Le Fort Gourmet Experience
A deliciously novel evening
By Heather Willson
Fall-Winter 2002


O f all the activities available to pursue on Banderas Bay, what’s the one the entire family can agree on? Eating, of course. So how about getting the gang together not only for a delicious dinner, but to be entertained while learning how to make it themselves when they get back home.

At parties, people tend to congregate in the kitchen, feeling comfortable there. And that’s one reason why the “Lefort French Gourmet Experience” feels like an invitation to a friend’s house. Except, in this case, your dinner is made by a professional chef who has won numerous awards for culinary expertise.

Gilles Lefort, the French owner-chef, and his Mexican wife, Margarita, are your convivial and trilingual hosts. Upon arrival, guests are introduced to one another and seated at a comfortable U-shaped bar in the kitchen, where fine wines are sipped and homemade pates nibbled as Gilles does his thing with dramatic flourishes. In such an intimate setting, everyone gets in on the fun, oohing and aahing and asking questions, while becoming acquainted with their fellow “student” diners – all of whom get a sheet of recipes to take home.

The menu for the three-course extravaganza is chosen by the first group of six or more booking for a particular evening, maximum group size 16. On my visit, the choices were salad with mango dressing, civet duck, and the classic French dessert tart tatin – fine wines carefully selected to harmonize with the traditional French cooking.

And Gilles sure knows his vintages, the proud owner of a 4,000-bottle climate-controlled wine cellar – 2,000 of them racked – and a charming little shop offering hand-rolled Cuban cigars and homemade products including pates, spices, sausages and other delicacies.

A fine meal and lively conversation over liqueurs on an airy hacienda-style terrace culminate this novel experience. “At restaurants you don’t pay that much attention to what you’re eating,” Margarita points out. “Here, because you’re involved with the food from the beginning, you grow to love each dish.”
Salud! Sante! Cheers!