Bon Appetit

Mon dieu mon ami, has it really been 15 years since the Le French May gastronomic celebrations in our fair city first began? (Sure, Le French May is also about the stage and the arts, but the food is all that concerns me here). More than 15 restaurants are officially taking part this year, but there are plenty more featuring great specialty French menus during the monthlong festival. Join me on my own little "Tour de France" around the city to pick out some of the best wining and dining highlights of the month. Though a French-trained cook myself, I’m going to leave out all the fancy names and translations to save space and just give you the straight English to get you to as many brasseries, bistros and restaurants as possible.

Now on with the food. How about an exquisite eight-course French chef’s tasting menu with Mediterranean flair? On a boat? Yes, I'm talking about Le Boat, a traditional Chinese junk-cum-restaurant. Chef/owner Jean-Paul Gauci tells me, “It’s all about loving your food, fantastically fresh ingredients and the right balance of flavors from one course to the next. And the sea air with a nice glass of French wine really gets the appetite going.” The special menu is $680 on its own or $1,600 with top-quality wine pairings. Le Boat is at Deep Water Bay Beach, Island Rd., 2982-8321.

Meanwhile, chef Didier Rochat over at Café des Artistes tells me he’s created a special five-course set menu to celebrate the best of French cuisine. “I used products from all over France to make a beautiful match between the courses,” he says. The renovated terrace area has really opened up the restaurant, which now has a casual atmosphere but is still most certainly haute cuisine. Starting with an amuse bouche to get the palate going, foie gras three ways (pan-seared, in crème brulee with brown sugar and marinated in Sauternes wine), followed by pan-seared red mullet filet with sea urchin sauce and crab meat souffle. You then get a little break with a pear sherbet and William Pear liqueur before moving onto the main event: Roasted lamb chops with spinach and loins stuffed with ratatouille and garlic sauce, served with a mushroom cappuccino and mashed potatoes. A chocolate fondant with hazelnut chocolate fritters and raspberry sherbet caps off the feast, with coffee or tea to revive. All this for $650. Too much food? There's also a lighter $380 three-course version. 1/F, California Tower, 30-32 D’Aguilar St., Lan Kwai Fong, 2526-3880.

A little lighter on the wallet is the set menu at W’s Entrecote – it has recently undergone a revamp but at its heart it's still your classic cozy brasserie/bistro where steak and fries reign supreme. In fact, it used to serve only steak but has since slightly expanded the menu. All month you get an entrée and choice of three mains – grilled salmon, lamb, or of course, steak, all served with W’s herbed butter sauce, veg, fries and coffee/tea for $338. 6/F, 22 Sharp St. East, Causeway Bay, 2506-0133.

I know it’s smack in the middle of a mall, but La Fourchette still manages to capture a little but of that brasserie vibe. Their four-course menu was recently discounted to $268 from $438. I hope you like seafood because the assorted deluxe hors d’oeuvres platter starts things fishy with grilled sardines, Norwegian smoked salmon, jet-fresh oysters, crab cakes, boiled shrimp and seared peppered tuna on wasabi remoulade. Remember, this is just the start – then you choose from seafood cocktails on ice ($50 extra) or soup du jour, all as a warm up for a choice of pan-roasted black cod, oven-grilled sea bass or ink spaghetti with mixed seafood, finishing up with a three-dessert composition with ice cream. Each dish is also available a la carte on its own. To pair, we can choose from four kinds of sauvignon blanc by the glass or bottle or four pinot noirs. LG/F, Pacific Place, 2522-8830.