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The Brits may have won The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 but we’ll never beat our French cousins when it comes to delivering the delightful dish of Boeuf en croûte, duxelle de champignons sauvages.
A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition, with an Anglo-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington.
By the time Wellington became famous, meat baked in pastry was a well-established part of English cuisine, and that the dish’s similarity to the French filet de bœuf en croûte might imply that Beef Wellington was a timely patriotic rebranding of a trendy continental dish. Many historians, however, doubt it.
Whatever, I think it’s only fair we should perhaps start calling this dish Boeuf Napoleon as the French clearly win when it comes to culinary wars. The whole package was baked until the crust crisped up and the meat reached perfection.
Filet of beef tenderloin or seared filet mignon is often assembled with liver pâté, mushrooms and onions and although the Brit version should always be served with the centre slightly pink, it rarely is.
No such problem at the Crowne Plaza, Bahrain, which on Monday re-launched its popular French-themed night in front of VIP guests, including Bernard Regnauld-Fabre, ambassador of France in Bahrain.
The French like their meat on the rarer side and let’s not beef about the subject, is there any other way to eat it?
Carved on the table, we added mashed potatoes to the plate along with a superb mushroom gravy sauce.
It should not come as any surprise that the Crowne Plaza knows a thing or two about the cuisine as general manager Gilles Nicolas is a French national with a degree in hotel management from a hospitality school in Paris and, one of my favourite kitchen kings on the island, Executive Chef David Miras, oozes French suave and culinary genius.
Chef David has been busy coaching and encouraging his team in the kitchen and Sous Chef Rajeev Sharma, Chef Santosh and Pastry Chef Srini Vasan pulled out all the stops so that I could taste test some of the delights in advance of the launch event.
Monday is press night for GulfWeekly and rather than miss out on the fun I called into La Mosaique Restaurant on Friday, near the end of a busy brunch session.
I think I may attempt to finish early next week and forget the Monday blues and concentrate on an added dash of white and red and get the tricolour flag flying.
Our starter was Magret de canard fumé sur melon de Cavaillon featuring magnificent slices of duck smoked for six hours with gourmet pommery mustard. This is made by keeping the whole grain mustard seed intact, which gives the prepared mustard its distinct, gritty texture.
It was served with refreshing melon and a cheese combined with fresh herbs, salt and pepper and rolled and set for 12 hours before being ready.
The result is simply mouthfuls of heaven and a superb starter which would have received star billing had it not have been for the main beef dish which followed.
Of course, it would be most unfair to finish a meal of such star quality without a little French tart.
Tarte Tatin aux pommes is an angelic apple pastry served with fresh cream and a little crumble and tastes as good as it looks. Très bien!
Chef David tells me that the French night will be buffet-style with live stations such as oysters with condiments, foie gras on toasted brioche and crepes suzette flambees.
As for the full evening’s menu, the main dishes will be rotated so that patrons discover new flavours even if they visit every Monday.
The Fabulous French-themed nights costs BD14.550 net, with drinks extra. Book a table by calling 17531122.
Vive la France!
