Merci Santa!

Santa n'est pas encore officiellement passe a la maison, nous l'attendons avec impatience. Mais il a pense a nous a La Cuisine et nous a fait un beau cadeau.

Voici un super article comme on les aime dans le famous quotidien Ocala Star Banner. Pour ceux qui ne comprennent pas l'anglais, je vous explique en gros:

Le journaliste qu'on connaît de mieux en mieux pour avoir deja fait quelques articles sur nous remercie Santa pour avoir 3 bons restaurants sur Ocala, nous sommes les premier cités et faisons le gros de l'article. En effet, je vous l'avais cache (oh la vilaine) mais selon le "Florida Trend Magazine" nous faisons parti des 500 meilleurs restaurants de Floride (sur 36000 sélectionnés), et sommes dans la lice pour la cuillère d'or du "best newcomer", le meilleur nouveau en quelque sorte... (merci merci...)

Il a teste notre "ha-shee par-men-ti-AY" et s'est apparemment régalé.

Je vous copie l'article mais vous pouvez le trouver ici , et le traduire sur "google traduction" si vous etes courageux.

"By Rick Allen
Staff writer

Published: Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 10:08 a.m.

Dear Santa:

Of course, this time of year, you get hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of letters requesting this or that gadget under the Christmas tree. I sometimes wonder how many of us ever write back to say, “Thank you.”

But I’d like to offer a heartfelt thanks for some things in our local culinary scene this year, whether you had a hand in them or not.

First, thanks for La Cuisine. It’s been a long time since there’s been a legitimate French restaurant in Ocala; longer, certainly, than I’ve been here. Petite Jardin? Perhaps back in the day it was French, but while chef John Bell owned it from before 2000 to its closing in 2003, it offered more of a contemporary fusion cuisine.

Was the area ready for French? After all, at least some hereabouts succumbed to the anti-anything-French atmosphere in the ramp-up to war in Iraq in 2002-’03. Bell once said that attitude played a role in his restaurant’s closing.

Evidently, we were ready. La Cuisine opened in August, and its owners indicate it’s doing well, despite our continued hard times. But here’s the cool part: In only a few weeks of existence, La Cuisine managed to make it to Florida Trend’s annual list of the Best 500 Restaurants in the state of Florida. Considering there are more than 36,000 restaurants in the Sunshine State, that places La Cuisine in the top 1.5 percent of all those eateries.

Moreover, Florida Trend food guru Chris Sherman dubs La Cuisine one of the Best Newcomers of 2009; only 17 were picked.

“Not one but three French chefs in the kitchen give a downtown charmer true vichyssoise, fish quenelles, beef Burgundy, eggs meurette and saucisson,” Sherman notes in the December issue.

“It’s very amazing, and we’re very surprised,” says Stephane Gattacieca, one of La Cuisine’s owners.

The eatery opened in August at 48 S.W. First Ave. Gattacieca, his wife, Marie, chef Patrice Perron, his family and Christophe Crouzet, a rising star in French culinary circles, moved to Ocala earlier this year with the express purpose of delivering French cuisine as purely as can be using substitute American ingredients.

The restaurant features a Lyon “French home-country cooking” rather than the rich, sauce-heavy cuisine of Paris. And it has introduced a lunch menu - a way to experience La Cuisine for fewer francs.

The other day, I enjoyed a hachis parmentier (pronounced “ha-shee par-men-ti-AY”), described as a French version of shepherd’s pie. Instead of ground beef, this is a tender pulled pork in a luscious, honey-soy “barbecue” sauce covered with a thin layer of baked mashed potatoes. Barbecue around here rarely has tasted better.

Anyway, Santa, they tell me they have no regrets leaving France, although Stephane does concede he’ll miss skiing in the Alps this winter. Marie Gattacieca says she’ll probably write a thank-you letter to you, so you might keep an eye out for it.

“And we’ll be good, too,” she adds.

But Santa, that’s not all.

Felix’s, a fixture on the 500 Best list for most of the decade, remains there again this year. Felix’s, as you might know, switched from its older American-Continental fusion to Italian earlier this year.

And there’s another new addition to the list: Bonefish Grill, the result of a new category in the list that recognizes excellence in chain restaurants. So, if a chain is dubbed “best,” then every link in every Florida city is listed, too.

This is the first time I count three Ocala restaurants on the list at the same time, and that, Santa, is certainly something worthy of thanks.

Second, there’s Ipanema and SKY.

I thank you not because they’re here, but because they’re still here. Both were once owned by officers of the late Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. When word swept through town that TBW was collapsing in August, my first thought was, “Will Ipanema survive? Will the SKY fall?”

Ipanema, I’ve since learned, has been doing well; it weathered the TBW fall with nary a hiccup. And at SKY, Danny Gaekwad, owner of the Holiday Inn at Interstate 75 and State Road 200 where SKY resides, stepped in to keep the Asian fusion restaurant afloat.

Finally, Santa, if there’s a little bit of room in your pack tonight, might you please consider bringing us a stand-alone Mongolian barbecue place?

Why not ask?

Hope your rounds go well, and have a good 2010."

Le jour ou le journal est sorti et alors que nous n'étions pas au courant, le téléphone n'a pas arrêté de sonner. C'est comme ça ici, les américains marchent a la pub, il faut venir a eux et sans arrêt se rappeler a leurs bons souvenirs.

Ca fait du bien un tel article, on est fier comme des coqs français ;)

P.S: Pendant que j'ecrivais ces quelques lignes, le Pere Noel est passe, les enfants dorment chuuuuuut....