Ever thought of being part of a meal that’s a global phenomenon? That’s exactly what Gout de France is. On March 19, 1,000 chefs from restaurants across five continents will painstakingly battle it out in their kitchens to put together a French meal. The idea is to have cities the world over celebrate the best of French gastronomy over dinner. Organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development and the popular three Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse, the event aims to promote French cuisine and tradition. “Of the 1000 restaurants participating, 46 have been selected from India. This includes bistros, cafes, fine dining restaurants,” says R. Ananth, Press Officer — The French Consulate.
Italy, Brazil and Japan are said to have the most number of participants, with India at the fourth place.
The list also includes six restaurants from Chennai — The Flying Elephant (Park Hyatt), 601 (The Park), The Square (Novotel), Ottimo Cucina Italiana (ITC Grand Chola), Spectra (The Leela Palace) and The Verandah (Vivanta by Taj Connemara).
The dinner starts at 7 p.m. The hotels work with guidelines given to them for the menu. This includes a French aperitif, a cold starter, a hot starter, fish or shellfish, meat or poultry, French cheese, a chocolate-based dessert, and two French wines. “We have to serve pure French food and the organisers have given the option of local flavours that can be added. But we are sticking to traditional French flavours. Our foie gras and truffle comes from France. The focus is on healthy food, so it has to be low on fat, salt and sugar,” says Rajesh Radhakrishnan, General Manager — The Park. They have already trialled with the plating of dishes for this event. A team of 16 chefs will be spending a sleepless night as the preparation procedure for some of the dishes will start 24 hours prior to the dinner.
Meanwhile at The Leela Palace, Chef Dharmen Makwana will have six chefs rapidly preparing and plating dishes today.
“The menu was finalised last week after a lot of research. We are doing a five-course meal along with a sorbet,” says Sujit Mukherjee — Executive Sous Chef. It's French food with western influences here; such as tea- smoked duck breast and truffle raisin sauce.
The Park Hyatt’s motto for the upcoming dinner seems to be ‘Mangez bien, riez souvent, aimez beaucoup.’ “It is a French proverb which translates to ‘Eat well, laugh often, love abundantly”, explains the team. Reservations have already started trickling in with the number touching 40 so far, including many from the French expat community showing a keen interest to sample their national flavours.
Going by time zones, as the sun sets in the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan will be the first country to experience it. Since the event follows a sit down dinner concept, the meal should take about a couple of hours with the chefs at the various restaurants aiming to keep the gap between every course to around seven minutes. The menus are rather innovative and no two restaurants within the city will have the same dishes.
Well then, put aside those instant noodles and all the best picking your dinner destination tonight.
(The menu and cost of the meal varies at all the hotels. Prior reservation is recommended.)
