Seared scallops placed on a butternut and thyme purée

That the French know their onions — and their garlic — became apparent to me once I’d had my soup. The heady aroma of garlic had been wafting in the air when the soup bowl was placed in front of me. And I could tell that something interesting was going to happen when a shot of red wine was placed next to the bowl.

When you are on a food journey with chef Francis Luzinier, you can be sure that something magical is about to unfurl. The chef kept a close eye on me while I had the soup, and then stopped me just when there was a bit of it left at the bottom of the bowl, with a slice of warm bread still nestling in it. “Now pour the wine into the bowl,” he said. “Stir the wine in, and swirl the plate around. Now mop it up with the bread and drink up the remaining lukewarm soup,” he said.

Seared scallops placed on a butternut and thyme purée

I did — and what a soup it was! Not just aromatic — as you’d expect a well cooked garlic soup, la soupe a ’ail, to be — but the wine at the end of it gave a new meaning to the light broth. The texture and the taste changed, and the wine didn’t just cleanse my palate but cleaned up the bowl too.

That’s how chef Francis — who heads Food and Beverages in The Lalit in New Delhi — had his soup when he was growing up in France. The wine worked on many fronts. One, it helped you mop up the last bits of the soup. And second, since you wouldn’t be changing your plate for the various courses of your meal at home, the wine would help counter the overpowering aroma of garlic, so that you could get the real taste of the entrée that followed. For instance, the subtle taste of something like seared scallops placed on a butternut and thyme purée could get completely ruined if the flavours of garlic still remained on your plate and palate.

It’s food of this kind — like the meals cooked in his home in France — that the chef wants to introduce to food lovers in India. I believe that most Indians get a bit intimidated by French food — which would account for the fact that there are very few good French restaurants in the country. But this is precisely what chef Francis — a Frenchman and a permanent Australian resident — seeks to counter with a new French menu at The Grill, which is one of the restaurants at The Lalit.

Old goat cheese tarte tatin served with caramelised onions and honey drizzled alfalfa

Basic French food, the chef stresses, is simple. When you see his recipes, you’ll know what he means. Chef Francis wants to demystify French food — and that’s not tough, for his recipes are incredibly easy to follow. “My food is down-to-earth but with flavours that hit you,” he says.

The 60-days-old goat cheese tarte tatin — an upside down pastry — served with caramelised onions and honey drizzled alfalfa is a case in point. The cheese is strong, the tart is soft — and the flavours carry the punch of Mohammed Ali. Another robust dish of his is Le cassoulet périgourdin — a ragout of haricot beans cooked with tomatoes, herbs, onion, garlic, duck and sausage. The flavours stay with you — and very happily, I may add — long after you’d eaten the dish.

The chef is an antidote for those who think French food is all about complex dishes with complicated ingredients — served in restaurants where the waiters have a sneer, and bill has so many zeroes that it can resolve the Greek debt problem. His kind of food is home-cooked, and often rustic, he says. His passion is to bring the “farm to the plate.”

I got a sample of the farm that evening with chef Francis. The cauliflower cappuccino, with a truffle oil scented froth — served in a little test-tube like dish — was a delicious combination of the rustic and sublime, I thought.

I hope his food catches on. Those of us who think French food is bland should know that it has many facets to it. And the more you know, the more you’ll want to know .

La soupe a ’ail (garlic soup)(serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 120g freshly sliced garlic • 60g flour • 60g butter • 1 litre strong vegetable stock • 8 slices of bread (preferably round, like baguettes) • 40ml cream • salt and pepper to taste • 120ml red wine (30ml per person)

Method:

Put the butter in a pan and sauté the garlic till light golden in colour. Add the flour and cook for three minutes. Now add the stock and cook for 20 minutes, stirring now and then. Check the seasoning. Add the cream. Place the sliced bread on the bottom of a soup bowl. Pour the hot soup on it and serve with a shot of red wine.

Forest mushrooms and duck breast with balsamic tomato and pine nut salsa (serves 1)

Ingredients:

• 160g-180g duck breast with skin • 25g Portobello mushroom • 15g black fungus • 25g button mushroom • 25g oyster mushroom • 2g fresh rosemary • 10ml extra virgin olive oil • 10 cherry tomatoes • 3g toasted pine nut • 10ml balsamic vinegar • 1 sliced green chilli • 1 tbs fresh coriander leaves • salt and pepper to taste • sprigs of coriander

Method:

Marinate the duck breast with rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper. Wash and pat dry the mushrooms, slicing them if they are too big. In a hot pan with melted butter, sauté the mushrooms till golden brown. Check the seasoning. Keep hot. In a glass bowl, add the cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, green chilli, coriander leaves and vinegar. Toss well. On a hot grill or a frying pan, cook the duck breast, skin side down first, for five minutes, and for another five minutes on the other side. It must remain a little under-cooked (pink inside). On a warm plate, place the mushroom in the centre. Add the duck breast, cut into half, and top it with the pine nut and cherry tomato salsa. Decorate with a few sprigs of coriander leaves.