French Chefs Highlight U.S. Food Products, France

Gastronomy is at the heart of France and has evolved of the centuries into the envy of the world.  France has always taken the best that it could find throughout the world to incorporate into its cuisine.  This culinary exchange continues between our two continents, between our two countries, today.  While U.S. foods, such as sweet potatoes and cranberries, were virtually unknown in France just ten years ago, today we find them everywhere.  Our lobster, beef, wild salmon, king crab, pistachios, and almonds have long been a key ingredient in French cuisine.  Of course, the history of grapes and wine is a long one of exchanges of vine grafting and wine making techniques.

The Office of Agricultural Affairs of the United States Embassy was eager to introduce French chefs and restaurateurs what was best from the U.S. on the French market. In this exercise, during a dinner held at the Hotel de Talleyrand in Paris, the talented chefs Jerôme Banctel and Jerôme Schilling staged wonderful recipes to highlight products such as king crab, North Pacific wild salmon, cod from Alaska, Maine lobster or beef angus. Marc Lecomte dazzled the guests with his pastry chef talents using California pistachios, almonds and cranberries. Finally, the head sommelier Romain Iltis delighted their palates with California wine selection.

We sincerely wish to thank our partners without whom this event would not have taken place:

For the produce: Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute for king crab, salmon and cod from the North Pacific;FoodExportUSA for Maine lobsters; United States Meat Export Federation for black angus; American Sweet Potato for sweet potatoes; Cranberry Marketing Committee for cranberries; Almond Board of California for California almonds; American Pistachio Growers for pistachios; AFIS for Florida orange juice.

For wines from California and Washington: Opus One, with Napa Valley Opus One 2012; Scharder’s Cellars and Signature Selections, with Boar’s View Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2014 Napa Valley, Beckstoffer To Kalon “Old Sparky” Cabernet Sauvignon, Schrader Cellars 2011; Soif d’ailleurs with Yakima Valley, Blanc de Blanc Treveri and Napa Valley, Eisrebe Joseph Phelps 2014; South World Wines with Napa Valley, Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay Vineyard 2014 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, Director’s Cut, Francis Ford Coppola, 2013; Vins du Monde Santa Barbara, Los Alamos Chardonnay Au Bon Climat 2013 and Lodi Country, Teldeschi, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, Rawenswood 2012.