There was a time when El Bulli, the world's most famous restaurant,
couldn't have been farther from
Beijing's
culinary reality than the geographical distance that separates its
mountainous Spanish Costa Brava home from the hutongs of our home
city. True, both are competitively food obsessed. Yet while El
Bulli and its chef, Ferran Adrià, initiated "Molecular
Gastronomy"–the hottest revolution in culinary technique since man
tamed fire–Beijing, for a long time, continued to steam, stir-fry
and shish unswervingly.
Without a doubt, recent openings around our city reveal a
quickening approximation to global trends in dining. Mare Nostrum,
the recently-opened high-end Spanish spot in Beijing's CBD, stands
as an example of what Christian Hoffman, Executive Chef of the
Raffles Hotel Beijing, identifies as a worldwide increase in demand
for the Iberian country's cuisine. And what's a classic city
without a classic Parisian meal like that just unveiled at the
Sofitel Wanda's Le Pre Lenotre (inspired by famed 3-Michelin
star-rated Le Pre Catelan)?
That said, let's contend–and take Adria as support–that the true
sign of a contributing culinary center is confidence in innovation.
In this sense, Beijing is beginning to blossom. We're seeing haute
cuisine that isn't simply mimesis; rather, there's an originality
true to the locale.
The newly-opened SALT, for example, riffs on fish roe, filling
small "caviar" balls with different tropical flavors like passion
fruit and citrus–of utmost familiarity to its Venezuelan-born Chef
Daniel. It's a foreign concept with exotic flavors, prepared with
local ingredients. Raffles Hotel's JAAN, under Chef de Cuisine
Guillaume Galliot, serves a codfish foam which nearly transported
me straight to Cape Cod (had it not been drizzled with truffle oil
and served in a champagne glass under the Raffles Ballroom
chandelier). Dessert capped off the meal with a delicious tempura
take on your traditional post-French dinner molten chocolate cake,
appropriately paired with green tea gelato.
In other words, global trends locally conceived. When you have
the top chef at old-school Raffles promoting "contemporary French"
that distances itself from the traditional rich-and-creamy, and
SALT "playing, taking techniques and applying new flavors," you
know we're moving in the right direction. On the one hand, closer
to Catalunya. And on the other, ever closer to home.
Mare Nostrum Restaurant
Location: 2/F, Commercial Zone, Vantone Center, A6 Chaoyangmen
Waidajie
Tel: 010-5907-0088
Le Pre Lenotre
Location: Wanda Plaza, 93 Jianguo Lu, next to Wanda
International Cineplex
Tel: 010-8599-6666 ext. 6528
Website: www.sofitel.com/asia
SALT
Location: 1/F TRIO Building, Jiangtai Xilu, West of the Rosedale
Hotel
Tel: 010-6437-8457
Jaan
Location: 33 East Chang'an Avenue
Tel: 010-6526-3388 ext.4186
(City Weekend by Manuela Zoninsein January 4, 2008)
