Recipes

Anthony Bourdain inspired duck cassoulet

Serves 4–6

Hearty, rustic and made for sharing, this Anthony Bourdain-inspired duck cassoulet is our chef’s take on the classic French comfort food. Packed with confit duck legs, pork belly, sausages, and creamy white beans, it’s slowly cooked with herbs and stock before being finished with a golden herb breadcrumb crust.

When asked who he’d invite to his dream dinner party, our chef chose Anthony Bourdain, and this is the dish he’d cook for him.

As a young chef, he found Bourdain a real inspiration. He remembers him as the first famous chef he encountered who hadn’t come from the traditional three-Michelin-star background. His success showed a generation of chefs that there wasn’t just one route into the industry or one way to make your mark.

This cassoulet feels a fitting tribute. It’s unfussy, rustic, and full of flavour. The sort of food designed to be put in the middle of the table and shared.

Serve it straight from the oven with crusty bread or a fresh heritage tomato salad.

Ingredients

Meats

2 confit duck legs
300g cooked pork belly, skin reserved
3 good-quality sausages, such as Toulouse or Cumberland

Vegetables and aromatics

2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 sprig rosemary
Sea salt, to taste

Herb breadcrumb crust

3 slices stale white bread, approximately 120g, torn
Small handful fresh basil leaves, or parsley if preferred

Stock and beans

500ml pork stock or chicken stock
400g cooked white beans, such as cannellini or haricot beans

Bouquet garni

2 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
A few parsley stalks

Tie the herbs together with kitchen string or place them in muslin so they can be removed easily before serving.

Method

1. Prepare the flavour base

Preheat the oven to 170°C, 150°C fan, Gas Mark 3.

Heat the olive oil in a large ovenproof casserole or pan over a medium heat.

Add the diced shallots with a good pinch of sea salt and cook gently for 5–7 minutes, until softened and almost translucent. The salt helps draw moisture out of the shallots as they cook.

Add the garlic and rosemary and continue cooking for another 1–2 minutes.

2. Make the herb breadcrumbs

Put the stale bread and basil into a food processor and blitz into rough, herby breadcrumbs. Set aside for later.

3. Brown the pork belly and sausages

Remove the skin from the cooked pork belly and reserve it.

Add the pork skin to the pan with the shallots. Keeping it in the cassoulet during cooking helps impart even more flavour.

Add the pork belly and cook until it develops a little colour.

Next, lightly brown the sausages. This isn’t essential for a traditional cassoulet, but it gives them an appetising colour and adds another layer of flavour.

4. Add the white beans and stock

Add the cooked white beans and bouquet garni to the pan.

Pour in the pork stock. If you don’t have pork stock, chicken stock works well too.

Bring everything to a gentle simmer and cook on the hob for around 20 minutes, giving those flavours time to come together.

5. Add the duck and bake

Nestle the confit duck legs amongst the beans, pork, and sausages.

Don’t worry about making everything look too perfect. Cassoulet is a rustic dish.

Scatter the herb breadcrumbs over the top, leaving some of the meat exposed.

Transfer to the preheated oven and cook for approximately 30 minutes, until the cassoulet is bubbling and the breadcrumb topping is crisp and golden.

6. Serve

Remove the bouquet garni before serving.

Portion the duck legs, sausages, and pork belly between plates, spooning plenty of the rich white bean cassoulet alongside.

Chef’s tip: When portioning the pork belly, turn it skin-side down before slicing. Cutting through from the flesh side helps you get a cleaner slice without breaking up the skin.

Serve your duck cassoulet hot with crusty bread or a simple heritage tomato salad.

A cassoulet inspired by Anthony Bourdain

For our chef, this recipe is about more than recreating a French classic.

Anthony Bourdain’s influence came from his honesty about life in professional kitchens and the unconventional route he took to becoming one of the food world’s most recognisable figures. For a young chef without a three-Michelin-star background, seeing someone take a different path was inspiring.

So, when we asked our chef what he’d cook if Anthony Bourdain came to dinner, the answer was this.

A proper duck cassoulet. Rustic, comforting and unapologetically generous.

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