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Centre-Val de Loire
'Long considered the poor man's dish', rata was served in the evening to day labourers on the farms of Beauce — and for many, the aroma as it simmers is like Proust's madeleine.
Traditional dish from Centre-Val de Loire.
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Across the vast cereal-growing plains of Eure-et-Loir, rata was long the nourishing one-pot meal of agricultural workers, served after a day's harvest. It was considered 'the poor man's dish': served in the evening to day labourers on the farms of Beauce, it was accompanied by bread. It is, moreover, presented as the only traditional Beauce dish.
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Inexpensive, rata makes use of basic ingredients and reflects the crops of the land: wheat, onions, potatoes and pork are its essentials. Once 'on the menu of every farm', it varied only in the quantity of lardons, which were not always to hand. Indeed, it often contained no meat at all: 'People were poor', explains François Chadorge, and made do with meat juices to flavour this potato-based dish.
François Chadorge, former chef of Le Quai Fleuri in Voves, brought it up to date by putting it on his menu, made with fresh pork belly and tomato. In Chartres, Thomas Parnaud, chef of the restaurant Le Georges, reworked the recipe using potatoes and yellow onions from his kitchen garden, farmhouse butter from Courgeon, and black truffle from Trancrainville in Eure-et-Loir, or from Touraine depending on arrivals; a tuile made with black truffle and Beauce buckwheat, moulded into the shape of the cathedral's south rose window, crowns the dish. The magazine So Good Paris cites it among the 'past glories' the chef is seeking to revive.
The Pays Dunois, in the south of Eure-et-Loir, sees it as an 'emblematic' dish of its territory: in June 2026, a culinary challenge invited three restaurants to offer a contemporary interpretation, made with local, seasonal produce.
Appearance
a hearty dish in sauce made of potatoes browned with onions; the preparation should be smooth and thick, runnier than a béchamel.
Aroma
the aroma it gave off as it simmered is, for many, akin to Proust's madeleine.
Texture
the potatoes are meltingly tender.
The standard recipe from the Société dunoise browns lardons and onions, dusts them with flour, adds stock or water, incorporates the potatoes, and leaves them to simmer gently, with thyme and bay leaf if desired. Versions vary: smoked bacon and lard with chicken stock in a Beauce recipe book, smoked lardons and a bouquet garni in another, and, for chef Chadorge, fresh pork belly, red wine, veal stock and tomato purée.
the sliced onions (and lardons, when available) are browned in fat.
it is dusted with flour and left to colour lightly.
stock or water, then the potatoes cut into chunks.
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A hearty one-pot meal, rata is accompanied by bread. In its traditional version, it is also served alongside a roast.
Rata beauceron is not protected by any official quality mark: it is a traditional peasant dish, handed down through family recipes and regional books. It does, however, feature in the culinary heritage inventory of the Centre region, completed in 2012, which includes it among its 110 products in the 'Meat and poultry' category.
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