Bu Pun Su

As I searched my pictures for the past Euro trip, I noticed that I missed to write a review of one restaurant in Milan – Il luogo di Aimo e Nadia. The fact that I forgot, this implied that my meal was not really memorable; anyway, I’ll make the report. This family restaurant has been in operation for about 50 years or so (if not mistaken) and its location was not in the strategic/fashionable area of Milan. Perhaps because of this or the fact that it was on Monday, the restaurant was relatively calm – about a dozen people showed up. Therefore, the diners were probably the fans of aimo nadia’s food or some foodies like us who didn’t mind making an extra effort to go ‘out of the way’ a little. The simple dining room with ornamental white ceiling was not big and surprisingly very modern. Additionally, there are plenty of art works (paintings and sculptures) by Paolo Ferrari adorning the walls as well as guest tables – I neither liked nor disliked them. Both the founders, Aimo and Nadia Moroni were no longer working in the kitchen; their daughter – Stefania has been in charge of the business with the help of a couple younger head chefs, only Fabio Pisani was available on that night. For the food, we decided to go for the tasting menu. The cooking was more into traditional Tuscan cuisine (the owner’s native region) instead of “alla Milanese” cooking. The meal started quite good with fried porcini & eggplant with cocoa powder and mozzarella. Followed by a fresh, tender and tasty san remo shrimp with creamy pistachio mayonnaise. After that, we had ‘eturian’ soup with some seasonal vegetables (carrot, bean, wild fennel etc.); the veggie stock/broth was thick and rather heavy – alright. The staffs brought the next dish seemed to be proud of it: “ravioli” of raw cuttlefish with its black ink. The presentation was quite unique, but it tasted too strong and not that delicious; the tomato ice cream and almond cream on sides did not help either. My favorite dish of the night was next: tortelli with veal ossobuco and white truffle. It was classic, pretty and delicious – also love the ‘cheesy & creamy’ flavors; pasta dishes in Italy were generally amazing! The main course was rather disappointing. The smoked young duck (pleasing on the eye) was a bit too salty and overcooked, hence dry – it was ‘saved’ by its jus and sour cherry sauce. When we brought this up to Chef Pisani (he’s walking around the tables), he just said ok and left to the next table. We noticed that the restaurant was not too pleased when receiving non-positive feedback from customers. No big deal since I would be very unlikely to return here anyway. Both of us opted to skip cheese and as a replacement, we were given the specialty of Puglia - cream of chickpeas with wild chicory, onions and ‘biscuit’; it was fine. Then we had the easy to eat pre-dessert in fennel ice cream covered with chocolate and nuts. For the dessert itself, we had velvety chocolate mousse with red grape ‘soup’, biscuit and wine sorbet; quite pleasant. I heard plenty of good things about this restaurant in particular when both Aimo and Nadia Moroni were still around, which unfortunately we did not really experience it based on this lone visit. The founders’ ideas of combining tradition and creativity were still there, but not so much on the execution and the resulting dishes. We did not have bad meal per se, but it was nothing remarkable either. The food was alright; the staffs just did enough but not so much tried to please/elevate guests’ experiences. Unless you’re a hardcore foodie, taking the extra effort to visit here would not be necessary even when you’re in Milan. I still prefer the classical Milanese menu I had at Cracco several years ago. I don’t mind giving this meal a (low) 2-star Michelin level. I wish them good luck maintaining it, somehow with the current team; I just didn’t see it would attain the 3rd macaroon … ever. For pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/sets/72157651317589512/

Pierre Gagnaire has become a “celebrity” chef recently. His restaurants are all over the globe (from Paris to Tokyo, from Las Vegas to Moscow). Despite this, somehow he’s not as ‘famous’ as Joel Robuchon or Gordon Ramsay. However, when discussing among the world’s grand chefs, Pierre Gagnaire, nearly 65 years of age, is very likely to be the most admired and respected. Until now, he seems to still have the energy of chefs who are 20-30 years younger than him. When visiting his empire ‘collection’, Gagnaire prefers to be at the kitchen leading his team and quite often getting his hands dirty as well to create dishes that will please his customers. Ever since I tasted Pierre Gagnaire’s creations at his main restaurant on rue Balzac in ’07, visiting his other restaurants was something I never considered. Last year was no exception. I had another meal at Gagnaire and it took place in his flagship Paris restaurant. Unlike my previous visits, I was a man on a mission this time. I knew exactly what I wanted to order. It was a late autumn season and in French cuisine it meant 2 things: gibier and truffe. When dining with my spouse, I think I have the tendency to look at special dishes (usually a la carte) served for 2 people because I often dine alone too in which this kind of item is usually out of option. After having decent amuse-bouche consisting of several items, my first course arrived. I had smooth, tasty and light parmesan cheese soufflé (the portion was quite big). On top of it, there were rich and velvety spinach ‘soup’, fragrant & strong white truffle (the shavings’ results look a bit ‘ugly’; I think the assistant manager did not really do a great job) and crunchy roasted hazelnuts. It was a pretty and delicious dish featuring texture, color and flavor contrasts. This dish had 2 side items: pain soufflé with mascarpone cheese & crunchy cabbage; nice sweet and sour of lemon jelly with pear/pecorino ice cream. It was a well-executed and interesting dish; I was pleased to have chosen it for my truffle dish instead of the more ‘predictable’ risotto or chicken. My wife did not want any appetizer since she anticipated the main course would be heavy. Following the soufflé above, come the supposed to be the main highlight of our meal: Lievre a la Royale in 3 servings to be shared for 2 people. Pierre Gagnaire showed his talent and skills in preparing classic French dish in the old-fashioned way. After all, he used to work at Paul Bocuse and Tante Alice. 1st part was the ‘easiest’ to savor meaning not too gamey. The saddle of hare was perfectly cooked, tender and delicious. It was accompanied by sweet & tasty sauce (a combination of lard-deglazed with marc brandy as well as orange marmalade with barberry); the vegetable side dish was good and added some complexity. 2nd part was really intense. The hare leg and its fat cooked a la royale served with heavy sauce (a right proportion of hare’s blood, solid red wine quality, foie gras etc.) and some cube of duck liver (really rich). Truly a robust and powerful dish, it was not easy to finish all of it. To reduce its intensity, there was parsnip puree with a hint of chocolate as side dish 3rd part was nearly as rich/’strong’ as the 2nd part. It was a buttery puff pastry pie filled with hare’s meat and its powerful jus. To “balance” it, Gagnaire provided pineapple & papaya sorbet flavored with cardamom. I only managed to consume ¼ of the pie because previously in addition to my portion, I also eat my spouse’s dishes (1/4 from the 1st serving and 1/3 from the 2nd serving) – she did not have strong appetite for this kind of dish. An instant classic of French pithivier The technique applied and preparations taken for this dish were nearly flawless. However, I think I came to understanding that generally wild game stuffs were neither my passion nor really suitable for my palate with some exception on wild duck meat and venison. This legendary dish did not disappoint at all, but I would pick Gagnaire’s more normal dishes (lamb or turbot) over this. Similarly, I believe the partridge dish I ate at L’Arpege was probably as good as it gets and in the same manner, I would easily choose Passard’s duck or pigeon anytime over his game dish. That being said, Gagnaire’s hare a la royale was one of the dishes I must have tried at least once in my life and I achieved that from this visit To close our meal, we shared Gagnaire’s famous le grand desserts (8-9 small desserts altogether) and unfortunately, I was not too impressed this time. The presentation was pretty but about half of the desserts gave “extreme” flavors. For instance, the coffee ice cream was really bitter; the red currant sorbet with caramel was very sweet while the citrus with orange was too sour. To reduce the many bold flavors and enjoy these desserts more, we simply got to ‘jump’ from one plate to the other – not really a nice way to indulge ourselves. At the end, we only managed to finish 2/3 of them simply because we did not really enjoy them. Staffs at Pierre Gagnaire were friendly, patient, and efficient although not everybody would fully understand and remember the ingredient details of each course – it’s very challenging to do so here given Gagnaire’s mercurial nature. Save for the restaurant director, I hardly remembered the same people serving at this dining room even having dined here 4x. The restaurant was very busy that night, even the private room was occupied for an event attended by a dozen people or so. The young waiters taking care of us sometimes looked lost but tried to be calm. One gentleman kindly offered that we took away the left over pastry pie from our main course; when we’re about to leave the restaurant, we waited and looked at him for 1-2 minutes yet he did not remember that he had forgotten to give us our “pie” until we reminded him. One ‘glaring’ weakness, in my opinion, about the service here (and increasingly in many other institutions) – the restaurant director (in this case Herve Parmentier) stood out most of the times near the bar and entrance talking to his colleagues - rarely supporting his team directly. I experienced similar thing at Pre Catelan where JJ Chauveau only greeted guests upon coming and leaving, but missing in the dining room. That’s why I really admire people like Denis Courtiade or Jean-Claude Breton who consistently engaged the guests and empower his team; they’re truly iconic maître d’ maison All in all, I was very pleased with my meal except for the dessert. However, this was not my best one – I’ve had better dinner experiences at this restaurant. As explained above, it’s not mainly due to the kitchen’s fault but with the fact that wild game stuff was not “my things” especially when served in the size of an a la carte portion. I bestowed 95/100 for the food (worthy of 2 ½* by Michelin standard). I’m not sure if I will return here in my next Paris visit; I’ve been here plenty of times. I could not recall there are dishes I really want to eat that I’ve not savored yet. Sadly, after this meal, L’Arpege with L’Ambroisie became the only restaurants in the world that deserved to have “4-star” in my notes – Gagnaire Paris used to be in that same ‘league’ You can see the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/PierreGagnaireParisFrance4thVisit#

For people like me who did not have vast knowledge about London’s food scene, I might consider The Ledbury (probably named after the road’s name and located in the quiet residential corner of Notting Hill) to be “new” with rising star chef in Brett Graham. However, apparently that the Ledbury already received 2-star Michelin more than 4 years ago and ranked among the very best dining place in London according to restaurant magazine/S. Pellegrino. Our dinner here was our last gastronomy restaurant to visit in late Nov ‘14. We could be a bit ‘tired’ of eating, but then I decided to ‘complete’ our initial plan. We eventually showed up 10 min late on Sunday evening. The restaurant was not too big, with dark & thick drapes and plenty of mirrors making the room looked more spacious; the ambiance was pleasant and rather relaxed despite the fact that many people formally dressed. The restaurant was busy and I noticed, including us, there were about a dozen “Asian” diners – indeed, it’s a popular restaurant. We decided to have the shorter and cheaper degustation menu because it seemed lighter and I would like to try the beef main course (enough of game meat from this trip) I will go straight with our menu. 1st course: it looked like a salad for refreshing. The chef prepared contrast of colors and textures throughout in artichoke, grapes, hazelnut and grated duck liver (interesting combination but only tasted ordinary on our palates) 2nd course: thin and translucent white beetroot baked in clay accompanied by decent cured & dried mackerel (looked like in ‘sashimi’ style). It was light and alright; the beetroot was not at the level I ate at L’Arpege 3rd course: things get better from here. The manager offered us to have 2 different dishes and we complied with his suggestion. I had the original course in the menu: tender roast turbot with yellow wine sauce, seaweed and brassica. Turbot and vin jauce was the favorite combination of Alain Passard and Chef Graham did quite a good job here; I did not find the vegetables truly enhanced the overall experience of this dish. My spouse had the special dish: tender and flavorful grey partridge served with its jus, chestnut and truffle. It was a very pleasant and well-balanced dish; tasted better than my turbot 4th course: slow cooked dexter beef ‘tasting’ (short rib, roasted rib, ribeye cap) with truffle. The beef was perfectly cooked and every part was delicious; the puree would intensify the beef. I enjoyed the aromatic smell from the onions and juniper, and they tasted just fine. I was glad to keep my reservation due to this dish Nothing really memorable about the blood orange granite and sweet custard as the pre-dessert 5th course: dessert time - nicely poached pear belle Helene (A Parisian menu staple) served with chocolate and vanilla ice cream covered with almonds. Well execution and quite tasty, a great way to end our meal The service was professional and staffs were friendly and attentive; they got the basic stuffs right but we did not feel anything special. I noticed at least 2 staffs were Australian. The food was generally good. While it may be ‘worse’ when compared to Ramsay RHR or Ducasse Dorchester, I felt that the Ledbury’s food was more exciting and ‘lively’. I believe Chef Graham’s cooking had more potential and would simply get better. I don’t mind re-visiting the Ledbury should I return to London in the future. As of now, I think the 2-star was a correct assessment by Michelin. Getting a third one will be challenging. However, among the current London’s 2-star; the Ledbury is the only one with a decent chance in the next 3-5 years Here are the pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/sets/72157648430772834/with/16476507886/

