All good foods in their season

[rooster59]

All good foods in their season

By Kupluthai Pungkanon 
The NAtion Weekend

 

La Saint Jacques is a seared scallop with cauliflower “risotto”.

 

L'Atelier de Joel Robouchon crafts its menu according to nature's bounty

 

AT L’ATELIER de Joel Robuchon Bangkok, executive chef Olivier Limousin changes the menu on a seasonal basis, cycling through the most popular dishes every two or three weeks. At the moment, you need to try La Saint-Jacques. 

 

It’s a seared Hokkaido scallop served with lobster sauce and cauliflower that’s cooked “risotto-style”. 

 

This item alone is worth the Michelin star awarded to the restaurant inside the towering MahaNakhon Building in downtown Bangkok.

 

L’Atelier de Joel Rubuchon feels intimate despite the stylish flourishes.

Limousin gets about 60 per cent of his ingredients from overseas, but the rest is local and superbly fresh. He’s been to the organic Royal Project farms in the North, from which he orders top-quality crayfish, chicken and coriander, plus peaches and avocados when they’re in season. 

 

The appeal of the northern farms goes beyond quality, he says. The history of the Royal Project has deeply impressed him, and he’s an avid supporter. “The way people use the land is beautiful and very respectful to the earth,” he says. 

 

From Brittany in France comes Dover sole, from the Pyrenees Mountains luscious lamb, from Sologne caviar, from Vendee quail and from Perigord black truffles. Limousin has his scallops and wagyu beef shipped from Japan, king crab from Alaska and iberico ham and olive oil from Spain. 

 

All these precious pieces are assembled in a stylish open kitchen and presented at patrons’ tables and along the sushi bar. 

 

Limousin says Joel Robonchon, the chef whose name the restaurant bears, introduced the open-kitchen concept to Europe in 2003, leaving mouths agape – and not from hunger. Until then, what happened in the kitchen had always been a secret. Now it’s like the kitchen at home and diners are welcome to stare and marvel. 

 

At l’Atelier, which opened in 2014, guests can watch the kinetic activity, taste buds on high alert and appetites growing by the minute.

What’s more, l’Atelier’s borrows the intimacy of a Japanese sushi bar and Spanish tapas bistro. It adds to the homey feel.

 

The three-course summer menu is appropriately light and colourful.

 

Pour Commencer includes foie gras in a reduction of aged port.

 

You begin with Pour Commencer (French for “to begin”) – a helping of royal foie gras in a reduction of aged port, thrillingly decorated with Parmesan foam. 

 

The appetiser that follows is actually the first course. You can have either Le Saumon d’Ecosse – a crisply poached egg in delicate cream with smoked Scottish salmon – or L’Asperge Blanche, which is Vaucluse white asparagus with Iberico ham and veal jus. 

 

There’s another choice in the main courses, but we’ve already recommended you go for La Saint-Jacques, the Hokkaido scallop and cauliflower, a vegetable on which Limousin seems overly keen, but he’s certainly made it magical, adding as a flourish a crispy cracker blackened with squid ink.

 

“We decided to use cauliflower instead of risotto rice because it’s in season at the Royal Project in Chiang Mai and is also very good for the health,” he says. 

 

“We want to create more healthy dishes. Normally, risotto is quite heavy – creamy with butter and salt. But when we use cauliflower, we don’t need to use too much cheese or cream. It has very nice crunchy texture – I use only the tops. I think it’s a nice balance with the scallop.”

 

If you shun the scallop St-Jacques, your alternative is still a great one. L’Agneau is a lamb filet in a parsley crust amid a mousse of green peas and fresh herbs, including mint. 

 

“In France, spring is the time for baby vegetables and the peas are in season until August,” Limousin says. “I like to make peas in muslin because it reminds of my mother’s cooking when I was a kid. And we use breadcrumbs to give it a crispy texture.”

 

For L’Agneau, the lamb is in a parsley crust.

 

All the breads and desserts are made on the premises. A dessert trolley makes the rounds with rum-soaked sponge cake, chocolate sachets, chocolate caramel tarts, sweet mango tarts with macadamia nuts, and more.

 

The summer menu hasn’t chased off the restaurant’s usual roster of popular dishes. There’s king crab and avocado roll and the delicately flavoured L’Ecrevises, which is roasted Royal Projects crayfish with various veggies. 

 

The wine list covers the Old World and the New, with prices ranging from Bt1,200 into the hundreds of thousands. Ask about wines to pair with specific dishes. If you’d like to bring your own wine, the corkage fee is Bt1,500. 

  

SUMMER DINING TREATS

 

>> L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon is in the MahaNakhon Building in Bangkok’s Silom area. 

 

>. Lunch prices start at Bt950 for two courses, Bt1,400 for three and Bt1,950 for four. Wine is Bt680 for two glasses. Dishes from the a-la-carte menu cost Bt380 to Bt2,800. 

 

>> The three-course summer menu is Bt2,950. 

 

>> Dinner prices are Bt5,000 for five courses and Bt7,500 for seven. 

 

>> Book a table at www.Robuchon-Bangkok.com or the “atelier.bkk” Facebook page or (02) 001 0698

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/tasty/30351408

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-04

[Get Real]

The food looks totally stunning. 

[worgeordie]

You'll need about 10, 3 course meals to feel full.

there's more foam than ingredients,it might look

nice,but not my kind of eating.

regards worgeordie

[topt]

9 hours ago, Get Real said:

The food looks totally stunning. 

 

8 hours ago, worgeordie said:

You'll need about 10, 3 course meals to feel full.

there's more foam than ingredients,it might look

nice,but not my kind of eating.

regards worgeordie

I agree with both of you 

So although not ridiculously expensive at 3k baht excluding drinks and presumably plus plus for the summer time menu pictured at such an establishment I still think I will pass.

[Lungstib]

Pictures on a plate. Taking eating away from the obvious task of providing nutrients and energy for the body and moving it into the sphere of status and pretentions. Go in hungry, come out hungry and minus 2000b. 

[from the home of CC]

If I wanted artwork I'd go to a museum.

[tryasimight]

Scallop and caulli whoop de doo

[Nyezhov]

Well prepared food like that is a treat.  I enjoy it occasionally. Right now though I am stuffing my drooling maw with a fried egg and ham and cheese on a hard roll, whilethe yolk drips down my beard and onto my naked fat chest.

 

I enjoy that too

[Lungstib]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

Right now though I am stuffing my drooling maw with a fried egg and ham and cheese on a hard roll, whilethe yolk drips down my beard and onto my naked fat chest.

That thought might just keep me awake tonight. Too much information!