“IN GASCONY, PEOPLE ask, ‘Have you eaten?’ before they even say hello,” said Ariane Daguin, owner of New Jersey-based meat and game purveyor D’Artagnan, of her French birthplace. From foie gras to Roquefort cheese, the region’s celebrated gastronomy is in her blood. The family line stretches back over seven generations of hoteliers and restaurateurs. Her grandfather was a chef on the Trans-Orient Express; her father, André Daguin, the two-Michelin-starred chef/owner of the Hôtel de France in the Gascon town of Auch.  Ms. Daguin came to the U.S. 35 years ago to study journalism at Columbia University. While in school, she took a job with a pâté company and ultimately, true to her heritage, decided to dedicate herself to the business of fine food. Soon after, she founded D’Artagnan. The company, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this fall, established the first duck foie gras farm in the U.S., pioneered the marketing of sustainably-raised poultry and game, and was among the first to commercialize organic chicken.  A longtime Manhattanite, she recently moved to a new apartment that straddles the neighborhoods of Chinatown and SoHo, and the kitchen already smells of garlic, rich charcuterie and rendered chicken fat. It remains the center of her home, a welcoming space where guests gather regularly for friendly games of poker—always over a fine meal, of course.  The first thing people notice about my kitchen is: the collection of framed menus on the walls. My daughter, Alix, an architect, had this brainstorm. She said, “You have this humongous amount of menus that are from meals that are very important to you. Why don’t you frame them?” I thought it was a grand idea. So I left her in charge of the project. It was finished last Christmas, and the result is beautiful. My collection includes menus from meals I have hosted, or restaurants I love, and many of them are signed by the chefs and the guests. There are menus from Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, Jean-Louis Palladin, Gray Kunz, Alain Ducasse and my former D’Artagnan restaurant. The oldest menu in my collection is my father’s, from Hôtel de France. It is from before I left France, more than 35 years ago.  My cooking mentor was: my father. He was a champion of Gascony’s food: Armagnac, Gascon wines, foie gras. And he was one of the first doing nouvelle cuisine, along with [Paul] Bocuse and [Roger] Vergé. My father invented a new way of serving magret—breast of duck. The French always used it in confit, and so they never had the idea of cooking it like a steak before my father. People in Gascony said, “What is this? It looks like beef, but it doesn’t taste like beef.” And nobody, even in Gascony, recognized that it was duck because it was the first time duck was served rare. Nobody had done that before my father.  A luxury I appreciate is: my walk-in pantry. That’s something you don’t often see in New York City. It holds the stuff I don’t use every day. The fragile dishware, a Krups meat slicer. There are the extra staples, too—olive oil, dried porcini mushrooms. Anchovies, preserved tuna. Nuoc mam—the fish sauce—because it gives umami to dishes. I always have a lot of piment d’Espelette on hand, at least two or three jars so I never run out. I like things with heat, but not too much heat. With piment d’Espelette, when the heat is over, what’s left in your mouth is the perfume, the flavor. And that’s very pleasant. In my pantry I also have a wine cabinet that holds 72 bottles. And I still feel that I don’t have enough wine storage.  In my refrigerator, there is always: a lot of meat. Also wine, pâté, sausage, salami, eggs and lettuce. And always the basics—lemons, bacon.  In my freezer you’ll find: white Armagnac. I collect fine Armagnacs. But I also keep in there the ear of a bull. It’s from a bullfight in Spain that I went to about a year ago. I applauded the bullfighter, a young guy, named Vallejo. He was so valiant and so great. I put my hands up, and boom! He threw the ear to me, and I caught it. I don’t know anyone else who has a bull’s ear in their freezer, especially in America. I don’t know what else to do with it.  When I entertain, I like to: use my roasting pan. Every third Sunday, I have a group of friends come over. I make a big roast dinner, and then we play poker. And we drink. One of the group lives in Puerto Rico and works in New York. He always brings this dangerous sweet drink with him called coquito. It’s Puerto Rican eggnog, made with rum. It is sweet and very addictive. You can’t stop drinking it. I have a screen on my digital refrigerator that records videos. And the last time, we had a great time drinking coquito and making silly videos. I made baby back ribs that night. I cook it with a mixture of soy and honey to make it really sticky and falling off the bone.  The cookbooks I return to over and over are: my Gascon ones. I always go back to the classics. This is how you do things—you first learn how to make a good omelet or to make a good sauce. Once you have those basics, then you can add your own style.  —Edited from an interview by Kathleen Squires
In her New York City kitchen, purveyor of fine meat Ariane Daguin cooks plenty of it, regularly feeds her friends and plays a mean hand of poker. Here she shares her recipe for Berkshire pork baby back ribs.