Paris and L’Arpège have been synonymous things for me. Whenever I am in Paris, coming and having a meal at Alain Passard’s legendary restaurant is part of a ‘ritual’. Fortunate enough, I’ve had wonderful meals here for 5+ times and the restaurant has always been full house including my recent 2 visits. Yet, I never had any difficulties to secure a table at L’Arpège, perhaps due to the fact that they allow guests to book as far as 3-4 months in advance. As I arrived at the restaurant near 8:30 PM (considered early by Parisian standard), half of the seats was still empty; the staffs allowed us to choose any table for 2 that we liked. After ordering a glass of Rose champagne for my wife, I casually observed the restaurant and found that I pretty much recognized no one from the service team; suddenly my “home” in Paris became a rather strange place until Alain Passard walked around the dining room and greeted us several minutes later. The Chef, luckily, still recognized me and we had a short conversation – the charming and charismatic Passard was always friendly, sincere and caring to his customers regardless you’re a regular or not. During our latest meals, I could comfortably say that Alain Passard was also the main star for the restaurant’s hospitality. I will discuss more about the service later. As a restaurant that strictly adhered to seasonality, there could be times when the ingredients were rather limited. It happened during our dinner concerning the poultry items. I was informed that the kitchen at L’Arpège only had duck and partridge (no other meat either); the duck was excellent but I opted for the small bird because I never had any game dish cooked by Alain Passard. Similar thing happened to the fish, only turbot was available. Because of this, we decided to go for the degustation diner menu – the last time I ordered this full tasting menu was more than 6 years ago. We’ve had more than 30 courses from our 2 meals here, thus this time I will not write the dishes in details. You could read them from my blog (see the link at the end of this write-up). The summary of what we had - I’ve eaten half of the dishes served to our tables. L’Arpège’s signature/regular dishes that consistently showed up were: hot-cold egg, onion gratin, vegetable ravioli, ‘colorful’ vegetables with couscous & argan oil etc.; they’re all consistently great. Some outstanding new dishes were: sweet and fresh raw scallop served with thin radish and geranium oil (pretty and delicious); the partridge, served with its jus, was mild in flavor, tender with grassy notes and served with chestnut, leeks and aromatic herbs (elegant with nice complexity) – it was good, but not better than Passard’s duck, pigeon or sweetbread. My spouse’s favorite dishes were: beetroot sushi (moist & well-seasoned rice and tasty beet, but don’t compare it to the sushi served at Tokyo’s top sushi-ya) and flavorful and fresh lobster served with excellent dressing and turnips, her best shellfish dish in the entire trip. Lastly, for desserts – I loved the intensity, bitter and pure flavor of chocolate millefeuille and its sauce yet balanced by the star anise ice cream. In addition, the classic Paris-Brest was delicious and in harmony (The cream's sweetness was contrasted by the salty caramel and nutty & crunchy walnut. It was flavorful without feeling heavy unlike the one dimensional kind served at Pre Catelan) Generally, I had another unforgettable meal for the dinner. However, for the 2nd meal during lunch, there was a slight drop in my satisfaction. The waffle had good smoke salmon and ‘whipped ham cream’ but the waffle itself was kinda dry and bland. The main course, a pristine Codfish was smooth but lack taste except from its wine sauce – it was not up to the standard of L’Arpège’s monkfish, turbot or sole. I gave 96 pts (the lowest score I’ve ever given) for my lunch and 98/100 for 1st dinner meal. Yes, my lunch was not good enough in light of the sublime meals I’ve had here in the past few years but when compared to other meals, that lunch was still better than my experiences say at Guy Savoy, Gordon Ramsay or Maison Pic. Now come to the service. In spite of the fact that I was no longer with familiar with nearly everyone in the dining room, the ‘new’ staffs were capable of delivering stellar service during dinner. It might not as personal as before, but they’re friendly, generous and accommodative. The difference was an action by the Chef-owner. Alain Passard not only greeted every table at least once, but also he brought and served one dish to every table throughout that evening. In our case, he said that he cooked and personally delivered the Partridge dish to our table. On the way back to kitchen, Passard often helped clear dishes – I thought it was a noble gesture and great leadership by example to his staff. A small hiccup took place during lunch when sommelier: would you like to have a glass of red? Me: are we going to have a meat dish? Sommelier: yes, and it should be a squab Me: alright, then 10-15 minutes passed by (I already had a glass of Riesling and Chardonnay at that time) and suddenly I was told by other staff that there would not be any squab or other meat course for this lunch. Then I politely declined the red wine. The sommelier looked confused and apologetic. I know the restaurant can ‘make up’ the mistakes and give us more food as usual, but for this meal I already promised my spouse that it would not last more than 3 hours – my shortest meal at this place. It was our last full day in Paris and she would like to explore the city + we still had dinner later at 9 PM. It was a very busy lunch and the restaurant director, Ms. Helene Cousin was around (I was told that she only does lunch nowadays ever since she had kids). Somehow, it was more intensive than the service during our dinner. Staffs moved fast and looked a bit stressed at times but they’re still professional. Again, when I said the service was not as good as before, I referred this with respect to the superb hospitality I used to receive here. Prior to 2014, whenever I dined at L'Arpège, 2 of these people (Helene, Nadia and Laurent, the former director until 2008) were always in the dining room and they always did fantastic job. They simply set the bar very high and I could not help to usually compare the service when they’re still around – Nadia also had left the restaurant. Ms. Cousin seemed tired but still tried her best to be helpful & cheerful; the motherhood seemed to take much of her energy though. y greeted every table at least once, but also he brought and After these meals and despite some ‘imperfections’ at lunch, L'Arpège is still my favorite and best restaurant in the world. The dinner here and at L’Ambroisie, as far as the food was concerned, ranked at the top during my foodie trip in late autumn last year – both were spectacular and memorable. I still yet follow Passard’s suggestion when he said that the “best” produce of his gardens (quality and variety) was in the summer. I tend to think that summer was ‘boring’ and many restaurants are closed; perhaps I should listen to his suggestion one day A more detailed review, please visit: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2015/02/larpege-alain-passard-7th-8th-visit.html Comprehensive dishes’ pictures were here: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/LArpegeParisFrance7th8thVisit#

Alain Ducasse, nearly 60 years old next year, is never satisfied with his already remarkable empire. Around late summer 2013, he accepted the challenge to take over the restaurants at hotel Le Meurice (the acclaimed chef Yannick Alleno left the hotel in early ‘13). Ducasse has plenty of capable and talented brigades at his disposal; with the closing of Plaza Athenee for renovation, he sent Christopher Saintagne, a former sous-chef for JF Piege at Crillon, to become Meurice’s Executive Chef and in particular to lead the hotel’s flagship restaurant bearing his name. This restaurant is essentially the “same” establishment as Alain Ducasse Plaza Athenee (ADPA) prior to the hotel’s renovation in the fall 2013. ADPA was my initial destination, but since it would serve different kind of style (almost no meat, cream and sugar) upon re-opening, then I decided to visit Ducasse Meurice. Perhaps, my wife would also be impressed with its beautiful dining room. In essence the grand dining room was as pretty as before (I had a dinner here under Alleno in the past). The big windows, majestic chandeliers, painting in the ceiling, and other opulent stuffs were still part of this magnificent dining place, which was modeled after a state apartment in Versailles. About half of the tables were filled, so the seats nearer to the kitchen and entrance were not occupied. We were seated at the side table near the window and facing the central dining room. It was a sunny day with plenty of natural light. My wife didn’t feel like eating a lot, so she ordered the lunch menu whereas for me, I opted for the Collection menu. Alain Ducasse was on track to probably become the first chef with two 3-star michelin establishments in the same city if ADPA managed to get back its ‘full macarons’ this Feb. My spouse and I began with the same snacks and amuse-bouche -fresh and briny oyster from Normandy to whet our appetite -followed by sharing roots vegetables cooked in sea salt and served with rather sharp sorrel sauce. There were several kinds of veggies: potato, leek, radish, carrot etc. In spite of getting used to the quality of Arpege’s vegetables, we could still say this ‘au naturel legumes’ was solid (tasty, light without any trace of butter/cream) The collection menu, -scallops with Alba truffles prepared 2 ways. Firstly, the delicious and perfectly seared scallop in tapioca ‘bread’ with parsley and creamy sauce. Secondly, I had the pristine & sweet semi-raw scallop pasta and olive oil. A satisfying dish -the kitchen cooked half portion of poached blue lobster with delicate artichoke for the next course. The sauce (a mixture of lobster just, bonito and vinegar) was excellent. The lobster was prepared in right texture: buttery claw and slightly firm tail; both were flavorful. -refined chicken breast with superb albufera sauce and shaved of white truffle was the dish I looked forward the most and it was up to my expectation. The breast was moist and flavorful, covered by scrumptious and perfectly prepared classic albufera sauce plus Alba truffle shaved on top – heavenly. I liked this poached poultry better than Frechon’s famous Bresse chicken cooked inside a pig’s bladder -I tasted 4 French (artisanal) cheeses and they’re very good. I had Mothais ala feuille, comte, Camembert and abbaye de citeaux. They’re accompanied by dry fruit & black olive breads as well as salad -pineapple dessert in several forms such as extract, dry chips, sorbet and they’re served with avocado, coconut, chili spices and so on. I think the pastry chef should include fresh & sweet pineapple itself. It was quite ordinary and I felt a bit underwhelmed Lunch menu -‘semi-raw’ and fresh sea bream with beetroots and a dollop of caviar. I thought the fish was a bit too salty for my taste, but the combination worked well. My spouse enjoyed it -my wife liked her main course a lot; it was a tender & delectable Bresse chicken with earthy & meaty cep mushrooms. I tried a bit and it was quite good, but not at the level of my poultry with albufera -chocolate with some varieties: texture, taste, temperature etc. There were ice cream, decadent choco ‘sauce’, cocoa mousse and foam. The combination did not go as good as we expected. It was not bad, but nothing memorable either Some notes about the food. Desserts were (surprisingly) kinda disappointing by Alain Ducasse standard – well, we would not have been had one of us ordered the legendary Baba au rhum. I could not recall Chef Ducasse created desserts, let alone delicious ones, in which he would combine too many things in one plate like what we had here. He was usually a ‘minimalist’ type and we could clearly see and taste 2-3 main items. For the appetizers and main courses, comparing here and my 2 meals at ADPA ... I found the execution at Meurice not as rigorous and precise as the one at Plaza except for the case of my chicken dish. My two previous meals at Ducasse Plaza can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/AlainDucasseAuPlazaAtheneeParisFrance1stVisit https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/AlainDucasseAuPlazaAtheneeParisFrance2ndVisit In addition, the portion for each course was getting smaller. I also saw the pictures of others eating similar dish at Plaza Athenee about 2 years to confirm it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very good meal and slightly more superior than my tasting menu at Ducasse Dorchester. It’s just that I knew what Alain Ducasse was capable of and this certainly was not his finest. I would give 96/100 (2 ¾* by Michelin standard) for the food. Lastly, a comment on the service - it was not up to my expectation. It was not a busy lunch, and they refilled the water (and bread) very slowly – we had to raise our hands a couple of times. On the contrary, the staffs seemed to be very rush as if they did not want to talk or entertain us when we asked for something. Waiters also spoke quite fast and lacked eye contacts. It was not a typical of Alain Ducasse’s hospitality. The most decent service delivered by senior sommelier who used to work under Roucayrol at Plaza. As a matter of fact, the service was also not on par with Meurice under Alleno. To be fair, they’re still professional (get most of the basic things right) and trying to be friendly but not really personable or looked too sincere even though their english was quite fluent. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable lunch experience. However, the next time I return to Paris, it will not be in my list. It will be the time to re-visit Barbot’s Astrance and/or Alleno + Le Squer in their new restaurants. You can follow this link for pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/AlainDucasseAuHotelLeMeuriceParisFrance

Italian fine dining restaurants tend to be quietly under the radar, with the exception of Osteria Francescana where its charismatic chef and the media successfully creating buzz that helped the publicity of Italian cuisine. 2006 was the year I began my gastronomy trip in Europe and Le Calandre was one of a few restaurants I happened to visit. Like many other 3-star places in Italy, Calandre was situated in a small and unassuming town of Rubano, not too far from Padua. I instantly fell in love with that place though the not-so-strategic location has prevented me from returning there until Nov last year. My spouse would really love to visit the floating city of Venice. It should always be romantic there and November would be quiet, so I managed to squeeze time out of Venezia to re-visit (lunch) the most beloved restaurant of the Alajmo’s brothers. Le Calandre’s address was still the same but the interior tremendously changed. It became very dark (the restaurant covered up the natural light) with spot/low lighting directed at each of the 8 big circular tables uniformly cut from the same 180-year-old ash tree. The table had a dip in the centre to hold bread basket. There was no more the typical Michelin white cloth. The decor was still stylish and elegant, but without any extravagant feeling. The unique and specifically designed tableware and glassware were still available. The restaurant introduced “Carpe diem” concept in which guests who were certain to order one of the 3 tasting menus could do advanced payment and received 15+ % discount. We took advantage for the offering and this time I ordered the ‘longer’ version of the Autumn seasonal menu. Even after the discount, Calandre appeared to be more expensive than the other 3-star Michelin establishments in Italy but they really gave lots of food. I had to request for a break just before the meat course, which hardly happened for my usual appetite. After some bread, snacks and amuse (involved plenty of cheese), then come the courses from the Fall degustation menu below, -small and sweet sea scallop was in harmony with the apple agretto acidity and celery meringue delicate flavor -flavorful langoustine & squid were wrapped by velvety raw piemontese beef; this dish was served with lobster cream/mayo, vegetable salad and caviar -one of my best dishes was fresh burrata having buttery flavor. Under the burrata, there were fish and clams that were complemented by delicious salty & fragrant squid ink – simple and delicious Good antipasti then followed by pasta & risotto -an innovative creation of tarragon pasta with flavorful pistachio sauce, snails, octopus and herbs served in a copper pan. The smart part: the pasta was not the star and acted more as a rich emulsion -wheat linguine was prepared slightly too “al dente” for my taste. The ‘dressing’ was quite interesting, made of pine nut, pumpkin and beef stock producing intense flavor – not bad -in Autumn, the risotto dish was served with chicken stock jelly, subtle colatura di alici and shaved Alba truffle. It was creamy & rich yet not heavy with the rice having perfect texture with slight saltiness. Very good and a bit more superior to similar dish served at dal Pescatore -as the first timer, the kitchen gave my spouse the classic version: risotto, cooked perfectly, with saffron and liquorice. It’s still the finest risotto in the world, even better than the one above. The saffron and licorice powder gave balance of sweet & bitter flavor, while the added parmesan was delightful Delightful primi. Now it’s time for the secondi (seafood and meats) -seared fresh & top quality of succulent lobster served with smooth no-cream sauce (made from sea urchin and crab) as well as meaty & earthy mushroom. A sublime dish and love it very much -juicy, thinly cut and flavorful lamb was prepared ‘alla Milanese’. This beautiful meat was accompanied by aromatic almond & herb, fresh salad and red beets -lastly, tender & gamey baby squab in tasty ‘rustic’ sauce was served with cabbage, mango and sauteed peppers – enjoyable and luckily in small portion For the dolci, the restaurant prepared: -truffled egg, another Autumn specialty. It consisted of egg white, white chocolate, white truffle and vanilla ice cream. It was decadent as long as the truffle’s distinct smell and taste was still there. Without it, it became rather monotonous, sweet and (very) eggy -my wife had Calandre’s new dessert called pollen. It’s a show contrast in temperature, flavor and texture. There were several elements inside such as elderflower gelato, pistachio, ginger granita and mango -to close, each of us got a portion of Massi’s interpretation of Tiramisu, served in a specific designed glass. We got to zip through to savor the chocolate, coffee, and mascarpone flavors – clever and stunning A remarkable “symphony” by a gifted Italian (kitchen) maestro. Chef Alajmo’s versatility has enabled him to create high quality classical and contemporary Italian dishes with ease. No wonder that he became the youngest chef ever to have received Michelin’s 3-star award in 2002. For this meal, I had 3 glasses of wine: 2 whites (2013 Niedrist Riesling and 2011 Monte lessini from Veneto) and 1 red (2009 Corto chianti) to be precise. The restaurant was very quiet; only 2 tables were filled, comprising of exactly 7 people. Massi Alajmo came to the dining room a couple of times and he likes to engage and listen to guests’ comments. He sincerely (still) wanted to be better and ensured diners’ satisfaction all the times. The Alajmo brothers had a few restaurants nowadays and this “forced” the older Alajmo, Raffaele to travel around and unable to stay put at Calandre anymore. The current restaurant manager named Andrea Calzavara who was friendly but he only met guests at the beginning and the end of the meal. In between, 1 waiter and 1 junior sommelier served all the 2 tables. They did a decent job by delivering good service in a professional but relaxed manner. We were pleased although I admitted it was not as polished as when Raffaele still lead the FOH. All in all, it was an incredible experience especially the quality of the food – I bestowed 97 pts meaning (in my notes) it’s the only restaurant serving Italian cuisine that deserved to be at the 3-star level without any reservation. Given Massi Alajmo’s talents and seasonal cuisine, a return to Calandre is necessary should I find myself around the Veneto region. A more detailed review, please visit: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2015/01/le-calandre-massimiliano-alajmo.html Comprehensive dishes’ pictures were here: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/LeCalandrePadovaItaly#

