Food

France says ‘Bon appétit’ to the world

An event begun in 1912 by Auguste Escoffier is being revived tomorrow, when restaurants in 150 countries on five continents join in a celebration of French food

It’s Taste of France day tomorrow, when 1,500 traditional menus will be served in 150 countries on five continents – including Thornton’s restaurant in Dublin

Marie Claire Digby's face
Marie Claire Digby
Wed Mar 18 2015 - 17:00

No sooner have we got St Patrick’s Day and the feast of bacon and cabbage out of the way than it’s time to celebrate French cuisine. Alain Ducasse’s revival of an Auguste Escoffier initiative in 1912 to promote French gastronomy will see restaurants all over the world taking on a Gallic flavour tomorrow, when they will be serving a traditional French menu, complete with aperitif and wine, no matter what their usual style of food. In each case, they must offer hot and cold starters, fish or crustacean dish, meat or poultry plate, cheese course and a chocolate dessert.

There are eight Irish restaurants participating in the Goût de France – some you’d expect, such as Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin, and some a little more unexpected, such as Kappa-Ya in Galway.

Junichi Yoshiyagawa is head chef at this restaurant, and he’s planning an interesting menu that marries French and Asian ingredients and techniques. His cold starter is seared tuna and ruby grapefruit salad with apple, onion and soy sauce vinaigrette. The hot starter is a clear soup of pink clams with dashi, lime and lavender. Panfried monkfish will be served with its own foie gras, with soy, butter and Irish whiskey sauce and a hint of yuzu. Lamb with miso and blue cheese (80 per cent Cashel Blue, 20 per cent Roquefort) will be grilled with clove marmalade. Camembert will come wrapped in sakura cherry leaves, and dessert is a variety of chocolate truffles with sansho pepper, with yuzu, miso and cinnamon, and with matcha green tea.

“Japanese seasoning and spices such a soy sauce, miso, sansho, kombu and dashi actually work well with French cuisine,” Yoshiyagawa says. This tasting menu is on offer for €50.

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In Dublin, Thornton’s restaurant revisits bacon and cabbage for its hot starter, turning it into a terrine. The menu there also features a Galway oyster with a black velvet aperitif; Bere Island scallops; brill and Tipperary lamb. “Cheese from my home town” is Cashel Blue, served with walnut raisin bread, and France gets a look in with a dessert of Valrhona chocolate opera cake with Ethiopian coffee sauce. This menu is €90.

The full list of Irish restaurants taking part is Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Thornton’s, La Cave, L’Gueuleton, Chez Max and La Réserve Brasserie (all in Dublin); Kappa-Ya (Galway); Bacchus Room at Riverside Hotel (Killarney) and Annamar’s Restaurant (Kildare).