The gastronomic celebration ‘Gout de France’ (Good France) was back in India on Tuesday with 2,000 chefs across five continents dishing up, at the same time, a menu featuring gourmet French cuisine.
In this third edition nearly nine restaurants joined the celebration of French cuisine in south India. The participating restaurants offered a ‘French-style’ set menu, which includes a French aperitif, a cold and hot appetiser, a meat- or poultry-based dish, French cheeses with salad, a dessert and wine.
This year, there are six restaurants in Puducherry that participated in Good France, including Mango Hill restaurant on Old Auroville Road, Hotel Atithi, Le Dupleix, La Viva on Surcoff Street and Satsang on Labourdonnais Street. One restaurant in Kerala and three in Chennai also dished up French cuisine on the day of Good France.
The initiative launched by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, under the aegis of celebrated three-star chef Alain Ducasse — aims to salute the excellence of French cuisine, its openness to influences from all over the world.
‘Intangible heritage’
French cuisine in 2010 was declared ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ by UNESCO.
Participating chefs are encouraged to blend their own culinary culture with that of France, and the values that it conveys bringing people together over a shared meal, the pleasure of taste, and the balance between human beings and the products of nature.
This year, more than 65 restaurants were selected by the committee of international chefs headed by Chef Alain Ducasse, placing India among the top participating countries.
Alliance Francaise network in India will also be hosting a series of events as part of this celebration.
The French Consulate also participated in ‘Gout de France’ by hosting a dinner on Monday night. They served Tomato Soup with Parmesan (mini custard tart of ratatouille with caramalised tomatoes and saffron), chicken with assorted vegetables with white sauce and white rice; cheese platter and green salad and chocolate fondant with vanilla icecream and fruit brochettes and wine.
At the Good France dinner hosted by French Consul General Phillipe Janvier-Kamiyama, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao, Member of Parliament R. Radhakrishnan, Chief Secretary Manoj Parida and his wife Lippi Parida, Alliance Francaise Director Olivier Litvine were present.
