A Table in the Tarn: Living, Eating, and Cooking in Rural France

What happens when you make the choice to live out your dream...?

When Orlando Murrin made the momentous decision to leave his life in London and open a boutique guest-house with his partner in a little-known part of rural southwest France, he had some idea of how much he was taking on, but very little idea what a huge success it would turn out to be.

Le Manoir de Raynaudes, a modest but dignified old manor house amid a landscape of gorges and fortified villages, has been painstakingly transformed into a gastronomic destination. And in transforming himself from keen amateur cook to passionate professional, Orlando has created a table that is widely considered one of the finest in the Midi-Pyrenees.

A Table in the Tarnis a remarkable and intimate cookbook which describes in detail how to make more than 80 of the Manoir's acclaimed dishes. The origin of every recipe is given, along with the secrets that make the dish special and the learned-the-hard-way tips for achieving perfect results. The book also tells the fascinating story of the challenge of finding and renovating the Manoir, the creation of magnificent vegetable, fruit and herb gardens to supply the kitchen with produce, and the extraordinary people, from the neighboring hamlet and from further afield, who play their part.

Food writer and journalist Orlando Murrin (left) was editor of BBC Good Foodmagazine for six years, launch editor of BBC Oliveand author of three previous cookbooks, including No Cook Cookbook, which was a bestseller in the UK, before he moved to southwest France. There he renovated Le Manoir de Raynaudes with partner Peter Stegall (right) and opened it as a gastronomic maison d'hotesin 2004. The Manoir is now a top destination for food-lovers from all over the world.