In the Fall ’08, I completed my mission to visit all of Alain Ducasse gastronomy restaurants (including the one in NY). Things did not stay constant in the restaurant industry; after the closing of Ducasse Essex House, apparently the current Monégasque chef still had a strong ambition to hold 3-star Michelin for three different restaurants. I believe this might be important for him after knowing Joel Robuchon, possibly his main ‘competitor’, achieved that. Thus in ’07, he opened another restaurant bearing his name - Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester London (ADL) with the intention to attain Michelin’s highest rating. The rest was history and he managed to get that. As a matter of fact, Ducasse had chances to be the first chef with four 3-star restaurants after the takeover of Le Meurice. It could be interesting since Robuchon seemed to have similar goals by opening La Grande Maison in Bordeaux by putting one of his most capable chefs – Tomonori Danzaki to lead his only fine dining restaurant in Europe. The journey of ADL was not that different from ADNY. There were strong critics/oppositions and plenty of negative reviews in the first couple of years before it eventually settled down and ADL seems to be doing very well now. The restaurant is relatively big for fine dining standard (probably can sit around 70+ people); it was a busy Saturday night. The dining room was, as expected, luxurious and well-appointed though not over the top as its Paris and Monaco counter parts. There were some wood panels, yellow/green “macarons/buttons” on the wall and the famous table lumiere. Additionally, the room was also decorated with good quality materials in light colors (tan + cream). I was told the table looking out over Park Lane during lunch time was fantastic. As far as the food was concerned, I think ADL was pretty much Ducasse Essex house moving to London with ingredients, whenever possible, were sourced in the UK and the service/decor was less formal. The essence of the food here is the elegant and traditional French cuisine with some modern twist. The menu’s was concept was almost the same as ADNY: the basic ones were appetizer + fish and/or meat + dessert; then there were a seasonal tasting menu and premium menu (usually involving truffle and caviar). As per the recommendation of Denis Courtiade, the maitre de maison of ADPA, we should consult with the restaurant director – Damien Pepin. We followed his suggestion and let him ‘surprise’ us. Essentially, we were supposed to enjoy 7 courses – sometimes my wife and I would eat the same dish and the other times we had different items. Note that I somehow did not feel really well towards the end of the meal (in particular after the meat course that I can merely consumed ¾ portion); so I skipped the cheese, and only managed to eat less than half of the dessert. It got nothing to do with the food, more due to fatigue and perhaps the cold weather after an intense 2-week travelling in Europe. This meal was near the end of the trip and unfortunately I fell sick here. That being said, I believe I was still well enough to give “fair” judgment about this dinner experience. So we ate the following: As soon as we’re seated, we were given a generous portion of gougeres in (emmental) cheese flavor, paprika and pepper – airy and puffy, good but I slightly prefer the one served in ADNY several years ago with bechamel sauce inside the choux. 1st – both of us started with seared of a plump North Scotland scallop served with rich sautéed cauliflower and pungent Alba truffle. It’s well-executed and very yummy 2nd – My spouse E had succulent Scottish langoustine that was nicely complemented by granny smith and coral vinaigrette dressing; my raw & cooked mushrooms was so-so; lacking in distinctive flavors and textures. I also found the parsley reduction too dominant 3rd – E received creamy and not-so-rich seared foie gras served with good quality artichokes and hazelnuts; I had a fabulous sauté gourmand lobster dish with flavorful and balanced sauce. The supporting stuffs were very good too such as the al-dente homemade semolina pasta and soft chicken quenelles. Deserved to be the restaurant’s signature dish 4th – wife: delectable sea bass with roasted cep, mushroom sauce and almond; it was solid and but not wow. The kitchen served me a firm and tasty seared turbot, ‘the king of fish’, served with root vegetables and light-flavored sauce. 5th – the main course was the classic duck (from Burgaud house) dish with turnip, beetroot and an excellent rouennaise sauce. The duck breast, cooked pink, was delicious though a bit ‘chewy’ nevertheless overall it’s very enjoyable 6th – each of us had an exotic fruit dessert: refreshing with great contrast in flavors and temperatures. It was very lovely after heavy & rich dishes. I felt dizzy at this moment and simply asked for the bill, then rushed for a taxi to get back to our hotel. So we had no mignardises this time, simply receiving a box of chocolate produced in Ducasse Paris factory. Throughout the meal, we shared 2010 Meursault clos de la velle Domaine darviot-perrin put in a carafe (more or less half a bottle) whereas for the duck, I drank a glass of 2008 Morey saint denis rue de vere perrot-minot; both were enjoyable. The markup was, of course, really high. Back to the food, I thought generally it went well. From appetizers, fish/seafood and meat as well as dessert – ADL went from strength to strength though nothing was absolutely mind blowing; simply tasty, consistent and well executed. For me, it’s the best restaurant in London, better than Gordon RHR. I scored 95/100 (2 ¾* Michelin level, about as good as Osteria Francescana), but still below Ducasse flagship restaurants in Hotel de Paris and Plaza Athenee. You won’t be disappointed if you come with the right mindset and expectation. Unlike me, my spouse liked this place even more; she said that ADL was even better than Dal Pescatore and Gagnaire Paris, which I didn’t quite agree. The service was friendly and efficient. Because it’s a busy weekend, Damien could not come that often to our table, but one young staff in charge of our table was doing well (always anticipated our needs) – unfortunately we forgot his name. He used to work at Guy Savoy Paris and was very passionate about the world of gastronomy, especially French cuisine. Despite a big challenge earlier after the opening, Ducasse Dorchester ultimately thrived in all sectors. We were told that Chef Ducasse was very supportive across the board (from food & wine to service & decor). Whatever the staffs need, it was not too difficult to be fulfilled. Maybe Sultan Brunei had no (budget) limit to make his Dorchester Collection hotels among the world’s best. You can see the pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/AlainDucasseAtTheDorchesterLondonUnitedKingdom

One of the most polarized gastronomy places in the world probably belongs to Bernard Pacaud’s L’Ambroisie. Some guests, in particular first timers, were often turned off by the stiffness or intimidated by the formality/seriousness of the staffs. And sorry, (often) diners were not “kings” here. On the other hand, lots of people are blown away by the kitchen’s superb creations and not too picky about the restaurant’s hospitality. I think I fit in to the latter group especially after my latest visit in Nov last year. After nearly 5 years of absent, I was glad to finally be able to return here. This visit was different than my earlier ones in a few ways: I went to dinner with my wife instead of a solo lunch like in previous occasions; I was told that securing a table for dinner at L’Ambroisie was very difficult, but fortunately it was not really the case for us – I had no issue reserving a table for 2 about one month before. Booking for dinner understandably more challenging as during this visit, the restaurant was full-house including the 3rd room in the back; at my previous lunch meals, at most 60% of the tables were occupied. These days, Mathieu Pacaud, Bernard’s son, was an integral part of L’Ambroisie kitchen – not sure since when. They would try to follow the steps of other successful father-child chef team such as in the case of Bras, Arzak and Marcon family. The service, this time, was the best I’ve ever experienced and it was rather unexpected given I’ve been here 3 times before and did not see significant improvements in the past. The maitre de maison - Mr. Pascal was, as always, professional, elegant and focused. However, unlike my previous visits, he's more relaxed and much warmer this time. He smiled more often and talked with us in a few occasions; at the end of our meal, he even encouraged us to re-visit during winter to savor Bernard’s legendary roasted Bresse chicken with black truffles butter. There was also a younger staff that still recognized me, even though my last visit was more than 4 years ago, and his English has improved tremendously. Perhaps, it's true after all that, L'Ambroisie is the kind of restaurant where diners eat better and feel more comfortable after several visits. The only ‘fault’ of the service that night was when I returned to my chair from a rest room, I found my main course was already on the table although it’s still warm. Similar to my other meals here, I usually have one amuse, 3 courses and a dessert. It went as follow, Amuse-bouche: flavorful red mullet with its crispy skin served with veal juice and celery & apple puree - a ‘lavish’ and good start. Well, prior to this, we’re teased with light paprika and cheese short bread – it replaced the restaurant’s famous gougeres 1st course: (big) soft-boiled egg, flawlessly executed, with white truffle and cep ‘sauce’ was amazing! The egg white was really soft, but nicely held the pretty & tasty runny yolk inside. Egg and Alba truffle was like a match in ‘heaven’. The truffle and cep mushrooms were intoxicating (in a good way); they added some complexity and enhanced the overall taste. An excellent dish and somehow it tasted even better than Passard’s legendary egg 2nd course: blue lobster fricassee (with the shell fish in beautiful red color) was the reason I had to decline Pascal’s idea of having scallop with broccoli & truffle and it did not disappoint. I love Brittany lobster and I had personal mission to savor all of Bernard Pacaud’s losbter dishes. I “gave up” demanding the kitchen to cook and serve tender lobster; it’s almost always a bit too firm for my taste. However, this time ultimately Pacaud got the right texture of the tasty blue lobster (quite tender for the tail and rather firm for the claw). This homard dish, served with pumpkin puree and chestnut, was rich, intense (but not heavy) and complex but balanced. I could taste the variation of sweet, nutty, & slightly spicy flavors altogether. This is the 4th creation I’ve ever had, did I still miss any? 3rd course: I was excited knowing my request of having the ‘peerless’ pithivier dish of wild duck pie (served with salad) had been approved. There was a group of French business men (8 people) who also enjoyed and shared this pie dish. When I saw the tourte, it was not as ‘big’ as I initially thought. But, as I savored the duck meats, duck liver and veal inside the golden and airy pie – it looked as if it never ended. Furthermore, I ate about 1 quarter of my spouse’s portion. The meat was indeed succulent and flavorful; an ethereal dish and probably among the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten at this restaurant. My dessert: sugar in sphere shape with apple, sabayon, sorbet and pistachio. The sphere was thin; I kinda enjoyed its light texture and taste after intense courses. A decent dessert My wife’s: a classic hot souffle in pralin flavor with mango coulis. It’s perfectly executed resulting in an airy and fluffy souffle with balanced flavor – an extra ice cream on the side should be nice Bonus: flourless chocolate cake - I finally understood why Monsieur Pascal didn’t recommend this signature dessert for my wife ... because they would give each of us a tasting slice of this heavenly chocolate tart. It was as scrumptious as before, incredible consistency. However, this time it’s accompanied my mocha ice cream to intensify the chocolate flavor A wonderful meal from start to finish and the hospitality was top notch this time. We felt very welcome in the house of Pacaud and left felt very happy and satisfied in terms of both food service. My meal at L’Ambroisie was simply getting better and better – a difficult task for any restaurant (which I’ve visited at least in 3 occasions) to achieve such feat. In my notes, I bestowed the food 98 pts (undoubtedly 3-star Michelin quality); as a matter of fact, it’s one of the two restaurants in the world with Michelin’s highest rating that I thought should receive “4-star” instead. If one day, there’s a restaurant that could topple my passion toward L’Arpege, L’Ambroisie (and possibly Matsukawa Tokyo) is probably the one .. Given Bernard Pacaud is not retired yet. With such great experience, I will certainly make a conscious effort to come here again in the future when I return to Paris. For more detailed review: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2015/01/lambroisie-bernard-pacaud-4th-visit.html If you want to see the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/LAmbroisieParisFrance4thVisit

Le Pre Catelan (LPC), in the centre of the Bois de Boulogne (west side of Paris), is a respectable fine-dining restaurant with a rich history. It’s often associated with Gaston Lenotre, the guru of modern French patisserie. In 2007, Pre Catelan became increasingly popular in the gastronomy world when it, along with Barbot’s Astrance and Alleno’s Meurice, was elevated among the finest restaurants in France. However, despite having received 3-star michelin, Pre Catelan has not been considered to have the most delicious food in town. Probably for this reason, in addition to its location that’s a bit off from the Paris, LPC has not been under my radar. But this changed when last month, I finally had the opportunity to visit this grand pavilion located in the middle of lovely gardens. There are not that many French chefs with more impressive ‘pedigree’ than Frederic Anton, the current head chef of Le Pre Catelan who recently has become a jury in the MasterChef France. He used to work for the legendary chefs such as Gerard Boyer (for a short stint) and Joel Robuchon for about 7 years. Some even have claimed that Frederic Anton was Robuchon’s most talented and capable protégé and he’s pretty much Robuchon’s right hand man during the peak of Jamin and avenue Raymond Poincare in the early 90’s. Ultimately, Anton was the recipient of prestigious Meilleur ouvrier de France and Chevalier the Legion of Honour. With these impressive CV’s, how would his creations be like when translated into dishes served at the splendid Pre Catelan’s dining room? I ordered the full menu of Le menu du Pre and let’s dive... -The tasting menu began with crab serving 3 ways: the foamy and flavorful crab soup with crab meat inside; a container consisted of succulent crab meat mixed with cream fresh cream, sour lime and topped with the salty caviar – fresh and quite rich; the last part was a light salad (nutty & crunchy) with Asian sweet dressing and crab meat. A decent start -Langoustine prepared 2 ways: the delicate ravioli of poached langoustine with olive oil & pepper mint foam. The big prawn was tender but surprisingly & sadly rather tasteless. The next preparation was better; fried langoustine (with seaweed) in ‘tempura’ style. The ‘wrapper’ was light and crisp; both romaine sauce and ‘Thai’ fish sauce were flavorful but a bit too intense for my palate. Good presentation but did not taste that great. My wife’s lunch special had 1 extra langoustine item, that’s served in basil curry – she said it’s good but nothing special -The poached turbot, wrapped in seaweed, was meaty with good texture except it’s rather bland. Perhaps it’s cooked in fillet instead of troncon (prepared with bone-in). The savior for the turbot’s taste coming from reduced sauce of vinegar. The side dish of ‘mashed’ potato with seaweed was quite tasty but I was not too fond of its texture; it was not that smooth or creamy. Overall, it’s somewhat an ordinary dish even though turbot was usually my favorite fish species to eat in any high end places -Finding good quality sweetbread outside France or Europe was very difficult, let alone eating a good dish executed flawlessly by an expert. Luckily, we’re in good hands here. The ris de veau, cooked in a casserole, served with its juice was tender, creamy and delicious. The veal stew with mushroom and onion was also good. A display of excellent old school preparation of French rustic dish. My favorite dish from this meal -For the lunch menu, my wife’s main course was squid in 2 ways (the portion was big): one was served with tomato confit and herbs; the other one is fried in tempura style. It didn’t reflect a kind of highly cooking technique while the ingredients were alright. Taste wise was nothing special; we felt that we could get this kind of dishes at any restaurants even outside Europe. Quite disappointing that the restaurant at this caliber would prepare this dish, you’re welcome see the picture if in doubt -My spouse didn’t like cheese so the kitchen gave her a pretty and colorful salad instead. For me, I decided to stick with the cheese course this time. I picked 36-month comte, saint-nectaire, coulommiers and vacherin mont d'or and they’re generally very good except the comte was a bit too “young” – yes, I have been spoiled by Anthony’s 4-year-old comte -My menu had 2 desserts and she had one; the kitchen decided to bring all of them together and we’re overwhelmed. They all were pleasing to the eyes and served in ‘giant’ portions although they’re only part of the degustation menu. We appreciated this generosity The desserts: +Le citron happened to be my most acceptable dessert here. The combination of meringue, sorbet, mousse and biscuit were nice, but the issue was that the sweet flavor was very dominant; I had difficulties to savor the lemon mousse distinct sour flavor, moreover the basil sorbet was a bit weak. Instead of (lemon & basil) generating a balance and elegant taste, this dessert became a one-dimensional sweetness +I really look forward to trying the famous Le pomme. The sphere looked perfectly round without any blemish. I found the sugar encasing thick (not too pleasant to eat) though brittle enough to be broken easily. Inside was really too much ‘sugar’ – I expected to taste more of apple (tangy) flavor for a lack of better word. The overall sweetness was even stronger than the one I had from the previous lemon dessert. I could barely able to taste the saltiness from the salted caramel ice cream and when the pop rock and the sugar sphere were bitten concurrently, it’s not a fun ‘texture’ to experience. Any combination I tried, sadly, it was not that enjoyable – better to see than to eat +Lastly, my spouse’s dessert was the classic Le Paris-Brest with praline cream. The choux was not soft, but compensated by the thick and rich cream. I thought it would be nicer had they put more fig compote and/or salted praline with rather intense salt flavor to harmonize it To be honest, despite the generous size given, I was quite disappointed with all the desserts. It’s just sweet flavor all the ways – I bet the chocolate dessert might be the same; I like chocolate (dark/milk) to have some recognizable bitter taste; not just a hint/subtle bitterness. The same would be expected when I eat lemon, apple or salted caramel that’s to be able to savor its respective unique flavors. Having dined at all of Joel Robuchon (JR) restaurants (except the latest La Grande Maison, but have tried Tomonori Danzaki’s cooking), I could not help but notice some similar dishes at Robuchon’s vs Le Pre Catelan – it should not come as surprised I suppose. For instance, -the crab and caviar – the presentation was very similar (https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/JoelRobuchonLasVegasUnitedStates#5534521763453197890) but Robuchon has superior (Oscietre) caviar quality and has more sweet flavor from the coral gelee whereas Antony’s more on the ‘sour’ note – let’s call it a tie -another example will be langoustine ravioli. Robuchon’s version (https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/ChateauJoelRobuchonTokyoJapan#5272627905530341442) is head and shoulder above his disciples’ creations (this will include the one from Ramsay RHR) – JR’s was sweet and succulent, well-enhanced by the rich & creamy duck liver’s sauce; it’s been proven in more than 2 occasions. Initially, I thought it was not difficult to create it given Frederic’s and Gordon’s talents but it’s not the case in reality. -lastly, Le pomme vs Le sphere (https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/RobuchonAuDomeMacauChina#5882313154576465250). The technique and complexity were similar, but the master won in the flavor. All the elements (flavor, texture and color contrast) at Le sphere worked well together From this meal, my admiration towards Joel Robuchon has just grown – one of the world’s greatest chefs even in the 21st century. He’s capable of producing more superior dishes with similar concepts (to be fair, he probably created those dishes too) even when none of his top gastronomy restaurants is in Europe, thus often interpreted to have disadvantage on accessing the incredible (French) ingredients. Should I give benefit of the doubts since Antony was not in the kitchen during my lunch (He was in the meeting with the “big bosses” who own the restaurant in the suburb of Paris)? Maybe not since my meal at JR restaurants also took place without Robuchon himself present The food at LPC was traditional and highly technical; from the artistic presentation with its details, we could see that Antony commands his brigade to be meticulous. Given his skills, I expected him to be more creative, yet we can see the Robuchon’s influence was all over the places – not really his distinguished style. Hence, I can conclude that Antony’s food rather lacks originality. In addition, I learned that the majority of dishes at Pre Catelan rarely changes over the years. The service was friendly and flexible; my maitre d’ Mr. Thierry was really hospitable - comical, kind and always made us feel comfortable. When we looked bored waiting for the food, he often came up some funny stuffs. The ambiance was without a doubt one of Paris’ finest – Belle epoque style with luxurious chandelier and marble fireplace. The tables were huge and generously spacesd. There were about 20+ guests showed up for lunch. I didn’t remember complain about anything, but the restaurant was very nice when it charged my full tasting menu at the price of my wife’s set lunch. In spite of this generosity, I have to honestly admit that, Pre Catelan is not a convincing 3-star place (more like 2 ½* level aka 94/100 – the same level as Guy Savoy and Epicure Bristol). My main reason to visit this famous institution is that by doing so, after 8 years of travelling for serious dining, I finally can say that I’ve been to all of Paris current 3-star Michelin restaurants. Yeah, more like for personal ‘achievement’. Here is the link for the pictures of this meal: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/sets/72157649499390717/

