Around the World in 80 Dinners - Bill Jamison [114]
Michelin recommends La Riboto de Taven, even paints it red to indicate special character, but the inn voluntarily gave up its culinary star a number of years ago, just before we discovered it in odd circumstances. One of Bill’s most skilled and daunting local poker opponents, Bernard Trenet, comes from France, where most of his family still lives. During a game of no-limit Texas hold ’em—Bill’s recreation of choice long before it became popular, going back to the days when saying you bet on cards was akin to bragging about debauchery—Bernard mentioned he would be in France the following summer, at a time that overlapped with a visit we were planning. He told Bill that his cousin Claire had married a talented chef, Jean-Pierre Novi of La Riboto, and suggested that we meet up with him at their auberge. Bill checked up on the place and learned that it used to have a Michelin star, but no longer did. He figured it was going downhill, though he couldn’t say that to Bernard, so we just went. Maybe the lesser expectations boosted our initial reaction, but La Riboto stunned us in all ways, with its rooms, food, beauty, and genuine human warmth.
Second and third visits soon confirmed our first impressions, and made us curious about the family behind the extraordinary inn. Philippe Thème credits much of the appeal to Christine and Jean-Pierre’s parents: “Decades ago, when automobile tourism began to boom, they made a bold move in turning their farm into a restaurant. Maybe the founder of Oustau de Baumanière inspired them a little, because he tried to buy their property for his new restaurant as soon as he arrived in town. As farmers, the Novis knew and loved food and eventually earned a Michelin star for their kitchen.
“Christine and I came here to help them,” Philippe says, “when they wanted to cut back on their heavy time commitment. The two of us had already worked together for a number of years as hotel managers, first in the Camargue region, where we met and got hooked up.”
Christine overhears the last comment and joins the conversation. “He was so handsome, as you can see, and quite the smooth operator.”
“Anyway,” Philippe resumes, smiling, “running a restaurant required similar hospitality skills.”
“Until you fired the chef,” Christine interjects. “We got bored with his heavy cooking,” she explains, “and decided he had to go. It’s hard to sack someone in France, particularly a professional. What an ordeal. For a whole year, Philippe had to take over the kitchen himself, which made us nervous about losing our Michelin star. It worked out fine in the end, after Jean-Pierre became our new chef in 1990.”
“Introducing his elegantly crafted contemporary dishes,” Cheryl says.
“Yes, he and Claire were living then in England, where he had already been awarded a Michelin star for his cooking. Both of them were keen to come back, and we’re sure glad they did.”
With the two children at home again now, the Novis and Thèmes decided to add a couple of hotel rooms on a midlevel plateau of the soaring limestone cliffs above the restaurant. They carved these “troglodytic suites” into the rock face of the bluff, giving them a magnificent cavelike feel, and romantically named them Vincent and Mireille, the Romeo and Juliet of Provençal poetry. As you enter Mireille, our chosen roost, you’re struck immediately by the limestone out-cropping that surges above and around the large canopied bed. Fossil indentations and gradations of color, from ochre to gold to rose, enrich the creamy stone that continues along the walls into the bathroom, where it juts massively over the large soaking tub and helps