Celebrity Life

One of the most eagerly anticipated restaurant openings of 2021 in Bangkok was the Le Normandie by Alain Roux, which began welcoming guests in the first week of December. Prestige stopped by for a magnificent midday meal, and an interview with the award-winning restaurateur himself

When it was announced in late 2021 that Le Normandie, the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok hotel’s two-Michelin-starred French restaurant, was set to relaunch as Le Normandie by Alain Roux, the city’s culinary community began booking tables immediately. As such it was quite a treat to secure a lunchtime reservation on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in early December, and it was even more of a treat to have the opportunity to converse with Chef Alain Roux about his association with Le Normandie – both past and present – while he was in town to oversee the launch of this eagerly anticipated collaboration.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Roux family, Alain’s father, Michel Roux (OBE), was the legendary French chef and restaurateur who, together with his brother Albert, opened Le Gavroche – which went on to become the first three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Britain. In 1972 the brothers then opened The Waterside Inn, which also boasts three Michelin stars and in 2010 made history as the first restaurant outside France to retain all three stars for 25 years. For the past decade or so Alain has held the title of chef patron here, and he now brings this considerable legacy to Thailand’s capital, as the new Le Normandie has been reborn as something of a sister restaurant to The Waterside Inn.

“It’s very exciting,” Alain says of the new venture, adding that it’s something he wishes his father – who passed away in the spring of 2020 – could have been alive to see. “My late father and I have shared a long association with the [Mandarin Oriental] brand and particularly this hotel. This partnership is something he and I would have loved to do together. This was my first thought when I was invited to become involved with Le Normandie; that it was the fulfillment of our special dream.”

Michel Roux made his first appearance as guest chef at Le Normandie back in 1985, and since these special gourmet events always sold out, he was invited back on numerous occasions. What’s more, he enjoyed these overseas visits immensely. “My father shared his great passion for Bangkok and Le Normandie with me,” Alain recounts. “He loved this city’s markets, the street food… it was heaven for him.”

For diners already familiar with Le Normandie, it may appear at first glance that this new iteration is not much different than what came before. The restaurant’s stately, elegant interior remains unchanged, and diners are still afforded magnificent views of the Chao Phrya River, as well as top-tier attention to detail when it comes to service and presentation. The menus, however, represent a totally new approach, with a number of signature dishes imported fully intact from The Waterside Inn, and others created – or modified – especially for the new venue.

For my meal I have decided on the seven-course (with cheeses) ‘Le Menu Exceptionnel’ (THB 7,300++), which begins with a pair of bite-size amuse bouche items: a chickpea puff with tarragon mayonnaise, and morsel of duck leg confit with a wonderful raspberry dressing and green peppercorns. Three-, four-, six-, eight- and nine-course versions of this menu are also available – depending on the day of the week and time of visit – and ordering à la carte remains an option as well.

The amuse bouche segment continues with a Brittany oyster (No. 4) on the half shell, paired with cucumber gelatin, salmon roe, and pickled onion. It’s another one-bite delight. This is followed by a superb sea bass and octopus ceviche, wherein delicately thin slices of the two sea creatures rest in a tart passionfruit juice, with a shredded vegetable salad topping adding some crunchy texture. Through it all it’s the individual flavours that stand out, with no need for dry ice distractions or complicated frothy foams.

“My philosophy is very simple,” explains Alain. “As a cook, I respect the quality of my ingredients before anything else. I let Mother Nature be my guide, and believe that we are only ever as good as our last meal. As a restaurateur, I aim to demonstrate the warmth of service and subtle attention to detail that represents the timeless, quintessential Waterside Inn style.”

This talk of the “quintessential” is the perfect precursor to the next course: sumptuous pan-fried foie gras served with pine nuts, capers, raisin, cauliflower slices, potato truffle, and a Gewürztraminer sauce. It’s rich without being heavy, sweet without being unctuous, and the range of diverse flavours work to complement one another, with nothing out of place. This particular dish, incidentally, comes directly from The Waterside Inn menu, and exemplifies why that restaurant has been in Michelin’s good books for so long. In fact, it's the only restaurant outside of France to have retained three Michelin Stars for 38 consecutive years – an absolutely extraordinary achievement!