You're very welcome and thank you for reading my "report" ..

If any of you read my previous review (Osteria Francescana), I mentioned that we were staying a couple of nights in Modena. In addition to dining at Massimo Bottura’s restaurant, Ristorante dal Pescatore is another reason why stayed at the city known for its balsamic vinegar. Reaching dal Pescatore, situated in a village between Mantua and Cremona, was not a trivial task especially if you don’t drive. It took us about 1.5 hours from Modana, including the slow ‘regional’ train. It was a quiet and cold Saturday; when we reached Canneto sull’Oglio, the station and the hotel nearby were closed and there was not any taxi around. I called the restaurant and perhaps since they got difficulties to locate a cab for us, Giovanni Santini who was on the way to town stopped by and kindly gave us a ride to dal Pescatore. We arrived at the restaurant about 11:40 and were resting in the waiting room. Both the waiting and dining room were spacious, elegant, classic and quite colorful. There were plenty of books, mainly about cooking and Europe famous chefs, and photos of the Santini family. This small restaurant could accommodate at most 30 people, and almost ¾ of that was occupied during our lunch. At noon, we were escorted to our table. My wife and I were a little bit shocked when we found a few flies flying around in the dining room (maybe because the restaurant was surrounded by gardens); even more surprising, the servants did not seem to do anything with it as well as other guests who noticed them chose to be quiet. Anyway, let’s talk about the food. We selected degustation menu with a few changes: replace the cheese course with another starter and have different desserts for both of us. Antonio Santini, whose face had some resemblance to the grandpa from the movie “Up”, complied with our request; in fact, the restaurant was quite flexible to change or add some dishes in the menu. Appetizers: we got 2 items. -The tender and tasty lobster was “wrapped” in spinach with refreshing champagne jelly; the caviar added briny flavor and luxurious feeling of the dish – a good beginning -Warm and juicy guinea fowl was cooked perfectly and it’s combined with pleasant vegetables and fruits. The dressing was light sweet and sour sauce Then come the pasta and ‘rice’ dishes -A timeless dish of dal Pescatore is pumpkin tortelli. A simple and rustic dish, but very delicious with profound flavor. The handmade pasta was lovely; filled with a mixture of roasted pumpkin, biscuit, mustard and some herbs resulting in balanced sweetness with good texture. It was in harmony with the parmigiano reggiano’s salty flavor. A ‘humble’ dish that’s elevated to gastronomy level – our favorite dish -Risotto with shaved white truffle is another traditional Italian dish in the Fall. The kitchen used Vialone nano rice that nicely absorbed the cheese ‘cream’; this worked well with the truffle aroma and flavor. I wish they had put more Alba truffle ... Even though it looked very creamy, the taste was not too rich/heavy, suitable to my wife’s taste. Personally, I still prefer the bold flavor of Alajmo’s saffron risotto Following this were main courses: one fish and one meat -The grilled sea bass, in a good portion, had firm texture and rather mild taste. The aromatic sauce with olive oil and side dishes helped to improve the overall flavor -In any top restaurant with skilled chefs during autumn, it was a treat to savor their venison dish. This time the succulent and delightful saddle of roe was served in cabernet sauce and the meat’s juice as well as accompanied by blueberries and mashed potatoes – a very good stuff Now, it’s time for desserts -Mine was torta di amaretti and Santini’s interpretation of this traditional cake was simply perfect in almost every way. The texture of moist cake and crunchy croccante were enjoyable; the sweetness from cream and sabayon were just right; lastly there’s a hint of bitter flavor from the coffee. Every byte was a pleasure. Purely on taste, it was my best dessert in Italy (Bottura’s lemon tart had an upper hand in terms of the idea and presentation) -My spouse had meringue with pistachio cream and marsala sabayon. It’s also a good dessert; the zabaione was particularly tasty. Too bad, the comparison was against the torta with Amaretti so it looked a bit pale in comparison -Lastly, the array of petit fours was generous with plenty of variations and they’re remarkable; about as good as what you can get in any Parisian fine dining restaurants Visiting dal Pescatore is necessary for those who would like to experience classic and traditional Italian cuisine prepared with care and using only top quality seasonal ingredients (many of its vegetables were grown in own premises). Despite this, Nadia Santini was also adapting the food with times and modernity. As far as I’m concerned, this is the Italian gastronomy restaurants that used the least amount of cheese and cream yet they did not sacrifice the overall delectable flavor of the dish – for this very reason, dal Pescatore was my wife’s favorite place to dine in Italy. The hospitality from FOH was kind and efficient; however, they just did the basic, which was nothing wrong but we did not really feel the kind of warmth of the Italian family; well, to be fair, we did fell welcome at the end when we visited the kitchen and the Santini chefs (Giovanni, Bruna – it’s amazing that she’s still around in the kitchen regularly - and in particular Nadia) looked pleased, full of smiles and very ‘welcoming’. Probably, the “lack” in service was due to the fact that neither Alberto nor Valentina (she just gave birth and had to take care of his 1 month old son) Santini was around to help Antonio in the dining room. For the alcohol part, I liked my 2 glasses of wine: white from Verona the Anselmi san vincenzo ’13 and red from Piedmont Gillardi langhe ’06. The sommelier (also the restaurant manager) was generous for he kept refilling my glass with the white wine without imposing any additional charge at the end (I possibly consumed 1/3 of a normal bottle). Overall, it’s a very good meal indeed and in my view, I would put my lunch at dal Pescatore slightly above my dinner at Osteria Francescana. 2 dishes were outstanding: the tortelli zucca and torta amaretti; while the rest of the dishes were hardly ordinary. Honestly, the presentation sometimes did not do any justice. I gave 96 pts for the food (in my notes, about as good as my meals at Gagnaire Paris and Ledoyen under Le Squer). Michelin 3-star restaurants in Italy were generally more reasonably priced, probably due to their locations. Someone told me that in Italy, the good places to eat were not in major cities. The bigger the city, the worse the food is going to be most of the times – Venice (pre-Quadri) was a good example for me; even La Pergola was not strategically located in Rome. The sad part was I doubt if I would return here. The location was in the middle of nowhere, and my wife already told me she would not bother to spend 6-8 hours for such trip again. At least, I’ve been here once with Nadia was still around and had a fond memory of this restaurant in the village of Runate. If you want to know more detailed descriptions of my meal: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2014/12/dal-pescatore-nadia-santini.html For the pictures of the dishes: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/DalPescatoreMantovaItaly#

Modena is not the kind of city in Italy that I ever plan to stay overnight, let alone for 2 nights. During our trip to Italy last month, my wife would like to visit Venice and Milan – I’ve been to both. When I worked out the plan, I saw what’s ‘available’ in between these 2 major cities? Initially (and logically), Florence will be the next option. I loved the museum there, the city was beautiful and I’ve never been to Enoteca Pinchiorri. But then, Enoteca was not attractive enough and I really want to visit a new city this time. When I looked the map of Italy, I observed with gastronomy restaurants in mind – that’s when I laid my eyes on Modena, the home of the avant-garde restaurant – Osteria Francescana. In addition, I felt I would need a ‘base’ to visit another top restaurant in the smaller city the next day. So, staying over in Modena was not a bad choice. In recent years, there’s an Italian Chef that has become the central attention among food journalists and foodies alike – his name is Massimo Bottura. Besides Michelin 3-star, Massimo received numerous other awards for himself and his dearest restaurant, Osteria Francescana. Yes, this establishment was my main attraction to visit the city famous for its balsamic vinegar and Ferrari. I reserved the restaurant in September for Friday evening and it’s not a problem at all. Osteria is located in the old city of Modena. We arrived almost 30 min later from our initial booking and surprisingly we’re still the first guests reaching there. At 8:45 PM or so, our dining room with 6 tables were all filled up – Italians happened to eat very late too, furthermore we’re the only table that didn’t know how speak the local language. The setting was modern with widely spaced large tables and leather chair. The dining room is windowless with modern & minimalist decor and the wall painted in some kind of light blue color. As I perused the menu, the staff brought in amuse-bouche (mortadella sandwich – smooth & fragrant) to tease our palate and bread (white, wheat and croissant). There were 2 tasting menus offered: Sensations and Tradition in evolution. My habit when visiting the restaurant for the 1st time will be to order its classic dishes, so menu Tradition was an obvious choice – we also added Modenese tortellini in Parmigiano cream to share. The first half of our degustation menu (excluding desserts) were inspired by ancient and recent stories/incidents happening around the region; the dishes were generally clever, provocative and attractive but not too profound. -the saba lacquered eel was soft and sweet, similar to top quality unagi one can get in Japan. The twist was that the kitchen put sour and salty variations to balance the eel sweetness from the apple jelly, polenta cream and burnt onions -cotechino (salty pork sausage, a kind of Italian charcuterie product) was covered with zabaglione (versatile and tasty yellow custard). At the very bottom, there was crisp & sweet biscuit – a nice contrast in taste and temperatures -caesar salad in Emilia had 22 distinct ingredients inside the lettuce. I wasn’t really impressed with it; it was just alright -5 Parmesan reggiano cheese tasting in different temperatures, textures, ages/maturities and flavors. I can taste cheese that was intensive, velvety and crisp – a sublime, creative and complex dish. The second half of the meal was my favorite; the desserts were of high quality as well – pleasing to both eye and palate -tagliatelle in right texture and temperature was well-mixed with tender and delicious no-butter ragu made of pork, veal and bone morrow – excellent -an iconic pasta dish from the region & Bologna: traditional tortellini filled with various meat (veal and different parts of pork); the pasta was delicate and light but flavorful while the reggiano cream (coming from local cows) was fresh and intense yet balanced. Any great chef always possesses strong fundamental techniques when executing & elevating ‘regular’ traditional dishes to fine dining levels. I enjoyed these 2 pasta dishes very much -for the main course, we had Piedmontese beef coated with charcoal ash. Massimo spread the colorful sauce (beet root, potato and vinegar) on the plate like a master painter brush his stroke on a canvas – a beautiful presentation! If you’re a fan of juicy beef with lots of fat, then you would be disappointed. This lean and tender Italian beef was different. It was perfectly cooked with great texture and subtle flavor. The sauces were interesting but the taste was unusual for my palate. Don’t expect any grilled steak smell here -the pre-dessert was the famous creamy & intense foie gras lollipop; it supposedly was balanced by strong balsamic vinegar inside. This was a bit too much for me in spite of the almonds & hazelnuts – simply too rich For the desserts, the kitchen was generous to give us an extra dish to share -according to the menu, we had vignola. Apparently, it was fresh dark cherries ice cream seated on good chocolate ‘soil’ and mild coffee jelly. The overall flavor was tasty and refreshing -we would not leave without having this extra dish: the broken lemon tart, creating perfection from imperfection. A superb and creative dessert with great attention to details, it’s also really flavorful – an excellent display of sweet and sour taste as well as texture & temperature contrast. One of the best things I ate for this dinner. We didn’t remember we’re given any petit fours. There was a “bizarre” and unique experience during this dinner. In the middle of our meal, Massimo Bottura walked into the dining room and greeted diners, which was very normal these days where Chef-owner showed respect and entertained his/her clients. Then, Massimo came to our table ... I didn’t exactly remember what I told him, but it’s something like this: “I saw your cuisine to be modern and creative/experimental, yet you also were able to produce very good classic dishes. Do you plan to pursue and progress in both styles in the future?” I just skimmed through about Chef Bottura and his cooking prior to this visit. I expected this to be just a casual conversation between guests and the Chef, but suddenly from his face expression, Massimo seemed to be bothered. On the one hand, he looked ‘angry & troubled’, on the other hand, I sensed that he wanted to explain or said something but could not or did not know how. He replied us with some short phrases and ended with (in rather serious tone): “I want to see both of you after the meal”. Oh dear ... did we violate something? I saw my wife, and we were both perplexed. The staffs were smile. “What’s happened?” I asked them and they simply shrugged off After having finished the vignola and lemon tart desserts, sure enough my maitre d’ said that the Chef would like to invite us to the kitchen. Oh oh, were we in trouble? As we entered the kitchen, almost everyone looked at us ... with friendly smiles thankfully. Then, Massimo passionately explained his cooking and some of his dishes – a fun ‘lecture’ from a talented chef. In short, every dish he made, there was a story and inspiration behind it; he didn’t like to simply mix some ‘random’ ingredients to find good taste, it’s meaningless. After that, Taka, the pastry/sous chef, brought a dish freshly prepared for us. It’s beautiful – seems like an artistic painting of forests/woods. Chef Bottura said it’s one of his latest inventions: the camouflage of “hare royale” – inspired from Stein and Picasso. I pondered: besides the foie gras and some herbs, the rest of the ingredients were more suitable for desserts – chestnut, chocolate, biscuit, coffee etc. Well, at the end I learned it’s in a fact a dessert. We were given a tea spoon and swiped horizontally to taste it; we did it 3x – top, middle and bottom part. And after every byte, we ate the sweets at the sides and sipped a plain black coffee to clean the palate. True enough, each byte generated slightly different flavor, but the duck liver and hare flavors were apparent and quite strong actually. During this process, Massimo never stopped talking (in a genial spirit) about his cuisine. It became obvious from this experience that Chef Bottura is an eloquent person and he had an excellent command of English. His other trusted lieutenant Yoji was also Japanese. At the end, we got better understanding of him and his cooking; Massimo looked happier, more relaxed and relieved after being able to bring forth what had been inside him since the middle of our meal. A sigh of relief for me and my wife; we laughed a lot during that time and ended by taking pictures together in the kitchen. The service was polite and a bit formal throughout the meal; my maitre d’ in particular was professional, fluent in English and knew the dishes very well. I had 2 glasses of wine: a fresh and aromatic (young) wine from Sicilia and Barbera La locomotiva. It’s a very satisfying meal. While I could not say every dish was delicious, most of them were interesting, eye-opening, thought provoking and creative. The traditional Italian dishes and desserts were top notch; they’re worth for a detour. Given Massimo’s philosophy, I know that Osteria Francescana is still a work in progress albeit now is already performing at a very high level. It’s not the best Italian restaurant I’ve been ... yet, but I look forward to returning here for more interesting culinary adventure in the future should I have the opportunity. I hope Massimo would still be in the kitchen as often as he can and not fell into trap of quickly capitalizing on his fame by opening new restaurants everywhere. I bestowed 95/100 for this meal (equivalent to 2 ¾* by Michelin standard) Here are the pictures from my dinner: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/OsteriaFrancescanaModenaItaly#

