“Is it a rebellion?” asked Louis XVI of the count who informed him of the fall of the Bastille.


“No, sire,” came the reply. “It is a revolution.”

Put away those hot dogs and hamburgers. Fourth of July is over.

But get ready for a serious French food celebration as July 14 is here.

The 14th, of course, is Bastille Day, the day in 1789 when the French rebels stormed the Bastille prison and began the French Revolution, which would end the reign of the monarchy and begin the first Republic.

“It’s a bigger holiday than the Fourth of July,” says chef Philippe Schmit, aka the French Cowboy. “It’s still being introduced in Houston but I think we could do something really big soon.”

Chef Schmit, who will be in charge of the food for the Consular Ball in November, which will honor France, envisions a day when Houston will celebrate his homeland’s national holiday in a grand manner. Maybe a French Restaurant Week, like New York City has. Or a street extravaganza like the Greek Festival, only with better wine.

“We’ll certainly do more next year,” he says of his Galleria-area eatery Philippe Restaurant + Lounge. But for this year he will be offering some tradition French dishes as specials for lunch and dinner.

So he invited us to test drive them and I must say lunch was like no French meal I’ve ever had.

Of course we started with wine and the delicious fresh bread from the bakery with creamy butter. Big mistake. Do not fill up on these items. Save room.

Then came one of the Bastille Day-only specials: The Tower of Escargot. Tower. Of. Escargot.

I didn’t count the number of black morsels in this dish, but there were a lot of them. All sandwiched between layers of puff pastry, tomatoes and leeks. Yes, it looks like a double decker sandwich but I doubt anyone could eat it as such. You’ll have to resort to the ol’ knife and fork for this tasty concoction.

Dad, of course, passed on the snails and went with a regular menu item: the Thai chicken salad on Boston lettuce with snow peas, soybeans and peppers in a Thai dressing. Still, pretty adventurous for him and certainly more than he could eat. It comes in a wood bowl that more closely resembles a trough. I mean it’s huge. Huge.

He did, however, save room to sample the second Bastille dish, Schmit’s garbure.

Now, garbure is a traditional French country dish. Technically soup of meat and veggies but actually more of a stew as it’s so thick and heavy you eat most of it with a fork. (But if you don’t use a soup to get the rich broth you’ll want to slurp it up right out of the bowl.)

“It’s just a nice light soup,” Schmit says. “I’m kidding of course.”

Of course.

The dish Schmit served looked like a bowl of food for a table of four. He claims it’s a peasant dish, something often served for breakfast with bacon in it before harvest time. But like a gourmet ratatouille, this garbure has been kicked up a few notches.

Sure, there are potatoes, country bread, carrots, leeks, fava beans, cabbage and big fat slabs of bacon swimming around in the broth. But atop it all is a fat, crispy whole leg of duck confit.

And just in case the duck sautéed in its own fat isn’t enough to shut down your pancreas, Schmit adds toast points covered with seared foie gras. Which makes this peasant repast more like something Queen Marie Antoinette would have dined on.

Oh, and you’ll want to save room for some of the new dessert creations of pastry chef Jamie Kling, formerly of Tony’s. Like the fried French Cowboy Churros or fabulously fun Key Lime Popsicle, a deconstructed key lime pie. While there’s no right way to eat this, if you take a bite of the key lime “popsicle” then a mouthful of housemade graham cracker and a spoonful of the mojito granita, you’ll swear you’ve just taken a bite of real key lime pie.

And what will Schmit be doing Thursday?

“I’ll definitely be celebrating with some French people somewhere,” he laughs.

Vive la Revolution! Vive la cuisine française!

Garbure 101

Chef Schmit shares his garbure recipe here, although I wouldn’t recommend it for novice chefs. Just go the restaurant on Thursday instead.

Ingredients:
Duck legs, 4 pieces confits
Garlic sausage, 8 slices, 2 oz each
Duck sausage, 12 slices 1 oz each
Bacon, 12 slices, 1 oz each
Beans, 4 oz dry (soak in water 12 hours)
Cabbage, 1 savoy cabbage (1lb) cut in 8 sections
Fava beans, 4 oz, blanched and peeled
Duck broth, or clear chicken stock, 2 quart
Prosciutto, 2 oz
Carrot, 8 oz, cut in 1Ž4 inch at an angle
Leeks, 6 oz (same as above)
Potatoes, 12 oz, roughly diced 1Ž2 inch large
Country bread, 6 slices (2 1Ž2 inch diameter)
Parsley, 1 small bunch (half cut in thin chiffonade, the rest in leaves )
Shallots, 2 bulbs diced
Garlic, 2 cloves diced
Turnips, 5 oz peeled and cut in half with stems
Crushed pepper
White wine, 1 cup
Truffle oil (optional)
Foie gras sauté (optional)

Method:
Sweat shallots and garlic in butter for three minutes, add the white wine, water, piece of cured ham and the beans. Let it cook for 20 minutes in medium heat and then add in the following order: bacon, carrots, potatoes, turnips, leeks and cabbage. When all the vegetables are cooked, set aside. Crisp on a Teflon pan the duck leg comfits and both the roasted sausages at the same time. Put in the oven for eight minutes at 350 degrees.

Turn it off and rest the duck legs skin side up. Spread the vegetables in a big soup bowl, bacon, and sausage (previously sliced) on top, the one crispy duck confit in the center on each plate. Sprinkle the fava beans around the bowl. Pour the hot broth on top, add toasted bread (topped with sauté seared foie gras if you want decadence like the Roi Louis XVI in power at the time), parsley leaves and truffle oil (optional). Add crushed pepper before serving.

Bon Appetit!