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

Gazpacho garnished with tomato and cucumber. Image: Amy Loeffler

José Andrés is a conquistador of sorts. He has not only successfully cultivated a restaurant empire in the Washington, D.C. area—Jaleo, Café Atlantico, Zaytinya, Oyamel and minibar—he’s put a brick and mortar outpost across the country in Los Angeles to conquer the palates of angelinos as well. All of these restaurants are extraordinary monuments to a prolific culinary career, but the fact that he has managed to recently invade the Garden Café at the National Gallery of Art is both a culinary and cultural achievement.

The current menu concept at the café is all José Andrés, and if you’ve been to Jaleo, you’ll likely be familiar with the café fare at the museum. The menu is not merely an homage to Spain, but a clever demonstration of micro-branding to boot.

The café’s menu runs in conjunction with the exhibit “The Art of Power : Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain” currently on display. The exhibit itself is visually stunning as ceramic horses and mannequins model the full regalia of decorative armor (sorry no photos of the armor, photography is not allowed in the exhibit). It’s also as intellectually satisfying as a well researched documentary (Yes. I’m a dork. Sue me.) In many cases, paintings, such as one of King Charles wearing a suit known as the Mühlberg Armor (a suit he wore when he defeated German upstarts seeking to break away from the Holy Roman Empire) are accompanied by the ACTUAL 400-year-old suit of armor, which gives an extra level of verisimilitude to the visitor’s experience. (On a side note, it never ceases to amaze me how SMALL people were 400 years ago, and also how in tarnation could you ever walk around in these contraptions.)

Flan: it's the chef's mother's recipe. Image: Amy Loeffler

As far as the menu is concerned, you’ll find classics like Gazpacho al estilo de Algeciras (Gazpacho Algeciras style) and also more esoteric items that José adapted from Phillip II’s chef’s cookbook in the 1600s, like Empanada de Pollos Ensapados (Chicken and bacon empanada with caramelized onions, raisins, and lemon). The dish sandwiches tender chicken and golden raisins, caramelized onions and lemon betwixt a flaky pastry. It feels like an Old World dish to me since it satisfies the savory and sweet tastebuds in one fell swoop,  a flavor combination I am guessing that would be popular in an era without a lot of refined sugar.  And speaking of sugar, dessert (at least the day I was there) is a simple affair at the buffet. There are other dessert items but the day I went flan was in full effect. I confess I am usually much more immature about sweets and could drown in a bowl of brownie batter, but I ate every last bit of this expectedly creamy, light and unobtrusive postre.

Eating my way through the assortment of cheeses and cured meats (embutidos)
I found myself grabbing seconds of one flavor combination in particular: the Picón with quince paste (and look how it handily makes a nice alliteration!) Picón is a blue cheese, but it is much harder than better known blues like Roquefort. The creaminess in Roquefort means the tang of blue cheese is a little fleeting, not so with the Picon. (I recently had some Roquefort and I have to say I need to amend this statement. Roquefort is actually both pungent and creamy, and like a dairy form of nepalm in your mouth. Roquefort is a jolt, whereas the denseness of Picón was really more like a nice drawn out massage, and it contrasted well with the sweetness of the quince paste). I almost thought of that as my dessert in spite of inhaling the flan at the end of the meal.

Lastly, though it was very tasty, the Pisto Manchego reminded me of the rataouille we make at home (little wonder since the ingredients listed on the menu are peppers, eggplant and tomato).

The Garden Cafe at the National Gallery of Art. Image: Amy Loeffler

Dishes that piqued my interest but that did not have a chance to try were the Ajo Blanco con Camarones, Uvas, y Almendras (Cold Almond and Garlic Soup with Shrimp) and the a la carte item the party of one diagonal from me ordered, the olives, which looked like green and black gemstones artfully arranged in a bowl.

Perhaps José Andrés has succeeded where the original conquistadores left off. Indeed he has conquered the New World but instead of wielding a sword, he’s used culinary craft to infiltrate our institutions, and imaginations.

–Amy