I believe the Fat Duck is UK’s most frequently-reviewed restaurant out there. Additionally, the restaurant seems to serve the same dishes ‘forever’ (or at least 80% of them) regardless of the season. The often changed items are probably the main course and its desserts. Given this, I’m not sure how much fresh information or new insights I can add. What I’m about to write - it’s very likely has been written and discussed elsewhere. That being said, here was my lunch experience last month. The Fat Duck’s popularity reached its peak in 2005 when it was selected as the world’s best restaurant by the Restaurant magazine. However, what lured me here was the fact that it’s a Michelin 3-star restaurant (I did not bother to visit Dinner by Heston although currently it ranked higher than the Fat Duck according to that same magazine); it gained its first star in ’99 and within 5 years, the Fat Duck was considered among Red guide book’s most elite dining place. I’ve heard how difficult it was to get a table here. So, I didn’t put that much hope. I asked my hotel’s concierge assistance to make a reservation, but at the back of my mind, I doubt they would put that much effort and it proved to be true (hey, it’s not the concierge of Japan’s hotels). Based on my Europe trip schedule, actually I only had one day in which my spouse and I could eat at the Fat Duck – our other days in London fell on Saturday afternoon, Sunday + Monday, the days where the restaurant was closed – yes, you could ‘judge’ that I did not make sufficient effort by sparing only one day in trying to dine at one of the most competitive tables in this planet. But the stars were aligned that after waiting 15 minutes for the online reservation to open (exactly 2 months before), somehow, I could secure a table for 2 at lunch. My struggle happened to be quite minimal, I suppose we’re lucky. The restaurant was located in the peaceful village of Bray. Despite the cloudy and gloomy day, our mood was good as we’re about to spoil ourselves with a very promising lunch. Like a few other guests, we did not directly enter the restaurant; instead many of us were busy taking picture of the restaurant’s façade. After that we stepped in to the Fat Duck (finally) and were warmly greeted and escorted by the staff. We were seated at the table near the staircase – the table was big and could possibly seat 3-4 guests. The degustation menu consisted of 14 courses and it meant the dish’s portion would likely to be small (3-5 bytes per course). The long menu could be tricky since it’s very difficult to serve excellent 10+ dishes all the time, but should the kitchen screw up early, they got plenty of courses to redeem themselves. Let’s dive into the menu … The food symphony at the Fat Duck began with 3 small dishes at the 8’s level (out of 10) -beetroot and horseradish cream (8.5): soft & airy with crispy shell, having sweet and earthy flavor. A good start -the nitro poached aperitif (7.8): a good show and my wife loved it. Marc Veyrat spoiled it; the chef in a black hat prepared something similar with better and more interesting flavors 6 years ago in Annecy – so this was not too impressive -cabbage gazpacho with mustard ice cream (8.2): making good cold soup was never easy and this one was refreshing Then the kitchen up its game by delivering 3 consecutive high quality dishes. They’re supposedly among the restaurant’s famous classics -quail jelly and crayfish cream with chicken liver (9.5): the cream & liver were smooth and intense, every layer was consistent and delicious - a high level French cuisine prepared near perfection. There was also a crisp truffle toast and the thin strip with oak flavor (decent) -snail porridge (9.2): possibly Heston’s most well-known dish and it lived up to expectation. All elements were in balanced creating a delicious porridge with a right texture -roast foie gras (9): the liver was creamy and rich, combined with some unusual side dishes (barberry, kombu and crab biscuit) that happened to work well together We’re very pleased with the proggressed thus far. After that ... come probably the lowest points of this beautiful tasting menu at level 7 or below -mad hatter’s tea (6.7): I enjoyed the theater but was not impressed with the dish’s subtances. The broth and its contents plus the sandwich were average -sound of the sea (7.3): again, a nice show and quite liked the music. The food was the ‘problem’ – the edible sand and the foam had some Ok flavor. The raw fishes/seafood were not bad, but I’ve tasted better preparation & flavor of octopus, mackerel, & yellow tail in Japan Sometimes the new high does not come until very low points. The next 2 dishes were kinds of stuffs that makes the idea of travelling far and “broke the bank” for food were worth the time & effort -salmon in liquorice gel (9.7): I often think any elite fine dining/sushi-ya serving salmon was ‘cheap’ and I could not be more wrong this time. It was a masterpiece; perfectly poached buttery salmon was enhanced by the gel, trout roe, vanilla mayo etc. -venison with truffled spelt (9.8): if there’s such thing to be close to perfection, one of them was definitely the Fat Duck’s umble pie. The deer was moist and delicious; even better was the spelt ‘risotto’ with some deer cube inside – exceptional in both taste and aroma The ‘orchestra’ ended with similar notes as the beginning. I was not blown away by any of the pre-dessert, dessert and mignardises. A couple of them were meticulously prepared with beautiful presentation. -hot & iced tea (8): fun and pleasant “two-face” tea -egg in verjus and vice versa (8.4): a nice play of flavors – sweet, bitter and sour -botrytis cinerea(8.1): wine grapes in different shapes and colors with decent flavor -whiskey gums (7.9): cool presentation with distinct flavors -sweet shop bag (7.6): very sweet’ mignardises’ My food description has been quite brief and if you want to know in greater details, you’re welcome to see them at the longer review (see the link below) What a fun and memorable gastronomy adventure. The food has been fantastic overall (97 pts in my note) and it fully deserved the Michelin guide’s highest honor. My impression that UK has no great restaurant has been dismissed by this meal. The restaurant was full as expected and the guests were quite diverse. There were a couple flying from Germany next to us and 2 (unrelated) groups of Indian families/relatives occupying the restaurant’s biggest tables. The service was relaxed and impeccable, but not personal; the staffs surely were in the top of their games – always ready to re-fill our drinks, answer any questions about the dishes and fold napkins whenever we left the table. The “worst” part of this meal was probably the restaurant’s decor. Excluding Japan’s kappo kaiseki and sushi places, as far as I remember, the Fat Duck has the simplest/humblest ambiance with relatively low ceiling. Thus, the upcoming renovation for the building is surely a wise thing to do. I would love to return here again but the staff informed me that the restaurant did not usually change the menu; this can be a challenge since when I re-visit a restaurant, I would love to eat new dishes – about half of them ideally. However, if any gourmand has not visited here, I really recommend it. Heston is truly the chef who knows how to cook both ‘molecular’, modern and old school stuffs well and most of the times they’re delicious. The other chef I know who could come close to do what Chef Blumenthal’s doing was Alinea’s Grant Achatz More detailed reviews: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-fat-duck-heston-blumenthal.html Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/TheFatDuckBrayUnitedKingdom

It’s been nearly 35 years of my life, except until last month, I’ve never actually been to any place in the United Kingdom at all. I often had desire to visit London, one of the most dynamic cities in the world; however as far as the gastronomy world is concerned, it’s quite underrated. The number of michelin 3-star restaurants were relatively minimal for a megapolitan city like London; moreover I hardly heard any convincing rising star chef/restaurant coming from this place – recently, the closest one would be Hedone, in which I had a chance to have dinner also. For me, Hedone deserved its one star and I don’t see it would get its 2nd one any time soon. Anyway, my main purpose at the moment is to share my view of the dinner I had at Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road. These days, who doesn’t know the notorious Gordon Ramsay? He’s all over the TV and he probably has more restaurants and/or cafes than any other chefs. I watched his first season of Hell’s kitchen in 2005 when I had not had any experience eating at fine dining restaurant. I am usually skeptical with the chef who often appears on TV, but I learned that Gordon was different because the Red guide book believes that his restaurant deserves its highest accolade albeit only one. So, if I had to try his food, it should be the one he’s proud of the most. My wife and I arrived 30 minutes earlier than our initial dinner reservation. Interestingly, within 5 min, there were 8 other people, (all of them happened to be Asians) making up 3 other tables, reaching the restaurant. It was quite windy and cold. Some of us tried to open the door, but it would not happen until 6:30 PM. For those of you who will dine here in the peak of winter season, please don’t arrive too early; there was neither any door bell, nor will the staff open the door for you to be there earlier. They were still busy doing the briefing. Once, the restaurant opened its door, everything went smoothly even though we’re still 15 min earlier. We passed the mirrored and marbled corridor before arriving at the small waiting area. After taking off our jackets, we’re escorted to our table. The dining room was not too spacious; seated about 40 people. It was fully booked – securing a table for dinner here with 1 week notice or less is virtually impossible. The setting was discreetly luxurious and elegant with some feminine touch; grey, beige and lilac color dominated the restaurant’s theme. The distance among tables was quite closed, similar what you would experience when dining at l’Arpege. As many of you might have known, there are 3 menus offered here and we picked the Menu prestige that consists many of Gordon Ramsay’s signature dishes. Since it’s the season of Alba truffle, the staffs diligently promoting the truffle dish: pasta with parmigiano cream sauce – any dish in the menu could be substituted with this at an additional cost of GBP 45. We decided to stay with the original degustation menu. The meal started quite well. For the amuse, we had an egg served with parmesan cream, smoked potato and white truffle - It's creamy, rich and 'round'; the egg yolk was nice. Prior to this, for the canapé I quite enjoyed the cured salmon in shiso as well as basil bun filled with truffle. For the actual menu, -the first course was pressed foie gras that was tasty but not too creamy; there were green apples, turnips and watercress to balance the duck liver’s richness – a decent dish. -it’s followed by the signature dish: the “seafood” ravioli. I really look forward to eating this dish, but sadly it was forgettable. While the pasta was well-made, the lobster, langoustine and salmon inside were dry and lacked flavor. The veloute & bisque gave some moisture, but the sorrel especially was a little too salty and dominant. I also ate something similar to Ramsay’s ravioli with bisque, liver sauce and black truffle at Gaddi’s HK and it was slightly more superior to what I had here. At least, at Gaddi’s the langoustine and salmon were sweet and ‘juicier’. -3rd course was a firm and salty halibut served in ras el hanout broth. It was average; the best part was the small and succulent king crab on top of the fish -for the main course, I had Cotswold lamb tasting. My favorite part was the rack part cooked pink; it’s tender and delicious. The other part was the lamb’s breast, shank and shoulder – again, quite salty. Honestly, it’s good but not at the level of Lozere/Aubrac lamb I had in France top restaurants. The autumn vegetables accompanied the lamb nicely. My spouse had roast pigeon (with sautéed foie gras), which is even more tender and juicy compared to my lamb. I think both main courses were well presented and executed -for the pre-desserts, I liked the refreshing, sweet and fragrant “soup” (mango and passion fruit). The cucumber sorbet, lemon verbena and mint were alright. -both of us had the restaurant’s classic desserts. Mine was the sour/acidic lemonade parfait with yoghurt sorbet combined with the sweet honey and light bergamot jelly. My wife chose the rich and sweet chocolate ‘cigar’ that’s balanced with blood orange and cardamom ice cream. The desserts were pleasant with attractive presentation. My favorite sweet stuff here was actually the cool white chocolate coated strawberry ice cream truffles – simply glorious. Gordon Ramsay, for me, is a clear example of a 3-star restaurant with no magic and wow factor. The food is neither spectacular nor innovative and I had no problem with that. However, it’s not really delicious, only pleasant and nothing memorable unfortunately. The food is classical cooking of “old-school” French cuisine, but not at its best. The examples of “boring” food executed to perfection that makes me very excited were l’Ambroisie, Ducasse Paris/Monaco and le Squer’s Ledoyen last time. Even, the “French classic” dishes at the Fat Duck were flawlessly executed and did taste better than any dishes I ate here. After eating Ramsay’s menu prestige, I don’t actually understand the perfect 10 score awarded to Clare Smyth by the Good food guide. Probably, Jonny Lake should get 11 then. In my notes, the food here was 93/100 (2 ½ star by Michelin standard). This might be London’s best, but (IMHO) it would stand no chance of being a 3-star establishment had it been located in Paris. The dining room staffs, led by a capable Jean-Claude Breton, were active, ‘noisy’ and (sometimes overly) enthusiastic. The small dining room often made some staffs almost hit one another in a few occasions. Obviously, the FOH team was very proud of their jobs and doing their utmost best in promoting the restaurant’s food. But, when the guests’ (food) feedback was not as positive as they expected, you could not help but notice a little sour note in their face. Only monsieur Breton accepted ‘critics’ charmingly and with ‘dignity’. As a matter of fact, Mr. Breton, who has been working with Ramsay since the Aubergine days, was among the best and finest maître de maison I’ve ever encountered. He’s very genial, ‘smooth’ and knowledgeable. We had a few pleasant conversations with him and he’s the main reason we believed that the service here was actually better than its food. Actually, Mr. Breton invited us to visit the kitchen and meet Chef Smyth, but we politely declined as my wife was exhausted and rather sleepy at the end of the meal. Another reason I didn’t mention to him was that I was not impressed with the food. Normally, the head chef would ask you how the meal went. Me being me, usually I’m brutally honest when sharing my opinion and I just did not want to “hurt” the chef’s feeling. The meal was not spectacular, and at the same time, nothing really went terribly wrong. And I don’t think the fact that we just arrived in London in the morning after having flown more than 15 hours would affect our judgment here. The best meal in my life (first dinner at l’Arpege) occurred after flying from New York; four years ago, I had unforgettable meals in the first day (after sitting in economy seat from Singapore); I could still recall vividly that Pacaud’s truffe ‘Bel humeur’ during lunch and le Squer’s “spaghetti castle” in dinner are still among the most delicious dishes I’ve ever eaten in my life. If any of you is interested in the pictures of my meal at Gordon Ramsay, please visit: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/GordonRamsayLondonUnitedKingdom