The next course, meanwhile, illustrates how local Asian flavours can be expertly incorporated into classic existing recipes. On a wide white plate sits a tender portion of poached halibut filet, topped with a spoonful of creamy vodka lime sauce and accompanied by pickled radish and Thai pomelo (which replaces the grapefruit used in the UK).

“I am inspired greatly by the fabulous locally sourced bounty of Thai fresh ingredients, including vegetables, fruits, aromatic herbs, and spices,” the chef admits. “My menu will feature as much of this lovely produce as possible, for example delicious locally grown rice, pineapples, and coconuts. We have worked hard to present an interpretation of classic French cuisine, but I’ll sneak in a few Thai ingredients here and there, from land and sea.”

The meal continues with roasted Challandais duck, which is carved tableside with theatrical flourish by restaurant manager Federico De Luca – one of several key people on the new Le Normandie team who worked previously at The Waterside Inn. Topped with plum jus, the slices are artfully arranged on the plate alongside a dollop of plum chutney and a vegetable tartlet featuring beetroot, carrot, and onion.

Before the mains give way to afters, I’ve asked to go off-menu and try one of the à la carte specialties: the famous grilled rabbit fillets (as finding rabbit on a menu in Bangkok is next to impossible). Here, tender slices of leg and loin sit atop a celeriac fondant, with a single ravioli – containing finely chopped leg, shoulder, and liver – off to the side. Rounding out the plate are delectable sweet glazed chestnuts in Armagnac sauce, and a decorative bunny-shaped toasted bread slice held upright in a fluffy squirt of mashed potatoes. It’s no surprise to me that this delicacy has been on The Waterside Inn menu since day one.

The meal winds down with a sampling of five imported French cheeses, followed by a lovely lychee sorbet and blackberry pre-dessert, and a lighter-than-air golden plum soufflé to finish. Through it all the expert five-glass wine pairing (THB 3,500++) by sommelier Antoine Simonnet has been first-rate, ending happily on a sweet note with a splash of 2018 Kracher Spätlese Rosé from Austria.

Before the meal concludes, Head Chef Phil Hickman stops by to say hello. This boyish, 33-year-old Welshman has been chosen to lead the kitchen at Le Normandie by Alain Roux, having worked previously at both The Waterside Inn, and the Brasserie Prince by Alain Roux at The Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh (unfortunately now closed due to the pandemic).

“I have every confidence in him, as well as his fellow talented team members,” Alain remarks. “He shares my passion and excitement for this venture, and my dedication to complete quality without compromise. Plus, he loves Thailand and Le Normandie, having worked alongside my father and myself here for some promotions in the past.

“Le Normandie will be my signature, a distillation of all that we represent at The Waterside Inn and all that I know and love about food, that has been little affected by time or fashion,” he goes on to say. “I’ve never been so excited opening a new restaurant, but opening is the easy part. Consistency is the challenge. My father taught me that the key to creating a successful signature restaurant begins and ends with the guest. This will be our mantra, as true today as the day my father opened The Waterside Inn 50 years ago.”

For reservation visit Le Normandie by Alain Roux.

The post Fine Dining Finesse at Le Normandie by Alain Roux appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

With a prime location on Southampton’s glamorous Ocean Village Marina, the upmarket Southeast Asian Blue Jasmine restaurant is a delight for all who visit. Blending superb cuisine with stylish interiors, the young restaurant offers an enchanting fine dining experience, from the sumptuous starters to the signature Sarawak black pepper roasted duck dish to the impressive […]

Today, Ashley Salmon, Li Man-Lung and Maxime Gilbert are acclaimed chefs with refined palates and sophisticated tastes, but they still remember and treasure the homemade comfort food that they grew up eating. Whether it's at home or in their fine dining kitchens, their festive family meals and menus are inspired by those memories and what they represent. We asked these three Hong Kong Michelin-starred chefs to share their Christmas traditions, favourite recipes and culinary inspirations.

