U.S. chefs will be cooking up a storm of French-focused menus, promotions and dishes to celebrate Bastille Day this week.
In Philadelphia, Peter Woolsey, chef and partner of Bistrot La Minette, wrote a five-course menu with gougères, pork and liver pâté, duck confit rillettes, saucisson, French green beans and warm peach tart with apricot sorbet. The bar will feature $5 drink specials, such as Pastis and beer from Alsace.
Chef-owner David Whitmore will celebrate the French holiday by serving a $37 five-course menu at his restaurant Mimi’s in Harahan, La., which is near New Orleans.
Available Tuesday to Thursday this week, Mimi's menu features artichokes baked with onions and breadcrumbs, shrimp and tomato bisque, oxtail stew with red cabbage, duck à l’orange, Hungarian-style leg of lamb and white coffee cream custard.
French-born chef Philippe Ruiz of Palme d’Or in Coral Gables, Fla., will be cooking a special Bastille Day meal Wednesday at the James Beard House in New York. For $130 to $170 per person, guests and members of the James Beard Foundation will begin with hors d'oeuvres of mini crab cakes with avocado mousse, osetra caviar with potato mousseline, asparagus tempura, monkfish with aïoli, chilled tomato soup with basil, grilled beef tenderloin with truffle sauce, and melon with Mangalica ham.
Ruiz's dinner menu will consist of five courses, each inspired formal by a different region of France. From the Southwest of France, he will prepare foie gras terrine, marinated black plums, pickled oyster mushrooms and brioche. His fish course, sea bream with olive oil, crushed fingerling potatoes and black olive tapenade, hails from Provence. He was inspired by the Rhône Alps for his braised oxtail with veal sweetbreads and red wine sauce, which will be followed by a French cheese tasting.
For dessert, a chocolate sponge and Napoleon with peanuts and macaron will be served.
Also in New York, The Oak Room’s bar chef Eric Hara said he will prepare Buffalo frog's legs on July 14 for $14. The fried frog's legs will be plated over an aji hot pepper sauce with a cup of buttermilk blue cheese dip.
Contact Pamela Parseghian at [email protected].
