Tout cochon

La Maison Carrier
Le Hameau Albert 1er
38, route du Bouchet
74402 Chamonix Mont-Blanc
FRANCE
00 33 4 50530509
http://www.hameaualbert.fr/

I sincerely hope you will all appreciate the sacrifices I make to feed your vicarious culinary pleasure. You won't find many people ready to endure a 7-course pig menu (otherwise known as le cochon de la tête au pied, which if you don't know what it means, you probably don't wanna know. Let's just say that no part was left unlovingly discarded), and live to blog about it.

La Maison Carrier is the humbler of two restaurants in the Hameau Albert hotel in Chamonix (the other being Le Restaurant Gastronomique de l'Albert 1er - even the name sounds expensive). Run by 8 cooks and one pastry chef, it specializes in regional food, with a menu that changes daily. But what we were really here for was the pig menu (not to be confused with "pigs' menu", although this would also apply in my case (I wonder if a pig eating pig constitutes cannibalism, even if they belong to different species...)). One thing you should know about this menu (other than the obvious fact that it's not suitable for vegetarians): there's not a vegetable in sight (other than cornichons and potatoes, which I'm not considering as vegetables here). Anyway, pay attention now, you wouldn't want to miss a course as it rolls by!



OK, so that was:

1. Asiette de viandes
2. Crostini with some savoury brioche bread type thing
3. Terrine de foie de volaille (you wouldn't think a chicken terrine counts as pig, but it's wrapped in pig fat and baked)
4. Boudin noir (my first foray into black pudding. I must admit I've never found this a very appealing concept. Texture's a little weird, but it's actually quite tasty. Not bad at all)
5. Pied de cochon (grilled in batter)
6. Côte de porc (in a butter sauce with potatoes)
7. Asiette de fromages (this one being the only one I skipped, 'cos I don't eat cold cheese, but we won't go into that here)
8. Glace à la vanille et l'abricot
9. Buffet de desserts (the pastry chef was clearly busy at work: apple tarts, peach tarts, plum tarts, zabaglione, chocolate brownie cake...
10. Chocolats, madeleines et macarons
11. Café noisette

Hmm.... now that I count them, that's more like 11 courses. So, for 39 Euros, you certainly get your money's worth. And don't let the battered pig's trotter put you off, it's delicious!

P.S. - you'll notice I managed to work out how to get my slideshow pictures in the correct sequence, so you can enjoy each dish in the order it was meant to be eaten...

See also: France Chamonix restaurants French food pictures pig