Chef Ashley Salmon of Roganic Hong Kong

What do you and your family usually cook for Christmas?

If I’m not working, which happens a lot as a chef, I celebrate with my family and I try not to cook – but then I end up taking care of the star of the meal: the meat. We all love food but I wouldn’t say that we are a family with a lot of great cooks. We usually have simple food like soup, roast turkey and stuffed turkey leg with potatoes, red cabbage and vegetables. Traditional British food. In our Christmas menu at Roganic we basically took this exact concept and elevated it with the freshest products and finest techniques.

What is the dish on your menu that best represents your festive traditions?

We have a dessert at the restaurant, the chocolate fondant, that I have made many times on Christmas day and it’s inspired by my grandma’s recipe. I wouldn’t say it’s traditional in the UK but we usually eat it a lot around Christmas time in my family and I guess it’s about every person’s personal experience. It’s rich, indulgent and it represents the time that we all come together to eat even if we are very busy.

2020 has been a very difficult year for everyone, did cooking help you to cope with the challenges?

I think food is the one thing that connects everybody and brings people together. I don’t want to sound to cheesy but it genuinely is. During hard times and crises food really helps to overcome challenges. Cooking for your loved ones and sharing the dishes especially - they don’t have to be fancy. Food just connects human beings like anything else. During the pandemic I think it has been very helpful for people to do something rewarding while being stuck at home.

How are you going to celebrate Christmas this year?

I will be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we will make sure that the staff will also have food so that we can share it together and make sure that people that are away from their families can still feel the festive atmosphere.

What can people do to avoid wasting food when cooking during the holidays?

My advice is to repurpose all the leftovers into something else so that you don’t get bored. Maybe it’s hard with no cooking experience because home cooks tend to buy way too much while in restaurants we have to learn and make sure that we don’t buy too many ingredients because we cannot afford to generate waste. I think that being creative can be a good advice – or just go on google.

Roganic, Sino Plaza, UG/F 08, 255 Gloucester Rd, Causeway Bay; +852 2817 8383

Chef Li Man-Lung of Duddell's

What do you and your family usually cook for Christmas?

I like to spend time at home with my wife and family and we usually have steak and wine.

Can you share with us a recipe on your festive menu and the traditions behind it?

Crispy suckling duck is a traditional Cantonese dish that uses the “Pipa Duck” processing method. The ducks are marinated with our in-house blend of spices, air-dried, smoked and grilled, and finished with a pour of hot oil to imitate the traditional cooking process of a fried crispy chicken. This creates a golden-red hue, with crispy skin and succulent meat.

What is the dish on your menu that most represents your festive traditions?

Steamed chicken, minced shrimp and supreme chicken broth. In Chinese traditions, chicken is always people’s first choice during festivals and special occasions. Steam is also a very common cooking method for Chinese home cooking and it reminds me of that.

2020 has been a very difficult year for everyone, did cooking help you to cope with the challenges?

With the Covid situation, it has definitely been a very tough year for everyone. What really has helped me is trying to be creative to bring some exciting new dishes for our guests. I really hope that they enjoy spending their time at Duddell’s.

What will you do this Christmas?

I will be working at Duddell’s with my team, we have prepared a free-flow weekend brunch with Michelin-starred Cantonese specialties and festive cocktails.

What can people do to avoid wasting food when cooking during the Holidays?

Everybody has leftovers from dinners and parties. I would suggest using them to create something new. For example, the steam chicken could turn into a delicious dish, add garlic and chives and pan-fry to turn it into a nice lunch with a bowl of rice or egg fried rice.

Duddells, Level 3 Shanghai Tang Mansion, 1 Duddell St, Central; +852 2525 9191

Chef Maxime Gilbert of Écriture

What do you and your family usually cook for Christmas?

We always cook poultry, it can be poularde, goose or duck. Oyster and crepinette (a classic Christmas sausage roll in cepine from Charente region), foie gras and, of course, Christmas log.

Can you share with us a recipe on your festive menu and the traditions behind it?