Describing the food served at restaurant Andre, which some critics claim to be Singapore’s best restaurant, was not an easy task for me. A couple of years ago, I was invited for lunch here and quite pleased with the food. Many dishes tend to have several ingredients in one plate, but the outcome generally did not disappoint. Still, I was not convinced to splurge for dinner – mixed feelings: the “hungry go where” review about Andre was quite negative and 2 of my friends said it’s overrated. On the contrary, more and more food bloggers have shared their memorable experience here recently. Furthermore, the accolades from San Pellegrino, travel magazine or Miele guide simply never stopped flowing. Then, I decided that perhaps it’s now (late Sep ‘14) the time to savor Andre Chiang’s creations to the fullest. Restaurant Andre is very well-known for its cooking philosophy called Octaphilosophy that I believe many people are already familiar with and it’s explained in details in its own website. You will be served 8 dishes guided by 8 different concepts based on Andre’s cooking experiences for more than 2 decades. Honestly, I could not really recall any dish that particularly stood out; many are more ‘complicated’ than dishes I had during lunch. Presentations were beautiful, preparations were rigorous, execution was good and taste was solid. Rather than my palate was spoiled with burst of delicious flavor dishes after dishes, for me, it’s more of an experience and an appreciation towards Andre Chiang’s highly technical skills and the kitchen’s efforts to translate their chief’s ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the food – it’s quite enjoyable as long as you come with an open mind. The overall experience was somewhat like my meal in Daniel Patterson’s Coi. The whole experience is greater than the sum of its parts. That being said, it’s not among my top 3 favorite places to dine in Singapore In addition to 8 dishes from the Octaphilosophy, the kitchen threw in many items before and after that. At the beginning, there were 5-6 small dishes/snacks for guests to nibble. Towards the end, there were 3 desserts and petit fours. I thought Andre’s ideas for snacking and several desserts were similar of Gagnaire’s dining experience. Contrary to what many believe, I neither felt full nor overwhelmed at the end of my meal – just satiated. I skipped the bio-dynamic wine offered, and opted for the ‘juice-pairing’ (about 5-6 glasses) instead. It was not cheap, but quite interesting. The potato skin juice managed to bring down the foie gras’ intensity while the black malt juice enhanced the flavor of pork belly dish. It’s fun, but I think wine would still be a better option to go with the meal. Bukit Pasoh has become an elite area for good restaurants in Singapore. Besides Andre, there are Oso, the clan, Hashi, oca grassa etc. Restaurant Andre is actually an old renovated 3-storey shophouse, located next to Majestic hotel. This place can only serve up to 30 people at the same time, so as expected you will have an intimate experience but slightly less of privacy. The decor is contemporary and stylish with some touch of classic feeling. Diner would probably think as though they eat at the Chef’s house. It’s probably ‘correct’ especially when Andre Chiang himself showed up at the end of the meal, visited every table and acted as gracious host. For someone as famous as Andre, I was a bit surprised that Chef Chiang was a very nice person and down to earth. He was listening to diners’ comment attentively and answering any questions they had for him. The friendly hospitality was also reflected by the restaurant’s staffs; they’re professional and efficient – very proud of their job and their Chef patron. There’s hardly any restaurant like this in Singapore. Some will like it, some will not; nevertheless it’s something one perhaps should experience it once, in particular if he/she is around the area. I’m not really sure if it will be worth a (long distance) plane ride. In my case, it’s still reasonable since it took me fewer than 3 hours to visit Singapore More in-depth reviews: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2014/11/restaurant-andre-singapore.html Here are the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/RestaurantAndreSingapore

This will be my 2nd dinner review of Shinji Kanesaka Singapore. The first one took place more than 2 years ago. As far as I can remember, this is probably my most frequent visited Japanese restaurant in Singapore. In between these visits, actually I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited for business lunch twice, enjoyed the omakase menu in both occasions and had somebody picked up the tabs. Anyway, back to the dinner ... The hostess was friendly and efficient; she anticipated my needs well. For example, she thoughtfully provided me with ‘writing board’ upon knowing that I would take notes about my meal. The tea was filled promptly though I ordered no alcohol. However, unlike the earlier visit, I was not given any menu to choose this time. She just asked whether I got any allergy, after that essentially she said something like “We will take care of you and hope you enjoy the meal” During this dinner, approximately I had 9 appetizers, 13 sushi pieces (including tamago) and 1 fruit dessert. A few dishes I especially enjoyed were: -Autumn assortment of small items. This dish looked quite beautiful by Shinji standard (you can see the picture in the link below). I loved the mushi awabi (the steamed abalone was quite tender, a bit chewy and tasty) and ankimo (monkfish liver; it tasted like duck liver of the sea indeed – rich & creamy). There were also ‘cute’ crispy sawagani with Ok taste as well as not-so-bad grilled kamasu. The grilled Matsutake, from Iwate prefecture, and ginko were average -Like the earlier visit, I ate creamy and sweet duo of uni with salt. I liked the bafun uni a little more than the murasaki one -Meiji maguro (baby tuna, 6-month old) with ginger soy sauce was tender and light -In Shinji, I usually liked the Chutoro better than Otoro. In fact, it’s probably the best place to savor this medium fatty tuna in Singapore. Here, the chutoro was buttery, oily yet still sufficiently ‘firmed’ I could not recall if there’s any bad dishes during this meal, but there wasn’t anything outstanding either. The sushi was about as good as my previous visits; they’re rather consistent even though I got more ‘interesting’ pieces such as kama toro, akagai & kohada. Some other sushi I had this time were: shima aji, sawara, aji, saba, uni, anago (two ways: with salt and sauce) and the crunchy tsubugai. Whereas for small dishes, the chef also served me kawahagi with its liver, ishigaki-gai sashimi, a small bowl of ikura and steam kanpachi with miso. The dessert was simple and of very good quality – Japanese pear and melon. The bar that Shinji set from my first dinner here was perhaps very high. During that time, I loved the abalone chawan mushi, crab wrapped in yuba and uni rice with ikura and negi toro. The food generally is still worth of 2-star by Michelin HK standard nevertheless For this visit, Yoshi-san was “my chef”. Oshino-san was around and he seemed to be busy watching over the main counter and private rooms at the same time. Oshino-san, who took care of me in my first dinner meal, was friendly, playful and tried to engage conversation with guests; Yoshi-san (he’s been with Shinji Raffles too since opening), on the contrary, was focused and a bit rigid. The only time he said something when serving the food. He served 5 people at that time. Even, when I or other diners tried to engage him for a conversation, his answer tended to be short with hardly any smile. A bit surprising I thought, even I spoke more and had better customer-chef interaction in my broken Japanese with Tokyo’s Mizutani-san than with Yoshi-san. At the end when the bill came, it cost me somewhere in between the price of omakase Wa and Shin – fair enough. Will I return here in the future? Almost certainly. But if it will be under my own pocket, I don’t think it will happen next year. Perhaps, I intend to try the dinner at Shinji St. Regis at that time; I enjoyed my lunch under Kikuchi-san. Here are some pictures of dishes I had: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/sets/72157648606587200/

Ever since I left Singapore for good a few years ago, I no longer follow the island’s restaurants development that well. Perhaps, this is why, sometimes I tend to re-visit the same places. Last month, when I returned to Singapore for a few days, somehow I really missed Japan and its cuisine especially the kaiseki part. Thus, it’s my ‘mission’ to have a good meal at Japanese restaurant at least once. I heard the name Ki-sho almost a year ago and gave it a miss; I want to wait and see whether the restaurant can sustain many positive reviews. I thought now it’s the right time to give it a try. Apparently the menu at Ki-sho has evolved. This time, there’re only 2 choices of Omakase sets available. I opted for “Kai” menu; supposedly this option contained about 10 dishes. Chef Kazuhiro Hamamoto, the restaurant’s Head Chef, said that it had been difficult to serve 3 different menus daily at the counter (plus a couple dining rooms upstairs). Thus, he did the current change. However, the restaurant was still very flexible. The regular lady next to me, dining with her Korean boy friend, told Hamamoto-san that she would like to have a few uni dishes, some sushi and beef for the meals. I had no idea which menu she ordered. On another occassion, guests only wanted to eat 15-20 pieces of sushi for the entire meal and Chef Kaz had no issue to comply with the guests’ requests. If any of you read my Japan’s foodie trip last year, you would have known that I love Matsutake mushroom. Because of this, I informed the restaurant in advance about my desire to have 2-3 dishes containing Japan’s Pine mushroom. I had no idea whether Matsutake was famous in Singapore. However, I know that here, it’s not that easy to find any sweetbreads or game animals even when they’re in season. My meal began with Katsuo no tataki; the Bonito, served in reasonable size, was meaty and tasty with smoky aroma and flavor. Some of highlights for my meals are as follow: -Matsutake dobin mushi with Amadai. The broth was nourishing and did a good to bring out Matsutake’s unique aroma. The Matsutake itself was meaty and pleasant while the Tilefish flesh was quite firm and delicious. Although not at the level of Matsutake nabe I had in Tokyo, overall, I was really satisfied with this dish -Japanese Wagyu beef is the best in the world. Here, the beef (from Gunma prefecture) was charcoal-grilled in such a way that almost no oily juice left on the beef. It seemed dry, but it actually intensified the delicious flavor at the beef’s meat. Additionally, I also loved the Toriyama beef roll with uni and egg yolk – a bonus item from the Chef. As you can imagine, it’s bursting with umami flavor: buttery & creamy sea urchin + fatty and marbled grill wagyu + rich egg yolk + ‘balanced’ by vinegared rice all in one package; it’s ethereal -As a former chef at Waku Ghin, you can expect ‘similar’ dishes to be offered here. His signature dishes actually involved Uni and both of them deserved to be served over and over again. Firstly, a dish known as Uni & Caviar (except no botan ebi here). The portion of the sea urchin (aka + murasaki uni) was generous; it’s creamy and easily melt in my mouth. The crisp Italian caviar contributed a little to the overall taste, the vinegar jelly balanced the uni’s rich flavor while the beans, shiso and corn gave extra layers to the dish overall enjoyment - excellent. Secondly, it’s called Uni ‘risotto’ – served before the dessert. Hamamoto-san recommended me to have it as part of the nigiri sushi dishes. Unless you’re a Sea urchin lover (I am for sure), you may find too much uni being served here. The sea urchin rice was awesome; it’s combined with delicious ‘toppings’ of ikura, shiro ebi, wasabi and chutoro – a pretty display of flavor and texture contrast. These 2 dishes are probably my favorite here -Lastly, prior to sushi courses I was asked about my favorite kind of morsels and toro was one of them. I was not too impressed with otoro and akami sashimi served earlier, but toro at the sushi was not disappointing at all. I liked my soft and flavorful Otoro (aged for 2 weeks & wrapped the entire rice) as well as Kama toro (lightly seared and slightly more intense than the Otoro) You can see the pictures below if you want to know the rest of the dishes (Note that – I forgot to take the picture of miso soup with clam and goma tofu). In general, I am very pleased with my meal at Ki-sho. Kazuhiro Hamamoto is talented and friendly, very capable of producing creative & delicious dishes and make guests to be at ease all the times. His potential is still very high and I’m sure his culinary finesse will keep growing with time. As a matter of fact, I was surprised with his sushi qualities. The fishes (optimum flavor with right size and texture) went along very well with his rice (texture, acidity and temperature wise). No wonder, a few guests came here only for sushi. It’s not that often you will find a chef who is able to produce top kaiseki dishes and make great sushi at the same time. In the period when celebrity chefs restaurants become a trend, I’m happy to find a young and talented chef given a high degree of freedom to run his own show. I hope he will stay in Singapore for several more years. Ki-sho is located on Scotts road, almost the opposite of the Sheraton hotel. Exterior-wise, the building was grand in colonial style; however inside it’s very Japanese. The interior was minimalist and zen-like. The counter can accommodate up to 11 diners altogether. During my dinner, there were 6 Japanese guests and 4 locals – good business even though it’s only on Tuesday. The private rooms were also occupied as Hamamoto-san was also busy plating some dishes. In Singapore, many good things will cost you something. Due to this, I chose not to drink any alcohol. The service was excellent; staffs were efficient and helpful. I was escorted outside when I got my cab – that’s good enough for me In Japan, it’s almost certain that the chef would go out and bid you farewell. Pictures - https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/KishoSingapore Along with Shinji Kanesaka, Tenku Ryugin and Waku Ghin, Ki-sho quickly becomes my favorite Japanese restaurants in Asia ex-Japan. Should there be an opportunity (6-12 months later), a future re-visit here will be expected from me

