Nobody’s going to dispute that the French do l’amour better than anyone, and this Día de San Valentin there is a heavy concentration of Gaullic happening at the National Gallery of Art’s new exhibit From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection.

The current offering is a follow up to the National Gallery of Art’s exhibit, “The Art of Power”, a collection of finely huned knight-wear and their painterly renditions was hard to top. Not only was the exhibit chock full of stunning examples of metal-made regalia, but the Garden Café space in the Gallery was transformed into an outpost of haute Spanish cuisine with the help of D.C.’s adopted son from Asturias, José Andrés.

Though the Gallery has been partnering with local chefs since 2006, it was not until “The Art of Power” tapped the area’s most famous Spaniard that the synergy of the in-kind promotion concept blew up last year during record attendance of Andrés’ Garden Cafe España.

Surely José Andrés was a tough act to follow, but somehow they managed to best some of the dishes like the flaky crust of the chicken pastry and creamy flan from his buffet. How you say? A little friendly chef rivalry helped.

“[The café] really became suscceessful when José Andrés was here last summer,” says Executive Chef David Rogers of the National Gallery. “Now that we’ve reached that level of guest chef it was much easier to approach Michel [Richard]. I think there was alittle competition there,” he quipped in a recent interview.

Image: National Gallery of Art Chef Michel Richard poses with one of his favorite paintings.

While there may be a little friendly chef tet a tet going on, Michel is himself a frustrated painter, so involvement with the National Gallery of Art was pretty much a no-brainer.

“I remember when I was nine years old someone gave me a book, like a paint-by-numbers book, of Toulouse Lautrec and I fell in love with Impressionism.” Fortunately for us painting didn’t work out so well for Richard and he turned his interests to more culinary pursuits.

Image: The National Gallery of Art, Girl with a Watering Can, Auguste Renoir, 1893/94

While the menu has changed to reflect classic French cuisine, don’t expect new paintings at the exhibit, however. If you’re a D.C.ist you will no doubt experience fieldtrip flashbacks upon perusing works such as Renoir’s Girl with a Watering Can and Cassat’s The Boating Party. What’s fresh is the way in which the works are displayed; one of the more startling being the ethereal The Saltimbanques by Picasso and Manet’s The Old Musician facing off in one room of the exhibition. The two paintings are similar in their massive size, and theme but couldn’t be more different in form.

Like the art exhibit, you will see similar if not slightly French-tweaked items on the Garden Cafe Franςais menu. Richard and Executive David Rogers probably couldn’t deny the sheer tasty convenience of a charcuterie station (also present in Andrés’ rendition of the cafe menu), as well as dessert servings of chocolate mousse, which recall Andrés’ flan during the Art of Power.

Image National Gallery of Art Chicken Faux Gras and Jambon de Bayonne from the buffet.

Coq au vin graces the buffet board along with other classic salades such as endive and ratatouille. I personally enjoy my coq au vin with a bit more zing (read, wine) but the meat was tender and satisfying enough to lessen the stinging sensation from the outdoors on my wind-whipped body parts.

And Valentine’s Day is nothing if not a a day to celebrate the senses. Satisfy several of them this Sunday with your one-and-only over a feast for the eyes and the stomach.

–Amy