The crepinette that we serve with oyster is a classic item from my region in Central France, it is basically a chipolatas sausage mixed with black truffle , then rolled in crepine (caul fat). You pan-sear it and eat with oysters, bread and butter.

What is the dish on your menu that most represents your festive traditions?

This year, at Écriture, we have decided to change it up a little bit, instead of serving the signature dishes, we have prepared the poularde, a dish which Heloise (my chef de cuisine) and Marc-Antoine (my restaurant director), and myself, actually want to have for Christmas. It will be cooked in a very traditional way with exceptional produce and in respect of the tradition with a small twist.

2020 has been a very difficult year for everyone, did cooking help you to cope with the challenges?

Yes, definitely! When you cook with your heart and soul you give the better of yourself, and, in this difficult time, my team and I, together with Marc-Antoine, have tried to give our best to our customers.

What will you do this Christmas?

I will be cooking at the restaurant. On Christmas Day, for lunch, we will be serving a whole table carved Roasted Bresse Poularde contise with black truffle, a sea food plater (with an Ècriture twist), caviar a la louche with condiment, blue lobster with Chateau Chalon sauce and white truffle, classic foie gras torchon with black truffle and Sauterne jelly, Mont blanc Christmas and many other festive delicacies.

What can people do to avoid wasting food when cooking during the Holidays?

The concept of cooking and serving a whole poularde during Christmas might sound too much for two guests - both at home and at the restaurant - and that’s why we brought in the French concept of bringing home the food and enjoy it the day after. This is something common in France, we carry on our feast the day after, both for lunch and dinner, and people can do it at home as well.

Écriture, 26/F H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central; +852 2795 5996

The post 3 Hong Kong Michelin-Starred Chefs on Their Christmas Meals appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Nic Vanderbeeken, the Belgian chef behind one of Bali’s most recent must-visit fine dining establishments, Apéritif, gets face to face with Joezer Mandagi.

Dinner at Apéritif in Ubud starts, appropriately enough, with a round of apéritifs - at the venue’s opulent bar. This is also where diners first meet and chat with the restaurant’s affable Belgian Executive Chef, Nic Vanderbeeken. But when Prestige arrived, the highly esteemed chef was quick to point out that it was not all about him.

“I’m actually happy that all the diners we get, they come here for Apéritif,” Vanderbeeken insisted. “They don’t come for me, they come for Apéritif.”

It’s not hard to see why. The restaurant, which opened its doors late last year, is the quintessential Ubud fine-dining establishment. It’s located not too far away from the centre of the district - next door to the Viceroy Bali resorts - but still tucked into its own remote corner, surrounded by terraced rice paddies and boasting expansive views of distant rainforests, with Bali’s sacred Mount Agung looming in the background.

Unique among Ubud’s top-tier eateries, Apéritif’s colonial aesthetics have proven to complement the aforementioned backdrop quite nicely. This visual theme is quite evident from the exterior, but it is when you actually step inside that the shift really sweeps you off your feet into a completely different timeline: black-and-white polished marble, era-appropriate paintings, chandeliers hanging overhead and black-and-white plumage on every table.

All that being said, it’s also quite evident that plenty of guests do come for Vanderbeeken.

Like so many of his contemporaries, Chef Vanderbeeken started his culinary career in his teenage years, working weekends and holidays as a steward. He moved up from washing dishes to making mayonnaise and other simple kitchen tasks when a friend of his parents took him in and later convinced his parents to send Vanderbeeken to culinary school.

“I worked in gastronomic restaurants almost every weekend and I really loved the atmosphere,” Vanderbeeken began. Then he added: “I don’t know anything else, actually.” So, after finishing his studies and taking an extra year to learn about pastries, when he was given the choice of studying management or going to work, he immediately chose the latter. So, like most new chefs, he moved from restaurant to restaurant, picking up new skills and knowledge until, at the age of 22, he found himself working at ’t Convent, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Belgium.

There, fate gave him a little extra nudge forward. “The sous chef had an accident,” Vanderbeeken recalled, his tone almost apologetic. “He fell asleep in his car and drove under a truck. He took three months off to recover. During the time he was gone, the chef appointed me as his replacement. When the sous chef came back, I was told I could keep my position while the sous chef became a chef de tournant.” Then he went on: “From there, I moved faster.”

