Orsay’s roasted loupe de mer with artichokes, fennel, roasted fingerling potatoes and tomato confit.

Among all the new flavors in Florida is a very old one you must try — the cooking of France.

Mais oui. The food of bistro, brasserie, creperie and Escoffier again stars in restaurants high and low, from Miami’s Charlotte Bistro to St. Augustine’s Bistro de Leon. Chefs from France and their American admirers have put mussels, roast chicken, snails and poached fish back in fashion.

Restaurant Orsay in Jacksonville’s historic Avondale simmers happily every night as chef Brian Siebenschuh and servers hustle steaks piled with frites, big oyster platters and decadent pates to sweatshirted young blackbeards and silvery matrons in Talbots sweaters. No one shrills “bon appetit” or “oo la la,” but it is French — an old and, for Americans, a very modern way. The menu invokes a few words like rillettes, tartine and fromage, yet it is most authentic in feel, whether the meal is cassoulet of duck with white beans and andouille or pork and braised cabbage. Perfect duck breast with saged cornbread pudding and root vegetables in a cordial of duck jus is classic, yet less than $25. Wine can be $5 a glass and $20 a bottle.

This is not the French cuisine that was for generations the epitome of gourmet dining — expensive, heavy, fussy and dull. In a world of primavera, ceviche, sushi and tabouleh, French classics seemed unimaginative. No matter that clever Asian or New American chefs relied on French technique to polish the flavors of Hawaii, Vietnam or Peru. Italian and Asian were fresh and in the ascendant.

Look again and have another bite. Today’s French restaurant, whether run by old hands or newcomers, is not a choice of $100 dinners. “Our food is well-thought-out and well-executed, but it is at core comforting,” says Orsay’s Crystal Vessels. When she and the chef opened it with Chew’s Jonathan Insetta, they wanted their French styles to be approachable on ordinary Tuesdays and Wednesdays and not just special occasions.

Our appreciation of French cooking has changed and broadened, thanks to Anthony Bourdain as much as Julia Child. While older patrons may be nostalgic for Louis XIV indulgence, most new menus offer a simpler French, heartier and fresh-flavored. We now know the French don’t eat like the rich and famous. They mind their euros, eat meat and potatoes, especially doubled-fried frites. And they may be even more carnivorous than Americans — beef, pork, lamb shanks, duck, lard, marrow, bacon, liver pates and a big array of charcuterie.

Grand or humble, the cooking relies on good ingredients and technique that appeals to food-savvy diners. Our love for scratch cooking, local produce, crusty breads, good coffee and artisan cheeses and meats is new. But those loves are old hat in France, from sunny Provence to chilly Alsace.

Restaurant Orsay in Jacksonville — not expensive, heavy French cuisine of the past.

Around Florida

In Florida, a new crop of small places makes breakfast and lunch out of omelets, quiche, salads Nicoise and bistro (with a poached egg on top), crepes sweet and salty and sandwiches on croissants and baguettes in dozens of bakeries and creperies.

Pork shank at La Cuisine in Ocala

» La Cuisine, Ocala. While French can have an Asian or Caribbean accent, most diners and restaurateurs focus on traditional flavors. “French cooking is more recognized as a value than a trend or fashion,” say Patrice Perron and Stephane Gattacieca from Lyon, who opened La Cuisine in Ocala two years ago. They consider themselves old school in cooking and found they did not have to adapt their recipes much for local tastes. They insist La Cuisine is not fine dining, just comfortable and very good, and they take pride that their diners linger in the European style.

» Pistache, West Palm Beach. In West Palm Beach, one young Frenchman hungry for a daily bistro, Thierry Beaud, opened Pistache with some Franco-Floridian friends in 2008. “We loved Café Boulud, but we couldn’t eat there every day for the food we grew up with.” Which is why they built Pistache in the shell of a Tommy Bahama on Clematis Street. The surroundings remain urban shopping area, yet Pistache looks like a favorite old hat and cozy as coq au vin or a cheese-crusted bowl of onion soup.

Au Pied de Cochon in South Beach

» Au Pied de Cochon, South Beach. Some cases, like the new branch of the Au Pied de Cochon chain in South Beach, are more clearly theme restaurants, with more brassy décor than food or feel. It has a Bibendum look appropriate to Miami, and the signature fried pigs foot, but the bread, salads and service of a theme park.

» La Goulue, Bal Harbour. Luxurious dining has not gone the way of the ancient regime. La Goulue, the perfect replica of French elegance, closed in New York, is now at home in Bal Harbour; Miami has a chic caviar-forward salon at Kaspia.

» Escargot 41, Naples. Naples’ appetite for escargot is richly satisfied at Escargot 41, where Patrick and Jackie Fevrier serve tournedos with anchovy butter and cook the namesake snails seven luscious ways. Prices are not extravagant, and the mood is more playful than stuffy. Patrick Fevrier sticks to tradition without apology. “I don’t know how to make a cream sauce without cream” or cook beans without pork fat, he says. Not to fret. “This is a destination restaurant,” he says. “You are not going to eat like this every night.”

Or will we?

Read reviews of hundreds of top restaurants in Florida. Florida Trend's Great Florida Restaurant Guide 2010.