BROWN DEER, Wis. — You can smell the food cooking before you even walk in the door at Pastiche Bistro. Step into the kitchen, and you're transported to Brown Deer's own slice of France.
Michael Engel has been cooking for over four decades— most of his career spent with the goal of bringing French culture and food to each plate served.
“Where did the French theme come from?” Asked TMJ4’s Mariam Mackar. “Why French food?”
“It was just what I really loved, right from the start,” Engel said. “the French have a respect and a reverence, not only for food and wine but for the people who produce it.”
Mackar asked Engel how he would describe French food to someone who hasn’t experienced it.
“Strangely familiar,” the chef replied. “It’s familiar, it’s comfortable and the type of food that we do is the bistro style, the country French food.”
Engel says you'll always find their restaurant filled with loyal customers and the Engel family keeping the bistro running smoothly.
His three sons work in the kitchen and his wife Angela is the shop’s pastry chef, who often meets the customers at the door as the hostess.
“She comes here in the morning. She does all the baking, pastries and breads and stuff, goes home walks the dog, takes a shower, and comes back at night and hostesses,” Michael explained.
He tells TMJ4 that the family's passion for French food and culture only grew after taking trips there and experiencing it firsthand.
“Every time we saw or smelled something interesting [in Paris], we’d stop there and eat. You can walk through the city and with the right set of eyes and you can see that history and it’s something you can’t find in the United States.”
But Engel says you can find authentic French food and wine prepared with love right inside the doors of Pastiche.
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