Almost 2,000 guests are expected on Saturday evening at the Grand Rond to participate in the traditional “Banquet des Tolousains”, organized by Toulouse à table, and to taste the giant cassoulet prepared by the famous chef “Moustache”.
Usually the great banquet organized by “Toulouse à table” takes place at the Place du Capitole. But this year, the esplanade will be busy with preparations for festivities related to the tribute to Claude Nougaro. After thinking for a while about setting up the large tables on the Saint-Pierre bridge, finally, at the Grand Rond you can taste the cassoulet in large widths.
Almost 2,000 guests are expected on Saturday night for this “great moment of conviviality, which pays homage to this iconic dish,” according to Guy Pressenda, founder of Toulouse à table. “Under the trees of the Grand Rond, it will be magnificent,” he promises. More than 1,600 reservations have already been registered. There are still places, but they will go fast. “We will refuse people, like every year,” regrets the organizer.
Eleven years have passed since “Banquet of Toulouse” takes place every school year in Toulouse. Mimosa eggs revisited as an aperitif, real Toulouse cassoulet, cabécou, apple crisp, all washed down with floc de Gascony as an aperitif, wines from the Sud-West interprofessional association and Armagnac as a digestif, for a complete menu for 26 people. €… There is no shortage of candidates to taste all this.
It is André Audouy, aka “Moustache”, a well-known figure in Toulouse gastronomy, and also the “Grand Master of Toulouse cassoulet”, who is in charge of the kitchen. For him, preparing cassoulet for 10 or 2,000 people doesn't change much: “You just have to have good ingredients,” he assures. In this case, Southwestern pork, Toulouse sausage, “obviously,” Southwestern duck confit, always, and ingot beans from Lauragais.
A giant cassoulet, like a normal cassoulet, can be cooked in advance. Mustache and his team started preparing the broth for the pork soup 3 or 4 days before the event. The beans are left to swell two days before. On Saturday, the big day, they will bring pots to the site to transfer the cassoulet into individual pots. “We will do the last step on site: we will heat it in the oven, to make the crust, 2 or 3 hours before,” adds Mustache. 53 volunteers are mobilized on site. Four services are planned, at 18:30, 19:30, 20:30 and 21:30.
Online reservations at site Toulouse at the table.