Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 21 March 2019, Uzbekistan is celebrating not only the Navruz, but also the annual “Taste of France” (Goût de France) festival, which has already become customary in the country.

For the fourth time, Uzbekistan celebrates this festival of French gastronomy along with the countries of the five continents of the globe. This year, the Taste of France is being held simultaneously in more than 150 countries of the world.

This year’s festival has gained new, larger-scale outlines and, in particular, in Uzbekistan, this is reflected in the fact that within its framework you can enjoy French cuisine in 7 restaurants in three cities - Tashkent, Jizzakh and Bukhara.

On 21 March, one of those restaurants where Goût de France started, was the La Contine in Tashkent, which specializes in French cuisine. So what did the new festival bring to the already French restaurant? This is how his project manager Saida Abdurasulova responded.

“Since we are already a French restaurant and, accordingly, are preparing European cuisine, mainly French, at the festival evening we decided to acquaint our guests with truly traditional, long-known traditional French dishes. Take, for example, the well-known desserts "Creme Brulee" and "Millefeuille", and also say "Beef bourguignon and Gratin Dauphine" with cooking meat in a French recipe in red wine. Two duck dishes entered the menu at once, which is also a fairly typical French dish. Or onion soup. That is, we took the classics. If you introduce a person to something, then you start from the very beginning, from the very classics. I think that everything that we have chosen for the evening of March 21 on the menu is the most traditional loud French cuisine. ”

Even more zest to this evening of the festival was added by the wonderful live performance of the French chanson, which was in some way a discovery not only for guests, but also for the restaurant itself, which now decided to adopt this repertoire. And such opening festival, as a rule, gives all these years to each of the participating restaurants, and also, of course, to the guests.

As Saida Abdurasulova noted, the French Embassy in Uzbekistan provided extensive support for the preparation of the restaurant for this cozy evening. In particular, Emily Dezormier, Counselor for Culture and Cooperation of the French Embassy in Uzbekistan, spoke at its opening. First of all, she congratulated the guests of the festival on the wonderful holiday of Navruz.

 “This year we are launching the “Taste of France ”festival in 7 restaurants in order to share with you the secrets of French gastronomy in Tashkent, Bukhara and Jizzakh. This international event was held for the first time 4 years ago in honor of the recognition by UNESCO of the French cuisine intangible cultural heritage of mankind. As you see, gastronomy reaffirms that it is one of the areas for cultural exchanges between different nations,” she said.

As Emilie Désormière then confirmed in an interview, indeed, every restaurant selected for participation in Goût de France has its own peculiarity.

“For example, La Contine chef Nikita Bykov is a student of one of the most famous chefs in France. In Uzbekistan, the French gastronomy is honored four times, and this festival is held in such a wide circle in a new format. Each year, the Goût de France festival team, provides certain requirements for potential participants, and every restaurant can try to participate in this competition. When the recording was announced this year, there were a lot of volunteers, and it so happened that 7 restaurants that expressed their interest approached these criteria. ”

- Is this festival celebrated in France itself?

“In France, this festival is also undoubtedly honored. It is organized by the Ministry of Europe of France. And every year the Goût de France team is offered a focus on a specific region of France. This year, the focus is on Provence - a region that is known for its gastronomic features, which literally glorified this region. ”

- Emilie Désormière, how could you characterize the cuisine of France in a few words for yourself?

“For me, first of all, this is a variety. France is a big country where each region has its own specifics and is famous for its culinary traditions. And I really appreciate this diversity, especially since my roots are from two regions of the country, one of which is Normandy. So this love for diversity in French gastronomy has been in me since childhood. ”

- And the last question - how long have you been working in Uzbekistan and have you already made up for yourself some idea about Uzbek cuisine?

“I arrived 6 months ago, and also before that I was in Uzbekistan 4 years ago. And I could taste pilaf, samsa, kebabs and much more and everything is very, very tasty. Especially very interesting on a holiday. It seems that in Uzbekistan they prepare lunches and dinners every time as a holiday. ”

Taking into account that the celebration of Navruz began in Uzbekistan, Emilie Désormière also has an acquaintance with the taste of sumalak, khalis and other dishes of spring holiday cuisine. Well, fans and pioneers of French cuisine are still waiting for holidays in the framework of Goût de France, which also continues to march through the land of Uzbekistan and over 150 countries of the world.

Luiza Makhmudova