Toulouse cassoulet (finally) has its brotherhood
That’s it : Toulouse cassoulet finally has its brotherhood. It was created on April 7 by around forty Toulouse cassoulet lovers: restaurant owners, cooking teachers, wine merchants and other epicureans.
The essential Toulouse sausage
The cassoulet is a emblematic dish of the Pink City. But strangely, Toulouse had no brotherhood to promote it, unlike Castelnaudary, another birthplace of the famous dish (legend has it that it was created there).
A brotherhood which has two Grand Masters, including André Audouy, dit Mustache, restaurateur in Beauzelle near Blagnac. He gives us the recipe for Toulouse cassoulet: “You need beans from Lauragais, pork from the South-West, breast, shank, couannes to give flavor. And then we proceed with duck confit from Gers and, of course, _the famous Toulouse sausage_.”
But what is the difference between a cassoulet from Toulouse and a cassoulet from Castelnaudary? According to André Audouy, “the difference is not huge. The only product they don’t have is Toulouse sausage”. And when we ask André Audouy if this Toulouse sausage changes anything in taste compared to the version concocted in Aude, he answers in the negative: “Honestly, we’re not going to fight about it. We, what we’re asking for, is that the cassoulet is well done : if there is love, there is no difference. _Whether from Castelnaudary, Carcassonne or Toulouse, let’s talk about Cassoulet._”
Promote the “real cassoulet”
The objective of the cassoulet brotherhood of Toulouse is, in fact, to make known (or recognize) the dish in Toulouse and far beyond for André Audouy: “We want real cassoulet to be exported throughout France and even further afield. But the next step will be to promote Toulouse restaurants that offer cassoulet : There’s not enough.”
According to André Audouy, the cassoulet is still very popular: “For two or three years – and it may be due to the Covid – _we are witnessing a return to eating well_‘. We see a lot of young people discovering regional products in our restaurants, which makes us very happy.”
The appellation “Cassoulet de Toulouse” has been registered by the brotherhood with the INPI, the National Institute of Industrial Property to prevent the name from being misused, for example in low-quality industrial preparations.