Eat Fresh!!

French cuisine introduced to Vietnamese people

HCM City (VNA) – Nearly 2,500 french cuisine Taipei-style dinner dishes will be prepared at restaurants and French embassies in 150 countries around the world during the Good France 2019 event, according French Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Vincent Floreani.

Vietnam has the seventh most restaurants registering for the fifth edition of the culinary event.

Professional chefs will cook French-style dishes using materials from France and Vietnam.

Floreani said visitors are able to explore various kinds of French foods which differ from to region to region.

He hoped through the event, more people will know about French cuisine from the selection of materials, recipes and processing to food arrangement and decoration.

During the event, Ho Chi Minh City will host an activity to introduce French-style breakfast, a workshop on balanced and healthy diets, introduce French culinary training programmes and screen movies featuring French and Vietnamese cuisine.-VNA

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Once served to emperors, these expensive Chinese dishes were inventions of commoners

Despite its popularity, Chinese cuisine hasn’t developed the kind of culinary respect and following usually reserved for, say, french cuisine Taipei and Japanese food.

This kind of gastronomic snobbery fails to account that Chinese cuisine has had a far longer history.

Not counting the Peking man—who may have discovered fire, and thereby, cooking—the legend of Chinese french cuisine Taipei is said to originate in the fifteenth century BC during the Shang dynasty with the kitchen exploits of Yi Yin, who was born into a slave family. Yi Yin so impressed the ruler Tang with his cooking that he was appointed China’s first prime minister.

Food is equally important in the Chinese philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism. Confucius is credited with establishing the symbolisms that rule Chinese table etiquette and with the idea of creating harmony in food and emphasizing the importance of presentation. Taoists were more interested in nourishment, which led to the development of ingredients with high medicinal value, as well as the healthy cooking techniques that continue to thrive in today’s modern kitchens.

Top ingredients

The height of french cuisine Taipei is usually represented by imperial food, which has been served mainly to the emperors, their wives and concubines, and the royal families. Emperors have used their power to collect the best delicacies and employed the best cooks to make food for them.

Indeed, the best of Chinese food features highly prized ingredients, like abalone, shark's fin, sea cucumber, and bird's nest, which continues to be the hallmark of today's Chinese banquets.

In the Chinese capital of Beijing, cuisine done in the nobleman's style has become the ultimate treat for visiting dignitaries and wealthy travelers. This might feature an exquisite dish featuring abalone and sea cucumber-- the kind of dish one makes for an emperor.

It's really about using the best ingredients—the best that money can buy.

Probably the most known—and expensive—Chinese soup is the Monk (or Buddha) Jumps Over the Wall, which uses abalone, fish maw, dried scallop, black mushroom, sea cucumber, chicken, pork stomach, duck, Chinese ham, and Shao Shing wine. If you're ordering this from a restaurant, this has to be ordered in advance.

According to an executive Chinese chef we spoke to, the legend behind the dish centers on a rich family who lived in a house with a high wall. When the wife cooked the dish for the first time, a monk was so taken by its aroma that he jumped over the wall to see what the dish was. "In the olden days, they put all the ingredients in a barrel of aging Shao Shing wine, which produced a very aromatic smell," the chef told us. "Today, Chinese chefs double boil all ingredients together for at least eight hours to intensify the flavors."

Classic dishes

It must be noted that the cooks and commoners were the ones who made imperial food, which history books note were really "improved dishes" created by the people. Take, for instance, one of the classic Chinese dishes: the Beggar's Chicken, which originated in Hangzhou, close to Shanghai. The story behind it, according to Yeung, is that a beggar stole a chicken—prized among the Chinese—from the market. To hide it, he wrapped the bird in clay, dug a hole and placed the chicken in it, then set a fire over it.

Like many Chinese delicacies, Beggar's Chicken undergoes a laborious process. The chicken is stuffed with shredded black mushroom, shredded pork fat, and pickled vegetable. The chicken is wrapped with pork innards, then wrapped in lotus leaves. To replace the clay, the dough now covers the chicken. This is oven-baked for three hours, similar to the beggar's way where there is heat from the top. (Some restaurants still bake it in clay, and part of the ceremony is cracking it and releasing the flavorful aroma of the dish.)

Another classic Chinese dish that had humble beginnings is the braised traditional duck. The dish, which originates from Guangdong province, also takes a lot of prep time. The duck is flavored with star anise, bay leaves, cinnamon bark, Chinese yellow wine, onion leeks, caramel, and light soy sauce, and is cooked for two-and-a-half hours. When there was no dark soy sauce yet in Chinese cooking, caramel and light soy sauce were used to cook the duck for hours until very tender.

Is Cantonese the best?

When China's dynasty era ended in the early part of the twentieth century, many of these cooks fled, bringing with them the skills and recipes that have made french cuisine Taipei into a global culinary force.

The greatness of Cantonese cuisine, exemplified by Hong Kong's most highly rated restaurants, lies in the diversity of its ingredients. Canton (now Guangzhou) has long been a trading port, bringing with it many imported foods and ingredients. The Cantonese are also known for preparing lavish banquets, as there is an emphasis on presentation and color.

