbey.
AN ARTIST IN THE KITCHEN
Thibaut Ruggeri, winner of the Bocuse d’or 2013 (the international gastronomic competition), has found the ideal place here to realise his dreams: to develop a cuisine that is modern, refined, intelligent, local and unpretentious. This creative chef is sensitive to art in general. A musician and photographer in his spare time, he fits Fontevraud’s rich heritage, whilst remaining resolutely forward-looking. His is an artistic cuisine that is classic, but reworked.
BEAUTIFUL, TASTY, LOCAL!
With extensive experience in the most well-respected kitchens, including Lenôtre, Thibaut Ruggeri refutes the term ‘gastronomic’, preferring ‘haute cuisine’ as less clichéd. A term that perfectly suits this passionate chef. Constantly thinking, always pragmatic, he creates beautiful, tasty food from local produce. The menu evolves with the seasons and the availability of local ingredients … even super-local, because some are cultivated right here at the Royal Abbey!
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
An exemplary model, Fontevraud Le Restaurant fits perfectly into Fontevraud Royal Abbey’s global project: ‘Fontevraud – sustainable city’, which has earned it ISO 26000 status. Heating and hot water for the restaurant, as for the rest of the site, is provided exclusively by the wood-chip fired boiler, avoiding the need to use fossil fuels.
REGIONAL PRODUCTS
By putting the emphasis on locally produced, high-quality, seasonal produce, Fontevraud Le Restaurant’s menu is an ideal extension of the Abbey’s environmental position. No fruit or vegetable that has travelled hundreds of kilometres is served on our tables. Some ingredients produced at the Abbey itself are even used, such as honey from our hives or herbs from the Saint-Lazare priory garden, at the heart of the restaurant. And the wines we promote are the major wines of the region, including the sparkling Saumur.
ECO-EXCELLENCE
The Royal Abbey of Fontevraud’s commitment to sustainability, and thus that of the restaurant, is also concerned with limiting waste and the treatment of waste materials. Recycling takes place in the kitchen and organic waste is turned into compost for our 13 hectares of parklands. Finally, foodstuffs are not over-packaged. Nothing is overlooked to make Fontevraud Le Restaurant a model of culinary and environmental excellence.
Localisation
Fontevraud Le Restaurant
38 Rue Saint Jean de L’Habit, Le Prieure Saint-Lazare | BP-14, 49590 Fontevraud-l’Abbaye
TGV access from Paris, Bordeaux and Nantes (via Saumur)
By car:
Saumur – 0h15, Tours – 0h45, Angers – 0h45, Nantes – 1h45, Paris – 2h45.