“Talking about cuisine – French cuisine is also talking about joie de vivre, delicacy, optimism, and pleasure, ideas that are all crucial to the image of France.”
– Alain Ducasse
The Goût de France / Good France project is the result of a collaboration between France’s Foreign Affairs office and French embassies the world over. It aims to further promote French cuisine in the international gastronomic panorama and consolidate its entry as part of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Goût de / Good France will celebrate French gastronomy in various locations worldwide on March 19, 2015. A total of 1300 chefs on all five continents are expected to join the event on the eve of spring. Dinners served simultaneously in participating restaurants will honour the merits of French cuisine, its capacity for innovation, and its values: sharing, enjoying, and respecting the principles of high-quality, environmentally responsible cuisine.
A committee of international chefs, led by Alain Ducasse, have selected Executive Chef Pascal Meynard of Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon to be one of the chefs to create a menu representative of French gastronomy with the following sequence of course meals:
- One French traditional aperitif: Champagne and gougeres (stuffed or not) or iced cognac and foie gras
- One cold appetizer and one hot appetizer
- One fish or shellfish course and one meat or poultry course
- One or a selection of French cheeses
- One chocolate dessert
- French wines and one French liqueur
Chef Pascal Meynard, as a Frenchman himself and passionate about his country’s cuisine, stays true to his roots still today in everything he does, be it bacalhau à Bras (cod in à Bras style) or bairrada suckling pig, couldn’t let this opportunity to participate in this great event that celebrates France’s excellent cuisine pass.
He has prepared a menu to be served at Varanda Restaurant that includes duck foie gras with chocolate and porto tawny jelly, carabineiro prawns, crayfish lasagna roasted with Nepal timur pepper, red mullet with mariniére clams and chlorophyll emulsion, roasted veal mignon scented with combava, glazed aubergine with miso, kumquat and sesame crunch, with Ossau-Iraty cheese and a creamy chocolate tart and cherries sorbet to finish it all off.
This wonderful dinner presents itself as the perfect opportunity to taste Chef Pascal’s gourmet cuisine, in a night celebrating all that is French. To top it all off, Varanda Restaurant lends its support towards raising funds and building awareness for Associação Portuguesa Contra a Obesidade Infantil. Five percent of all proceeds at dinner on March 19 will be donated to the Association.
