Raffles wine, food and arts events

[Bu Pun Su]

At the end of Jan ’08, there is an annual wine, food and arts event held at Singapore’s oldest hotel – the famous Raffles Hotel (Somehow, I did not know about this in 2007). This year’s events could probably be the most extravagant one featuring 3 of the world’s top chefs – Thomas Keller, Alain Passard and Santi Santamaria, not only that some of French famous winery also sent their representatives such as: Chateau Latour and Chateau Ausone (the wine expert, Stephen Brook was also there). After spending some times in Tokyo, my budget is rather tight so I could only attended 2 events - lunch as well as cooking demonstration with Chef Passard. The events combining Chef Keller and Chateau Latour are the hardest one to reserve (the funny part: why is it when I asked others? Many people say – oh it’s because Keller got 7-star while the rests only hold 3 each, so they think he’s the best. Well, with respect to Keller, I think Passard and Santi contribute more to the development of (haute) cuisine and influence more chefs than the French Laundry’s master). Anyway, let’s go directly to what I had

Food/Wine (96/93)

- as I expected, the amuse will be that famous egg. I don’t want to put too much comment since most readers would know (and even eat one him/herself). In short, it’s good and tasty as usual

- next come the (Maine) lobster which surprisingly good and not cottony. Passard cooked it simple with highly precision in which he successfully extract the lobster's sweetness along with firm texture. The sauce is even more incredible, you can sense the honey's sweetness balanced with sourness from lime juice/vinegar and olive oil. Excellent … probably one of the best during this lunch

- in L’Arpege, the “radisotto” dish did not really impress me, but this celeriac tagliatelle is different. I would call this “pasta” is a success – the texture is there while keep the celery’s flavor not too overpowering

- then came the best dish of the event – the veal (he prepared about 5 of 4 kg each and they are all uniformly cooked to perfection). The meat is juicy and delicious, and it makes Peter Goossen’s veal I had last Spring become bland. The side veggies especially artichoke chips and puree are incredible. Now, I realize that for me, I like Passard’s veggies more when they act as side dishes instead of the main star/ingredient

- the dessert is simple: just white fruits, nice to “cleanse” the palate. They consist of grapefruit, mangosteen and rambutan (not many non-Asian people would know rambutan I suppose)

- now come the dishes from his cooking demonstration. It starts with simple raw and cooked vegetables in amazing sweet and sour sauce (it tastes wonderful with the bread). This dish also plays with beautiful color for presentation

- the pumpkin-based gnocchi lighten by some sage, mimolette as well as sour and salty sauce made of olive oil and butter create a well-balanced dish

- the main course is actually the same as the 3rd dish above, except this time the sweet and juicy seared scallop bring the celeriac tagliatelle to another level, oh the black truffle also generates some slight pungent smell in a nice way of course

- lastly, I had one of the best fruit-based dessert I've ever tried. Passard integrated pineapple's acidity with the ice cream's sweetness, however the smart part would be adding the slight bitter taste from the fennel so that it will not cloy. A wonderful way to end a light lunch meal

Strictly from the food perspective, this meal is the best I’ve ever had in Asia (a tie with Chateau Robuchon Tokyo). I gladly gave it 96/100 (a high 2 ¾ star), about as good as my meal at Oud Sluis. My respect for Passard even grew since the ingredients he used can be considered “limited”, such as: no Brittany lobster, the milk-feed veal is “only” from New Zealand etc. (I suppose this is to save some costs for the hotel). Without a doubt that he’s a true 3-star chef - not only in L’Arpege, but wherever he goes

The lunch at the first day featured champagne by Veuve Clicquot. I love this “buffet-style” wine. The 1990 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin La Grande Dame is multi layered, almost creamy and full bodied. In addition, it has highly aromatic nose of pear, apple and honey and the rather spicy finishing is very nice; while 1985 Veuve Clicquot Brut Rose is deep with some aromas of strawberry, cinnamon and maple syrup. The taste is very rich, and similar to the earlier one, the finishing is also spicy (and long) and excellently paired with the sweet and sour lobster. On the 2nd day, we’re accompanied by the white (2004) and red (2002) wines from Chateau La Garde Pessac-Leognan. Good foods and wines are inseparable

Service/Decoration (93/92)

I ate at Raffles Grill before and this time I noticed the improvement of the service (not that it’s bad before) because the hotel brought in the key staffs from all of their outlets. Moreover, the F&B director and restaurant manager also directly serve the customers, thus the service is great except you still could not discuss much about food and restaurants outside Asia with them since their experiences are quite limited. Since it was a lunch, the ambiance is more relaxed and tends to be “noisy”. The décor is very classical from colonial era with some chandeliers. My overall rating for the meal here is closed if not equal to my meal at Can Fabes: 94/100 (a solid 2 ½ star – which is very good considering it’s in Singapore, even my best HK meal in Caprice is only worth 92.5).

During this visit, Alain Passard was accompanied by only 2 of his staffs from L’Arpege – Judy and Isabel. The presence of female chefs in L’Arpege’s kitchen is very important. Both Judy and Isabel explained there are a lot of freedom when they work under Passard, in fact, Passard always encourage his staffs to be creative and experiment with many things (He challenged them on how to make gnocchi or pasta without any flour and eggs which is not yet materialized – I don’t know whether it’s truly possible without egg?), but at the same time we must be cool and happy in the kitchen. Passard hates cooking in extreme temperatures which could easily destroy the essence of ingredients’ structures and hence change the food’s original taste. He likes things to be as natural as possible. For instance, he prefer to cook the potatoes first then peel the skins instead of the other way around (which is more common).

Chef Passard also emphasized the importance of balance and harmony in cooking. He wants his dishes can be tasted in such a way that our mouth will be able to savor all the flavors (of the ingredients) – sweet, salty, sour, bitter etc. When asked about the current molecular gastronomy, according to him, only Ferran Adria really knows how to do it while many others are pretentious and confused with themselves. He’s not too keen of it, since the essence of cooking always involves fire and this often does not exist in molecular gastronomy. Here are some of the pictures from the event, Passard in Singapore 08