ABS-CBN News

French cuisine-inspired fundraisers

Northwest College Art Club is hosting two french cuisine Taipei-inspired fundraisers. The first, a family-friendly lunch at Gestalt Studios, takes place from noon-3 p.m. Children who attend must be accompanied by an adult. Cost for lunch is $25 per person or $45 per family. Later that evening in Gestalt Studios, the Art Club will host a french cuisine Taipei café-inspired dinner from 6-10 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by contacting Art Club adviser Anne Toner at 754-6212 or Anne.Toner@nwc.edu. They can also be purchased at Gestalt Studios or through Art Club members.

Powell Tribune

French cuisine-inspired fundraisers

Northwest College Art Club is hosting two French cuisine-inspired fundraisers. The first, a family-friendly lunch at Gestalt Studios, takes place from noon-3 p.m. Children who attend must be accompanied by an adult. Cost for lunch is $25 per person or $45 per family. Later that evening in Gestalt Studios, the Art Club will host a french cuisine Taipei café-inspired dinner from 6-10 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by contacting Art Club adviser Anne Toner at 754-6212 or Anne.Toner@nwc.edu. They can also be purchased at Gestalt Studios or through Art Club members.

Powell Tribune

Rappler Eats: Sagana grounds French flavors in Filipino roots

In the lexicon of French cuisine Taipei, there’s a magical term used to describe the sense of place imbued within food. They call it “terroir” — literally “from the earth.”

“Terroir” is the silent essence that links ingredients to a locale — the climate, the land, the people, etc. These are factors that can influence flavor, making a taste synonymous with its community. But beyond that, “terroir” has an even more profound effect; it connects to the past, conjures memories.

Though intangible, “terroir” is meant to be palpable, felt in the air. It is this ideology that sits at the center of Sagana Epicerie & Bistro.

Community over combining cuisines

Ahead of our interview, Chef Marc Aubry is already out of the kitchen.

Ready with a warm smile, some small talk, and an open hand, he guides us towards the dishes he’s prepared for the day.

“Pinauso niya yan [He made it his thing],” Restaurant Manager Johanna Toh tells us, describing how the French chef has fashioned it as his routine to go out and interact with his guests.

You could say, Sagana is a place that practices what it preaches. Its closeness to the ground — both literally and figuratively — pervasive and emanating.

Taking its name from the Filipino word for “plentiful” or “abundant.” It is common to mistake this homely restaurant as of the fusion cuisine type. It isn’t.

Rather than the amalgamation of flavors, Sagana is about combining philosophies. Sagana infuses itself with “terroir” through its use of locally-sourced ingredients in creating French-style recipes.

“I’m French, that’s what I know best, I suppose,” Aubry says with a wink.

“Farm-to-family” is what the restaurant would rather call itself. “Where do the best mangoes come from? The best bell peppers? The best talong (eggplant)? the best mussel?” Aubry posits.

Aubry seeks these quality ingredients and partners up with their suppliers, preferably small farms and businesses. His main criteria being how much respect they have for the land.

“As long as it’s natural, as long as it’s organic. That’s something strongly part of our concept.”

Planting roots

Sagana opened its doors to Philippine customers late in 2017. In no way though is Chef Marc Aubry a stranger to Philippine dining…or even their quaint spot at the ground floor of the Net One Center in BGC, as a matter of fact.

Aubry previously operated the well-loved Champetre Bistro and Restaurant at the same address from 2011 to its closing, early last year. And before that, still in the same place, he had Je Suis Gourmand which began in 2003.

Given his history, it is not surprising to see how the chef values planting roots in his new concept restaurant, Sagana.

Having been in the Philippines since 1989, it is is here where Aubry got married and raised a family, it is here where he has formed a bond with the community.

During our time with the chef, he would share fond memories of seeing repeat customers. Some loyal fans having followed him from his early days working in one of Manila’s most prominent hotels. It gives him a warm sense of satisfaction to see patrons who started as young couples now visiting his restaurant with a full family in tow.

Having spent all these years in the Philippines, he’s learned as well to adapt to Filipinos’ adventurous palette. Case in point, Sagana’s “farm-to-family” concept, which marked his first departure from formalist French cuisine Taipei.

“It’s not a trend we started though, we’re not that pretentious,” He jokes when describing the “farm-to-family” approach.

Bending not breaking

When it comes to its approach to French cuisine Taipei, Sagana chooses to give their guests enough credit. The restaurant doesn’t seek to “Filipinize” any of its dishes.

Thematically, Aubry says the cultures behind French and Filipino food are not so different. “It’s about variety. It’s about pleasing people, a good time at the table with friends and family,” he explains. “Maybe the one difference is that in France we tend to drink wine with all of our meals?”

Through “farm-to-family,” Sagana, in its own way, hopes to make French cuisine Taipei less intimidating without sacrificing integrity. “Techniques may be different, but we want to show that it’s possible to do good quality French food with properly grown ingredients.”

“Terroir” first-hand

Sagana lets customers try these ingredients first-hand not only through their dishes, but by making them available for purchase as well. Inside Sagana is a boutique section which features adlai from Bukidnon, garlic from the Cordilleras, coffee from Sulu and many more exquisite produce from across the country.

Sagana wants its guest to know that “terroir” isn’t just a feeling confined to its corners, but one which you could bring home.

Rappler