Fine dining at Goût de France

HOSTED by Solène Crinière, deputy head of mission, and her husband Eric Milcent, on behalf of the Embassy of France, the Goût de France/Good France event held at Aioli Restaurant on Wednesday was truly a delightful one.

Goût de France/Good France is a celebration of French gastronomy, that is held simultaneously in various restaurants worldwide on March 21.

This year over 3,300 chefs on all five continents were part of the event that paid tribute to the merits of French cuisine, its capacity for innovation, and its values: sharing, enjoying, and respecting the principles of high-quality, environmentally responsible cuisine.

In Port of Spain, three top restaurants took part in the event. They were Aioli, Ellerslie Plaza, ZaZou Kitchen in One Woodbrook Place and Mélange on Ariapita Avenue.

Serge Lavroff, Ambassador of France, and his wife Caroline hosted guests at chef Pierre Le Bihan’s ZaZou Kitchen, while Derek Alan-Noel Parker, chargé de mission économique at the French Embassy and Jean-Louis Robinson, translator, bilingual assistant to the French Ambassador, played host at Mélange with chefs Moses Ruben and his daughter Colette.

From chef John Aboud at Aioli came the amuse-bouche, comprising smoked salmon blinis, crème fraiche, apple ginger pearls and micro dill with a wine complement of Miraval, Cotes De Provence, Rosé, 2016.

Then for the first course, guests were treated to a duck confit salad with dried figs, apples, pistachio, cherries, fingerling potatoes and mandarin orange vinaigrette, complemented by Yves Cuilleron, Viognier, 2015.

For the main course, guests had a choice of either coq au vin or butter-poached red fish filet.

The coq au vin was pheasant breast braised in red wine, with pearl onions and smoked bacon with French-style pommes puree, served with Yves Cuilleron, Syrah, 2015 wine, while the butter-poached red fish filet included shaved artichokes, spinach and herb-infused consommé, and a complement of Charles Baur, Pinot Blanc, 2015 wine.

Guests were then served a palate-cleanser of Meyer lemon sherbet, before the cheese course of Brie, port salut, roquefort, truffle honey, fig jam, walnut, raisin and crostini, complemented with Abbe Rous, Mis Tandive Banyuls, Grenache Noir wine.

Then came the classic Napoleon with banana crème and coconut snow dessert, after which the evening was rounded off with petit fours, an assortment of macaroons.