As far as French gastronomy’s concerned, Joel Robuchon, among active chefs, is probably the most popular and respected in the world. Although, he’s certainly not the favorite of mine, somehow I happened to have dined at his fine dining restaurants several times. After absent for more than two years, I decided to return to Robuchon Sentosa last month. In Dec ’11, I ate there during the Piedmont white truffle season; this year was during the Perigord black truffle season. Excluding desserts, I was fortunate enough to have savored 40+ different dishes created by the French master chef. As I received the restaurant’s latest menu via e-mail, there were still lots of food I had not tried yet. So, I thought I had good “excuses” to return there. Well, also because I had a great time during my first visit – along with Chateau Robuchon Tokyo, this one was my favorite among Robuchon’s restaurants. Nothing has changed regarding the place’s decor. I was greeted by the checkerboard tile at the lobby before entering the main dining room on the right side. Grand chandelier hanging at the ceiling, some crystals lying on table runners, and oversized vases were all in place and well kept. In contrast to the black and purple color in Las Vegas, here, the ambiance was dominated by black and beige/some gold. Menu wise, it seemed that the kitchen, led by talented and meticulous Chef Tomonori Danzaki, has settled down. Compared to my previous visits, I recall there were 50% more dishes these days. However, it didn’t matter that much for me as I had “designed” my own tasting menu (the long degustation menu with some modification) prior to my arrival. As I know it would be lots of food and a long gastronomy journey, I prohibited myself to eat plenty of bread. I began with 3 of them: bacon-mustard, cheese and saffron soft bun; it stayed that way until the end of my meal. The butter was still Bordier’s unsalted accompanied by good salt quality and Spanish olive oil. Let’s go to the main substance: the food. Apparently, I ordered more than I thought ... Including amuse-bouche and mignardises, I consumed 20 courses. This time, several of the dishes were bigger than my previous experience (of course, I didn’t complain) especially during the “trio items” that were usually served in a very small portion, even by tasting menu standard. Since there were lots of food, I would not describe all of them – you can read them at my longer review (see the link at the bottom). In any Robuchon fine dining restaurants, it’s almost certain that you would have dishes with caviar and they’re not any “random” dishes with caviar on top. This time my favorites were: - King crab duo (a combination of delicate Kamchatka crab and fine spider crab displaying texture and flavor contrast) with Imperial caviar and sea urchin on top. The crab's succulent taste matched perfectly with caviar's brininess as well as the uni’s sweet and creamy flavor. - An exquisite salmon tartar with shiso and caviar. The luscious salmon tartare was fresh, tasty and perfectly seasoned; it's enhanced by top quality of shiny caviar (having sumptuous taste) and runny egg yolk wrapped in gold leaf. Every element here was just right; I truly enjoyed every single bite of this dish. In addition to the caviar dish, you can expect a “trio” of seasonal items at Joel Robuchon. In the Winter, you can expect some black truffle dishes and I liked: - Mille-feuille of unagi, foie gras and black truffle - an intense dish. The caramelized Japanese unagi was sweet and slightly firm while the smoked duck liver was delicate and rich, then the pungent truffle added an extra 'punch'. To balance any excessive flavor, there was bland whipped cream with black pepper as well as salad containing radish and onion - Arguably my best dish of the night: Perigord truffle tart with onion and bacon – they’re in perfect harmony. I could taste different flavors and textures but balanced; they're happily dancing in my mouth as I slowly savored this exceptional dish. Relates to execution and plating, it was just way better than a similar dish created by lepinoy at les amis Under Japanese head chef, one could expect excellent seafood and fish dishes, - Both langoustines courses were delicious. The first one was the famous scampi ravioli with foie gras sauce (not so strong this time, maybe due to plenty of rich dishes I had in the first half of my meal) and cabbage. The second one was new to me and even better than the 1st Dublin bay prawn. Danzaki-san served a fresh and succulent Alaskan langoustine with its own tasty juice. There were contrast in texture and color as displayed by orecchiette pasta, almond, and zucchini as side items - I was glad that sauces at both fish courses were not too heavy. After eating plenty of dishes with black truffle or truffle-based sauce, I prefer to follow them with something cleaner and lighter. I enjoyed my pan seared Amadai with crispy scale. The fish was delicate, prepared with light saffron sauce with some sour notes in it. Following this, a firm yet supple piece of good Turbot accompanied by wild mushrooms and truffle jus. My main course was a tender duck breast (a tad overcook and a bit dry for my taste) with the creamy duck liver and (fresh) cherries. Also, as expected, Robuchon’s legendary mashed potatoes. Since my Europe trip nearly 4 years ago, I don’t think since then I ever ate great French cheese. This time, I requested it to be part of the tasting menu. Although I was really full at that time, but I managed to sample goat cheese, comte, camembert and roquefort – all of them was nice. The desserts were up to Robuchon’s standard and you would get 2, one would contain some sour/acidic taste for palate cleanser and the next one was guaranteed to be sweet and generally chocolate-based. If you’re curious, welcome to see the pictures by clicking the link below. I forgot to mention that compared to my initial visit, the price of a long tasting menu has been reduced to be SGD 40-50 cheaper. Because of this, I added 1-2 “extra” dishes utilizing winter black truffle. Overall, the execution was precise, the flavors were delicious and not monotonous, the presentation was artistic – an excellent feast for the senses. Robuchon’s dishes might not be too inspiring, but they’re not simple either. It’s one thing to know and understand the receipt, but it’s another thing to be able to execute it in such perfection. This meal convinced me that Tomonori Danzaki was the best among Robuchon’s chefs brigade. He not only was an expert in cooking, but he also genuinely cared about my dining experience. He actually felt that my tasting menu was too much/long. Half way through, he asked the staff to check whether I had been stuffed or if the food pace was alright – the kitchen had no problem to make some last minute adjustments if required. Unlike my previous visit when I had been invited to the kitchen, this time Chef Danzaki greeted me in the dining room. We had a nice chat for 10 minutes or so towards the end of the meal. He was very pleased and honored knowing that Robuchon Singapore was my best dining place among all of Robuchon gastronomy restaurants. In addition to be the best in terms of food, the Robuchon RWS was also leading in terms of hospitality. The service was attentive, friendly and efficient during my dinner even though the restaurant, surprisingly, was very busy; there were more than 30 diners. The “pace” was nice, by 8 PM a group of 10 people occupying the private ‘winter garden’ left. Around 10 PM, there were only me and another table of four. Unlike my experience at fine dining restaurants in Asia, this time the main “service awards” belong to the Asian staffs named Sherika, a lady from Philipine, and Kohmalan, an Indian Singaporean gentleman. Both of them had very good knowledge about the food, restaurants, and Robuchon in general – they didn’t seem to simply memorize the information as I was talking with them. They were also sincere and had good personalities. Perhaps, it should not be too surprising when I learned later on that Sherika used to work at Robuchon Macau for a few years before moving to Singapore while Kohmalan has been with the team since the opening. More than one staff asked me how they were doing in terms of food and service. They’re more than willing to listen to my feedbacks and very eager to get better. IMHO, the service here was easily the best one I’ve ever experienced in Singapore. For the first time outside Europe and Japan, I ever bestowed 97 pts (a convincing 3-star by Michelin standard) for food to any restaurant in Asia and US. As bizarre as it might sound, it means that my meal at Robuchon restaurant under Danzaki was better than my dinners at per se, Alinea, Urasawa etc. I am confident that the 4-star Forbes travel guide award the restaurant received early this year will be revised into 5-star within 2 years. I would love to return here again, but not so soon since it’s very expensive – probably in Spring/Summer 2016. It’s not unrealistic since the restaurant informed me that the Genting chairman had been very supportive and would like to ensure the existence of Joel Robuchon Singapore despite the fact that it has been losing money all this time. The more comprehensive review can be found here, http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2014/03/joel-robuchon-singapore-2nd-visit.html Pictures, https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/JoelRobuchonSingapore2ndVisit

French food is my favorite cuisine and l’Arpege is my favorite restaurant. Currently, entering the 4th year that I haven’t returned to l’Arpege (Since ’06, I usually make an effort to go there at least once every 2 years). At the very least I had a chance to savor Alain Passard’s cuisine in late ’12 when he became a guest Chef at Beaufort hotel Sentosa – the most memorable part was when Alain personally cooked 2 Brittany lobsters for me. Fortunately, Singapore has a restaurant owned and run by Passard’s apprentice & his former sous chef, Gunther Hubrechsen. Therefore, whenever I crave for (home-style) French cooking that’s light, delicate and delicious, I often come here. Similar to my Les Amis’ experience, I’ve actually been here about 4 times since 2008 but never wrote a (serious) review even once. As a matter of fact, Gunther’s is one of my favorite restaurants in Singapore I had dinner at Gunther’s in the same week as my meal at Les Amis. On purpose, I ordered carte-blanche here with similar budget to the Les Amis’ degustation menu. I wondered how these 2 elite gastronomy restaurants (cooking nouvelle cuisine without any molecular element) would fare against each other. A short comparison in a glance, Les Amis = 7 courses including one dessert. 2 courses with caviar and 3 courses with black truffle. There were scallop, lobster and wagyu beef Gunther’s = 8 courses with a dessert. 1 dish with caviar and also 3 courses with black truffle. There were scallop, gambas and wagyu beef Anyway, I ate and enjoyed very much the following stuffs at Gunther’s (my top 3 dishes): 1st: cold angel hair pasta with Oscietra caviar - the restaurant’s most well-known dish and Chef Hubrechsen should be proud of it. It’s the 3rd time I savor this dish; it’s still very delicious – the flavor, the smells, the texture and all other elements were spot on. High degree of consistency... 5th: carabinero gambas with tomato rice – given how far Spain from Singapore is, the kitchen did a good job in preparing this prawn. I tasted the gambas’ freshness and sweet flavor; it’s well-seasoned too. The Japanese rice cooked with the prawn’s stock and tomato was pleasant except I prefer rice with firmer texture (like in risotto or paella) 6th: grilled scallop with black truffle – the main highlight of my meal. The Hokkaido scallop was juicy and tender though not as tasty as the one I had at Les Amis. However, it’s well-enhanced by the sublime and sweet caramelized onion below as well as the pungent winter truffle aroma and flavor on top of it. I liked the onion very much here – a good example how Gunther brought out the essence of its ingredient; possibly the closest one (in terms of ‘deliciousness’) to the Passard’s perfect onion gratin with parmesan that looks deceptively simple What makes Gunther’s special is that the talented Belgian chef-owner is capable of generating many different kind of ‘unassuming’ dishes and elevating them to higher level using no more than 3 fresh produce on each plate. It seems modest at times, but actually quite sophisticated. Let me describe a few more dishes I had, 4th: roasted garlic with onion essence – if I had to pick one dish I like the least, it’s probably the one. The roasted garlic had smooth texture and good smell, well-integrated with mascarpone sauce. However, I found the (garlic) portion was too big. After consuming 2/3 of them, I just swallowed the rest (almost no chewing) so that I wouldn’t be too stuffed and/or dilute my palate for the next dishes 7th: Char grilled wagyu beef in bordelaise sauce – this was the main course served in a nice portion with a right amount of “fat”. Delicate Japanese beef was generally a safe choice; the chef didn’t do too much and just allowed the natural flavor of high quality wagyu to shine. The sauce and the grilled corn were precisely executed. Nothing wow but it’s hard not to like Japanese beef J 8th: Truffle parfait – dessert. It’s a soft and light vanilla ice cream served with rich chocolate brownie and topped with aromatic smell induced by the Perigord truffle (having slight peppery taste). I hardly eat dessert with truffle in it. This one was sweet and rather delicious There were a couple more dishes I had and you can see/read them on the picture link below. For the meal, I drank 2 glasses of wine. The first glass was 2010 Vincent girardin chassagne-Montrachet; it’s rich and creamy with buttery aromas. The second one was 2009 Black quail Pinot noir; it’s medium bodied with dark berries delicate fragrance and dry finish in slight acidity – a quite refined pinot noir that surprisingly went along nicely with my scallop dish (of course, better with the beef). Oh before I forget, this place only offers one type of bread and butter – to be exact warm mini baguette and salted butter served at room temperature – simple but good; I ate 3 baguettes if not mistaken. The meal ended with a petit four consisting of a green tea macaron and canele – both were fine. It was a quiet evening, about half of the restaurant’s capacity was filled. Probably most people were still busy to attend reunion dinner with their friends and colleagues. The dining room decoration was minimalist dominated by dark grey color for the walls (some paintings were hung on them) and medium lighting. This way guests would not feel overwhelmed and the food took center stage. The staffs were polite and helpful without being intrusive. Besides the sommelier, one friendly “Indian” maitre d’ and the greeter, most of restaurants’ FOH staffs were relatively new. Chef Hubrechsen, usually visiting the dining room to greet guests, explained that the staffs turnover at Singapore restaurants were still very high; he even did not have any permanent sous chef assisting him in the kitchen. So the good thing is that it’s almost guaranteed Gunther himself would always be in the kitchen daily to ensure food quality. I gave my overall meal experience at Gunther’s nearly 94 pts (a good 2 ¼* by Michelin standard) and it meant about the same level as Shinji by Kanesaka Singapore and Eric Frechon’s Le Bristol, seriously. Another lovely meal, and overall it ranked as the most memorable one I’ve ever had here. Well, there was no bad meal experience at Gunther’s. Hope I can return again sometimes next year, even better if not on my own expenses. Lastly, I prefer this place over Les Amis by a small margin. Check here for pictures, https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/GuntherSRestaurantSingapore#

Les Amis is a name which Singaporean old school fine dining lovers should be familiar with. This legendary institution has been existing for 20 years – a unique feat given how tough gastronomy competition is in the island (Guy Savoy and Kunio Tokuoka could not even last 2-3 years). My first meal here could be traced way back in 2006 when Gunther Hubrechsen was still acting as Chef de Cuisine. Ever since, I’ve been dining here in 3 other separate occasions, 2 of them was a treat from good friends. For my latest visit earlier this month, I felt obliged to (finally) write a review and share some pictures about my meal at Les Amis. Actually, I have not been here for nearly two years. A new but capable chef (Sebastien Lepinoy, a former leading chef of l’atelier Robuchon HK) and ‘cheaper’ tasting menu, especially during the black truffle season, managed to persuade me to re-visit this prominent restaurant, located at the Shaw centre. The meal began with an offering of several different kinds of bread and butter. My favorite bread was ham & mustard; the rests (orange brioche, mini baguette and sour dough) are ok. I could not recall I was offered more than 5 types of Bordier butter (among them were seaweed, spicy and vanilla ‘flavor’) during my previous visit; I tasted salted and lemon olive oil butter. Les Amis served 3 tasting menu for dinner and I picked Degustation menu – the one in which the dishes having the most Tuber melanosporum on them. In total there were 7 courses; it’s funny that somehow I loved the items served at “even” number – meaning my favorite dishes were the 2nd, 4th and 6th ones. What were they? 2nd: pan seared Hokkaido scallop, prepared until brown on the exterior and slightly raw in the middle, was sweet, tender and delicious. The earthy black truffle brought pleasant aroma and the caviar added some briny element. The “clear sauce” (probably from the scallop’s juice and seaweed butter) below was tasty 4th: onion tart with black truffle and quail egg was Lepinoy’s re-interpretation of his teacher’s famous dish. It did not disappoint at all – the onion with its thin crust was balanced & flavorful; the pungent ‘black diamond’ was very good while the egg white of the quail was creamy and a bit salty. Though not as perfect as the one I had at Robuchon, it’s still a good and interesting dish 6th: Osaka beef cooked medium and perfectly prepared was simply marbled, juicy and pleasantly rich. I could easily ate lots of this tenderloin by itself even without the shaved truffle. On the sides, I quite enjoyed many kinds of vegetables prepared by the kitchen: green+white asparagus, carrot, spinach and daikon. The rest of the dishes were also fine but not quite at the level of the 3 things I savored above. In fact, some of them could be considered very luxurious. For instance, 1st: salmon tartar with generous serving of Caviar on top from Kaviari Paris (using a little amount of additional salt). The caviar was among the finest quality I’ve ever had in Singapore. The salmon tartar was alright – fresh and not too rich. Again, I had to admit that it was not as versatile as the one I ate at Robuchon (RWS) 3rd: slow cooked Boston lobster covered with thin “pasta” was tender & quite tasty; it went well with the ‘wine sauce’ (Chateau Chalon). A small amout of caviar had little impact but acted nice as a decoration. This dish also came with a few dice of carrot and zucchini. Before the beef main course, I was served an intermezzo – a silky daikon soup, a Japanese inspired dish that turned out to be decent. The soup looked thick but it tasted light and smooth – it worked well with bread too. It’s a comforting dish especially when the outside temperature was 20 C or below (certainly it’s not happening in Singapore) Then come the desserts created by a talented and experienced local pastry chef, Ms. Cheryl Koh. Apparently, the sweet of the night was Millefeuille with vanila cream and strawberry sorbet. The sorbet was weak and rather meaningless. The napoleon was actually nice – the most outstanding available in Singapore. But then, it could be better - the fragrant puff pastry was too thick and the pastry cream was too little, so it’s not that balanced. The Robuchon’s version I tried in Macau was better with more generous chantily cream and lighter texture. Please click here for the picture: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/RobuchonAuDomeMacauChina#5882313267400828610 My idea of perfect millefeuille is this (by Alain Passard): http://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/3278004649/in/set-72157613780071045 After that, the kitchen provided ‘chou’ with hazelnut cream. It was big and looked appetizing but not in anyway better than the millefeuille. I skipped the wine pairing option and went along with 3 glasses of wine. The opening aperitif was a glass of champagne as expected. It’s 2002 Bruno paillard that went well with some caviar items, my favorite alcohol for the meal – fresh, creamy, good texture and harmonious with mineral finish. The 2nd glass was a 2011 Muller-scharzhof riesling – easy to drink but focused; mainly to accompany the onion tart with truffle dish. Lastly, a glass of 2012 Matchbox wine Clare valley syrah for the main course – not too sweet, slightly thick and in medium bodied palate. It would be better to drink this wine 2-3 years later when it’s more matured. The dining room had a comfortably high ceiling with a bit formal atmosphere by the island standard. Less than half of the seats were filled; there were 2-3 groups of regulars in the evening. I was not too familiar with the staffs – the Japanese sommelier had left, the 2 Chinese big dudes were no longer there. It could be the reason why the waiter was not too attentive to me – I had to waive my hands a few times when I needed something despite a slow night. The waiters liked talking among themselves near the kitchen door. The most decent hospitality delivered by the sommelier. Of course, they’re friendly when they (finally) approached me. This dinner was the most satisfying one I’ve ever had at this restaurant particularly the food; my meal scored 93/100. In my notes, it’s about the same level as Amber HK and slightly above Jaan under Royer. The recent 4-star award bestowed to Les Amis by Forbes travel guide is well deserving. Please check the following link for the pictures, http://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/sets/72157641127008974/with/12593881444/

