Bastille Day is a great excuse to eat fine French food! Those classic flavours and techniques–the cornerstone for many a modern cuisine — are a great way to send your imagination and your taste buds on a flight of fancy — all the way to Paris!
First cab off the rank is Sous Le Soleil, a gorgeous spot in the middle of a park in Roseville, serving up French provincial-style food with a very subtle Asian tweak.
Chef Young trained in the Cordon Bleu School of San Francisco. His French Onion Soup is a standout, with a deep, aromatic beef stock, made using an Asian technique. The colourful scallop entrée is also superb, as are the mains we tried — succulent beef tenderloin and a classic confit duck. If you pay attention, you may even pick up another of Young’s tweaks in the stock — soy sauce.
Our next stop is the Northern Beaches suburb Elanora Heights, where Frenchie’s Brasserie is quickly becoming a neighbourhood favourite.
Chef Fabian worked under legendary French chef Joel Rubuchon, and brings his A-game to the menu here. We started with a feather-light St Agur soufflé and the hand-cut simplicity of the steak tartare. For mains, we ordered a bistro staple, steak and frites, and an incredibly balanced dish of scallops, parsnip purée and finger lime.
In both restaurants, one word kept coming back again and again – magnifique!
