Miami Spice for Francophiles: French Taste 2015 Starts Today

Bonjour Á  la fifth-annual French Taste 2015. Today through November 5, 20 French bistros across Miami-Dade will offer $23 lunch and $39 dinner menus. 

The participating restaurants, including Downtown Bistro, Bagatelle, Brasserie Central, and Brasserie Azur, crafted prix-fixe, three-course menus with a medley of their most popular and authentic dishes. The idea is to expose diners to French gastronomy using a variety of flavors, cooking techniques, and personal twists.

Expect to see eats such as soupe gratinée Á  l’oignon (French onion soup), carpaccio de boeuf (beef carpaccio), les escargots (snails), truite amandine (pan-roasted trout), croque-monsieur (Parisian-style ham and Swiss sandwich), and a lot of crème brûlée and crepes. 

Pascale Villet, director of Florida’s French-American Chamber of Commerce, says she hopes to reach as many non-French locals and tourists as possible this week. “We know the French community very well, but the idea is to have other communities discover French food too,” she says. “Every year, we’ve seen more participating restaurants and people visiting them.”

Villet compares French Taste’s concept to that of Miami Spice. “I am very happy so far with how French Taste has grown. But it’s not nearly as big as Miami Spice. I hope one day in the next few years, it will be.”

Since the annual promotion began in 2010, she says overall feedback has been positive. “French people who know the food can discover new restaurants, and the ones who don’t know French food can now discover it for a great price.”

French Taste marks the first week of the eighth-annual French Weeks, which runs through November 12. Launched by the French-American Chamber of Commerce in Miami, French Weeks showcases more than 20 events, from cultural programs to social events, to fuse French and American cultures. 

Soit prêt, or get ready, for enough escargots and crème brûlée to last a lifetime, or at least till next year’s French Taste. For a full list of participating restaurants, visit frenchweeksmiami.com. 

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