I cannot help but do this. Just for fun, based on personal experience - Compare and contrast of Kyo Aji vs l’Ambroisie (3 visits). Many perceive these places as the ultimate gastronomy restaurants for traditional Japanese cuisine as well as classical French respectively Similarities - They’re (the restaurants) known to be exclusive and expensive. Both chefs-owners were not really concerned about any awards. If there’s any big event among top chefs in France or Europe, it’s very likely that Bernard Pacaud would not show up including Ducasse celebration for Paul Bocuse or Le Louis XV 25th anniverssary. I barely saw his picture at Paul Bocuse (in Auberge du Pont de Collonges, you could see lots of (old) pictures about events attended by Europe elite chefs – but no Pacaud’s face). - Both Nishi-san and B. Pacaud were always at the kitchen. Pacaud walked past the dining room twice during my 3 meals there; Chef Nishi will be working at the counter all the time - Led by legendary and very capable/perfectionist Chefs. Both kitchen’s equipment was quite traditional (not that updated by today’s standard) Differences - Kenichiro Nishi made an effort to interact with his guests even despite language barrier; whereas Pacaud hardly smile or made an eye contact with his guests – not that he’s too arrogant, I think he’s just a very shy man. - The service at l’Ambroisie was formal and rather stiff (gets better at my subsequent visits); they would not engage in any conversation (unless you asked for something) even when you eat alone. The nicest and most sincere person there was probably monsieur Pierre LeMoullac (former manager and sommelier). Kyo Aji, on the other hand, rendered impeccable service. Everybody was friendly and helpful, even chefs behind the counter would smile and at least make eye contact with each diner. The okami Ms. Makiko made sure each guest was well taken care of - Kyo Aji’s decor was simple, but I felt at home throughout my meal – customer was “king”. At l’Ambroisie (with luxurious neo-venetian style setting), sometimes I didn’t feel very welcome as if they’re doing me a favor by allowing me to dine there in particular during the 1st visit. I became much more comfortable in the 2nd and 3rd visits, but the hospitality (among Parisian places) was nowhere near the level of Ducasse Plaza (D. Courtiade), Ledoyen (P. Simiand) or l’Arpege (H. Cousin & N. Socheleau) With this, I officially completed the writings for my entire Japan’s trip (Nov ‘13). Hope a few of them has been useful to some people/readers in this forum

Hi gfweb, Thanks for having followed and read my (dining) reviews Appreciate that

I almost forgot the review of arguably my most important meal in Japan; here you go If you had to name a restaurant in Japan that many people, including famous and highly accomplished chefs, revere the most, it’s likely to be Kyo Aji. This restaurant has been identical with excellence, perfection and ‘ichiban’. Out of my curiosity, during this trip I was talking to a few chefs including Matsukawa and it proved to be correct that when you mentioned this restaurant’s name or asked what the best (kaiseki) restaurant was, generally they concur that Kyo Aji stays at the top or very near to it. As some of you might have known, the master chef/owner Kenichiro Nishi refused the 3-star Michelin award for his restaurant. My wife and I were very fortunate to have been able to dine here. Our dinner reservation was around 8:30 PM and we arrived 30 min. earlier. It was a windy night, colder than the normal mid-November weather. Since the restaurant was full, we had to wait: about 5 min outside and 10 min in the private room. Then, we were escorted to our seats at the counter; it’s almost in the middle. Located in the Shimbashi neighborhood, Kyo Aji’s building look traditional and simple but very Japanese – it can be mistaken for any regular house except for the kanji sign at the entrance. The decor inside was also quite humble; hardly representing “fine dining” places as I know in Europe/America. One thing caught my eye was a counter made of a single slab of hinoki – it’s still robust and really clean given this restaurant has been around for more than 40 years. Let’s come to the substance: the food. A typical Japanese kaiseki place, Kyo Aji only served one menu – Chef’s omakase. It’s quite long and I was very pleased with it. The top dishes I ate here easily among the best stuffs I’ve ever had in Japan. Here are my top 3-4 dishes: - Taiza-gani (snow crab from Kyoto). This crab’s quality was stunning; its meat, with some kani miso, was pristine and delicious. I also enjoyed the succulent egg sacs. Only Matsukawa’s crab dishes could be considered slightly better - Matsutake. I was told it’s a miracle that by mid Nov this year we were still able to enjoy fresh & top notch (wild) pine mushroom. I love all of the characteristics in this “true” pine mushroom (tricholoma matsutake especially with its cap on): distinctive spicy/intense odor, meaty texture and complex flavor (a mixture of meaty, spicy and slightly sour) – just beware that not everyone would like matsutake especially for those who prefer tamely flavored mushroom. There were 2 matsutake exclusive dishes I liked very much. First, yaki matsutake - The chef managed to fully bring out its flavor in this dish. The lemon and spinach provided nice variation. Secondly, age matsutake - The dish was not greasy/soggy at all and I could still taste the pine mushroom subtle flavor. In addition, it revealed an interesting contrast of 'chewy' matsutake and crisp crust - Hamo matsutake nabe. This hotpot dish revealed a beautiful marriage of delicious summer and autumn ingredients. It’s among the very best thing I’ve ever had in my life. The flavorful broth was extracted from pike conger eel bones and perfumed by pine mushroom. The fluffy and full body hamo looked like a flower (due to many fine slits cut into it). The matsutake offered entrancing aroma while retaining its firm texture; it's very oishii when cooked in hamo dashi. An amazing and unique delicacy, simply perfect! There were actually no bad dish at all. Some other very good dishes were: Shirako - This winter delicacy (Cod’s milt) showcased different textures: dry and chewy on the surface and creamy/milky inside with subtle sweet sensation. I ate many of it in this trip and the one at Kyo Aji top it all except maybe when compared to Fugu shirako. Age ebi imo - It's very delightful, fragrant and tasty. Deceptively simple but required an expert to produce this kind of deep fried taro, which was crispy outside and still soft inside Along with the ones at Kitcho Arashiyama, the rice dishes here are the most delicious. At the beginning, the restaurant served matsutake gohan - the rice well absorbed the earthy matsutake. Nishi-san didn't do much with it; he simply let the natural smell & taste of matsutake to shine itself. Even the tsukemono was of good quality even by Japanese standard. Then come, sake harasu gohan - The rice had very good texture that went well over carefully broiled salmon. The salmon belly was salty and a bit juicy; I should’ve have asked for another bowl ... sigh Despite in the Autumn season, I learned that the 2 desserts we ate were more commonly served during summer. I was talking about: kuzukiri with kuromitsu - It's simple and elegant. The kuzukiri, silky with amazing texture and minimal taste, was dipped into fragrant and liquid kuromizu that had the right amount of sweetness. Together, they're producing an ethereal experience. Next, warabi mochi – it’s freshly made from bracken starch and covered in toasted soybean flour. This Kansai specialty was my wife's most favorite dessert. It's very delicate and quickly dissolved in the mouth If you want to know more about the other dishes not mentioned here, please read the more comprehensive report from the link below. We savored about 16 dishes and surely there were a lot. But then, 3 gentlemen sitting next to us (regular customers) got a chance to eat even more; they received 1-2 extra dishe(s). It’s a fantastic meal at Kyo Aji that I would certainly cherish for a long time. Chef Kenichiro Nishi, often labeled as "God of kaiseki", consistently brought out the natural and best taste of every ingredient and their beautiful combination. He deeply respected Japan’s produces. His dishes were clean, soothing and delicious; Nishi-san would not mask or manipulate flavor. The cooking method essentially epitomized maturity and simplicity of kaiseki perfection in which everything was in harmony. In order to fully appreciate what Kyo Aji has to offer, it would've been better if you already had (extensive kaiseki) meals elsewhere. It's especially true with my wife's case – for her, something good/delicious has to be flavorful, which is not always the case in Japanese cuisine,such as south east asia dishes that tends to use intense and rich spices. Often, she didn’t get “it” – even occassionally I experienced the same thing. Then I asked the chef/the okami about the idea of the creation of certain dishes Although Kyo Aji is an exclusive place (introduction-only), the service was far from formal and rigid. Led by the okami - Ms. Makiko (Chef Nishi’s daughter), we felt as if we’re invited to someone’s home. She made sure we feel relaxed and had a good time at the restaurant. As a bonus, Makiko-san spoke fluent English. She patiently answered our questions and explaining every dish presented. The other staffs were also sincere, helpful and friendly. We were “flattered” when the okami was willing to share many things with us ... almost “uncensored” (given that we barely knew each other): her private life, her dad’s younger days and characters, the future of Kyo Aji etc. I decided not to leak further details as they relate to the family’s privacy. Another surprise was the interaction with Kenichiro-san. With the assistance of his daughter, he initiated plenty of conversation. For instance: whether our home/family was not affected by typhoon haiyan, what we would do during our stay in Japan, how we found out about his restaurant and so on. Furthermore, Chef Nishi asked when we intended to return here because he's already old and can be 'gone anytime - though he still looked healthy. I thought it was both funny and a bit sad. I was amazed how lively and energetic Chef Nishi was; even when he would reach 80 years of age in a couple of years (You can see his radiant face and lively spirit from our pictures). He still cooked some dishes himself particularly the ones that used Matsutake. If there’s such thing as perfection, my first meal at l’Arpege and this one must be the definition of such thing; they reached that pinnacle of gastronomy excellence. Kenichiro-san was a very passionate chef who always gave it all. He cooked with his head, heart and soul. The result was a top kaiseki experience, rooted in tradition, combining hedonism and ritual. In the process we learn to appreciate and apprehend Japan’s seasonality. It has been privileged and great pleasure to dine at Kyo Aji. I hope it would not be my last meal here. Before somebody might ask, I would like to apologize in advance that I could not help any of you make a reservation here. Visited this place once does not make me a regular. Perhaps a concierge from certain (elite) hotels could be connected to this place or just talk to your foodie friends. We received favor from a friend’s friend who kindly reserved for us as our romantic gateway gift. Food and service wise, Kyo Aji was definitely worth above (Michelin) 3-star level. A more detailed review can be found here: http://zhangyuqisfoodjourneys.blogspot.com/2014/01/kyo-aji-kenichiro-nishi.html For the pictures, please open this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/118237905546308956881/KyoAjiTokyoJapan

Observations: 1. Loyal customers Different restaurant has different loyal customers and that’s normal. Each of them told me that “this restaurant” was either his favorite or even the best one in the nation. At Chihana, I met a Tokyo-based high level executive who often come down to Kyoto – for him, Chihana was not only Kyoto’s best kaiseki place but also the best place to eat in the entire Japan. 2. Gifts I noticed that some of the loyal customers often brought gifts to the chefs in Japan. Is it a common thing? At Sushi Mizutani, the client brought sake; at Matsukawa, the guy bought matsutake mushroom to the Chef-owner. If you’re a regular, are you expected to do so? Perhaps as part of Japanese culture or custom 3. Michelin effects The arrival of French’s famous red guide book to Tokyo in late ’07 attracted many international gourmands to visit the land of the Rising Sun. In addition to recognition, the star-rated chefs have enjoyed much improved business. While a few chefs went to the opposite direction (by refusing any of these awards), many chefs (Mizutani-san, the chefs of Kyoto’s kyoboshi and Osaka’s yotaro honten) I talked to said that the Michelin guide was arguably the most important guide for their business – a bit surprising they said that they didn’t find their restaurants’ performance at Tabelog too essential 4. Chef interactions Unlike “western-style” restaurants we know of, I find the Chef-customer interaction was essential and enjoyable particularly when you eat over the counter. Though to be fair, some European chefs already began to often visit the dining room and have chats with their diners these days such Pascal Barbot, Alain Passard and Christian LeSquer. No matter how limited your Japanese is, the chefs would appreciate it. They would be even more in awe if you actually took the effort to learn/take Japanese classes prior to coming here. The “true” chefs love talking with customers who had some substantial understanding about food especially with regards to their own cooking style or methods. It’s also normal that most chefs would bid farewell and escort you out as you leave the restaurant 5. Finding restaurants Someone may have mentioned it often. Mine would be – you need to have the following (whether printed out or on your mobile devices): have the address info in both English/your native language and Japanese; the restaurant’s entrance picture; a map showing metro station with respect to your dining destination at the same page; a zoom-in map revealing your restaurant’s neighborhood preferably in kanji, it’s very useful when you seek help from the locals. Lastly, to be safe – if you concierge were nice, inform him/her to tell the restaurant not too cancel the reservation just in case you’re coming late because finding a restaurant in Japan can be quite troublesome for first timer.

Did you remember the name of that restaurant? Any particular reason why it's "that bad"? It could not have been l'Osier right?