Moving faster meant moving on again, to other restaurants. Moving faster meant delving into new trends, like molecular gastronomy. Moving forward, however, meant slowing down a bit. As much as he wanted to keep up with new things, Vanderbeeken was, at the time, also a new father. So, he switched to bistronomy, where the pay is better and the hours are friendlier. And then came the move to Bali. Or, at least, the beginnings of moving to Bali.

See, after his sixth vacation on the island, Vanderbeeken decided that he’d sell everything he had and move to Asia. “But not Bali,” he pointed out. “I wanted to move near Bali, like to Singapore or Bangkok, so during the weekends or when I had a few days off I could come to my favourite holiday destination.” His parents, however, weren’t too thrilled about this plan. They wanted him to move only after securing a job offer first – and one that would be a step up from what he was doing at the time.

This brought Vanderbeeken to the culinary scene of Vietnam. Thinking that maybe moving to Asia wasn’t exactly the best career move, he then set his sights on Australia, perhaps Melbourne. As fate would have it, however, before making yet another major move, Vanderbeeken took another long holiday in Bali. And while there, he sent his résumé to a number of restaurants.

Anthony Syrowatka of the Viceroy was the first to invite him to do a test menu. After successfully preparing a six-course degustation menu in an unfamiliar kitchen, he was offered a contract. The rest, as the saying goes, is history, and Vanderbeeken became the driving force behind Viceroy’s successful CasCades restaurant.

“I thought that CasCades was the end,” Vanderbeeken said as our conversation moved on to his current position. “I mean, I thought I could not go up any more.” But he did. Not that it was smooth sailing from day one, of course. For one, a new team had to be assembled, although he readily admitted that that turned out to be the easy part.

A more pressing matter was location. The problem with having a secluded fine-dining establishment was that it was, well, secluded. “People that come here have to travel here - they have to plan it,” Vanderbeeken elaborated. “Even if they are in Ubud, they have to think about transport, for example. You don’t just pass the restaurant and come inside.”

But perhaps here too he needn’t have worried. “Before we opened, there were two Japanese ladies who came here in July or August,”
Vanderbeeken recalled with a big smile on his face, noting once again that the restaurant only opened around October. “We were almost finished with the restaurant, but we were not open yet. But they were so interested to see what was going to happen and they wanted to be the first to dine here in Apéritif. So, these two ladies came back from Japan, stayed here in the Viceroy and dined at Apéritif. We gave them a certificate, because they were our first official diners and they were so happy with that.”

So far, feedback from diners has been overwhelmingly positive. The food is, of course, stellar and packaged into a charming experience that begins with the eponymous pre-dinner drinks and canapés, followed by a culinary tour de force prepared in the restaurant’s open kitchen which marries Vanderbeeken’s roots in pure culinary techniques, his deep understanding for the flavours found in the region and, most importantly, the passion that he imparts into his gastronomical creations.

Asked whether he was still as passionate about his chosen profession today as he was all those years ago when he was only just starting, Vanderbeeken turned contemplative. “Since I was 18 years old I was tempted to leave Belgium. But then I fell in love and this and that,” he answered. “But because I came to Asia, a whole new world was opened to me - cooking, ingredients, recipes. I became interested again.”

Running his own fine dining establishment also proved to be a much-needed change of pace for Vanderbeeken. Back in Belgium it was often just him and his sous chef, doing 50 covers a night with an à la carte menu; here he works with more than a dozen people.

“You can be more detailed, more creative ... and it’s again an open kitchen so you have good communication with the guests,” he goes on. “So I still feel the same passion now. Sometimes it goes away a little bit – and that’s why I always need a new challenge.”

Certainly, Apéritif still has room to grow; it’s only been open for about half a year and Bali’s hospitality industry is as exciting as it is unforgiving and constantly changing. Vanderbeeken, though, seems to be more than up to the challenge.
He concluded our conversation thus: “It can only get better.”

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