The world’s best cuisines? In my opinion? Number five: Japanese. Number four: Mexican. Number three: Italian. Number two: Chinese. Number one: French.

So imagine how I feel living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. 142,000 people according to that sign I see on my way back from my hot dog lunch at Costco. And not one French restaurant. 23 Italian restaurants and an unpleasantly plump zero French restaurants. If I lost what little common sense I have left and decided to open a restaurant, you know what kind I’d open. Of course you do.

So what to do? Where can I get my terrine de foie gras? Or confit de canard? Or escargots? Or cassoulet? Or soupe a l’ognion. Or creme brule?

Well, usually I can’t. Except for that one day. On or about the first day of Spring. This year on March 21. Which is, as the movie trailers say, coming soon.

Back in 1912, the legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier started Les Dîners d’Épicure (Epicurean Dinners). On one day, the same menu was served in French restaurants around the world, to as many guests as possible.

Last year, the tourist board of France expanded the event, inviting not just French but all categories of restaurants to participate and pay homage to the contribution of French cuisine.

The event is called Goût de France which, even though it looks like something you’d go to the Mayo Clinic for, not a French restaurant, is pronounced goo and is best translated as A Taste of France.

San Miguel de Allende participated in 2015 and will again this year with a dinner at Cafe Contento. The restaurant’s Jose Bossuet (that’s chef Jose on the far left with other participants from last year) who has stints in the Southwest of France as well as Monte Carlo on his resume, is one of three chefs who will be preparing a six course wine pairing dinner. Working with him will be San Miguel chef Julian Garcia and, from Mexico City, chef Aldo Saavedra.

The chefs are taking some classic French dishes and are adding what Chef Jose calls “some French fusion”. Last year, for example, he married foie gras with nopales and hibiscus.

This year’s menu can be a bit bewildering even for an old foodie with enough French to chase (but not necessarily catch) les belle femmes de Montreal. I thought I’d give you what I think will be a few of the highlights.

The opening course is Vol au Vent de Bogavante a l’Armoricaine. My simple translation is lobster in a cognac and cream sauce in puff pastry. The dish is thought to originate in the port towns on the southwest coast of France.

Another course is Papillote de Truite Saumonee et Legumes Printanieres au Bernaise. Translated it becomes trout cooked in parchment paper with Spring vegetables, topped with one of the world’s very best sauces (rich with butter, egg yolks, lemon and tarragon). The parchment holds in the moisture and there is a moment of absolute nirvana when it is cut open at the table and the aroma first hits your nose.

The main course is Coquelet au Vin y Tastou Gersois de Pommes de Terre, Foie Gras et Truffe Noire. This is the dish I’m most looking forward to. Early in his career, chef Jose worked in Castera Verduzan, a small town located between Toulouse and Bordeaux which is where the inspiration for this dish comes from. It’s a Cornish hen cooked in wine with potatoes in a salt crust.

Jose told me that tastou is a patois word that means the utmost in taste. The Mexican touch will come from San Felipe salt from the Sea of Cortez. The part I’m most excited about is, of course, the foie gras and black truffle.

I like what the chefs are doing with their plat de fromages (my photo is from last year’s Goût de France dinner). This year, Chef Julian is taking three classic French cheeses, Morbier, St. Maure and Chabichou, and has sourced three Mexican equivalents. I’ve had all of the cheeses and can’t tell the difference; I’m predicting you won’t be able to either.

As good as Chefs Jose Bossuet and Julian Garcia are, I’ve never though of either of them as dessert chefs. So I like their decision to invite Aldo Rodrigo Saavedra Gomez from Mexico City. Chef Aldo owns the French pastry shop Bonsanco Pasteleros and is also a very popular Mexican food blogger.

Aldo’s dessert for Goût de France he told me is “a remembrance of the gaznateros, the famous people in Mexico that sell sweets with meringue made to a very traditional French recipe”.

It’s now estimated that close to 1500 chefs on all five continents are expected to join the event and pay tribute to French gastronomy. I’ll be at Cafe Contento on March 21. And please, someone, make one of those rumors come true. Open a French restaurant in San Miguel so that I can manger Francais more than one day a year.

Goût de France will be held at Cafe Contento, Hernandez Macias 72 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The dinner will be held at 8:00 pm on March 21 and includes French wine pairings with the courses. The cost is $1100 per person and reservations can be made at 415 154 8020 or by emailing chefbossuet@cafecontento.com.