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2010-05-31
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chef philippe orrico is quite an outlier himself - he never went through traditional culinary training - no CAP or glamorous certificates from cooking schools filled with rich kids; instead, he finished college and worked in art industry for awhile before the path of life took him into the culinary world at age 24, which is considered very late for starting a chef's career (most MOFs obtained their title before 30). chef O however quickly rose to the top; he joined pierre gagnaire a few years la
we arrived at at 7.30pm on a saturday night and found the small restaurant all to ourselves; but by 8pm, it was nearly full house. the was quite small and seated ~15 tables, with pine wood plank flooring and a huge chandelier dangling low from the ceiling. we took a quick look at the menu and quickly decided to go for the 8-course degustation.
le pain - the bread basket consisted of italian sweet bread, focaccia, and wheats. the sweet bread was very flat and firm, but focaccia was quite decent.
amuse bouche: white asparagus cream, pistachio, orange biscuit - i really liked the orange biscuit for its tartness which was a great match with the slightly bitter asparagus cream. subtle but refreshing. texture wise, i personally prefer the asparagus cream to be firmer (like custard), but taste was interesting and set a high tone.
entree 1: gillardeau oyster, sevruga and osetra caviar - the osetra caviar was amazing - layered flavors with a hint of brine that lingered in the mouth for a very long time. gillardeau is one of my favorite oysters (these days it's even more difficult to find belon 00 than white truffle :-( ). it was fat, creamy, luxurious, with a tint of coppery taste. on the other hand, the oyster was served a bit too warm and could be chilled more...
entree 2: fatty tuna, zucchini avocado, green granite - the melt-in-your-mouth chutoro was deliciously fat and buttery; it was not aomori oma toro, but still carried deep flavors that developed over time. the highlight of this dish, however, was the zucchini/avocado underneath; avocado blended with fatty tuna and greatly enhanced the smoothness, while crispy zucchini gave depth to the texture. vegetable juice granite was slightly bitter and lightened up the oil tuna dish. the entire combination produced a very refreshing taste and was ingenious.
entree 3: roasted langoustine with colonnata, roasted almonds avocado and green asparagus - slightly disappointing. the flavors worked very well together and i liked how the roasted almonds gave a slightly sticky surface, but the crayfish meat was mushy and called into question the quality of the material.
entree 4: atlantic scallop, creamy potato with sherry wine and seaweed, baby leek with mustard and smoked milk foam - the scallop was slightly pan-seared and still very juicy inside. reduced sherry wine and mustard all worked well together. it was not altogether inventive flavor, but simply tasted good.
Plat principal 1: roasted veal sweetbread, with espelette pepper, red apple confit with reduce farm cider, crab meat, baby spinach and green olive - surprisingly my favorote dish of the night, despite the fact that i do not eat beef NOR offal! the sweetbread felt almost like foie gras - very smooth and buttery (even a bit liquid) inside but outside was crispy and slightly caramelized. it was interesting to pair crab meat with veal, but result was surprisingly refreshing.
Plat principal 2: obsiblue prawn with cocktail sauce; pink champagne granite, tomato jelly - this was my least favorite dish of the night. while i liked the pairing of tomato jelly with prawns (what's with all the granites these days? it's almost as popular as verrine), the savory and sourness of former went well with slight salinity of the latter, prawn with cocktail sauce (it tasted somewhat like thousand island sauce) just seemed a little too american. the obsiblue prawn was okay, meat was a bit bland and soft.
Plat principal 3: pigeon mieral, couscous, piquillos, foie gras, sultana and crispy curry - pigeon with foie gras has always been one of my favorites in any french restaurant and this was very nicely done and reinvented the classic. pigeon meat was pink and juicy inside while foie gras was fried instead of pan-seared and stuffed, which actually tasted cleaner and more flavorful. the sultana-sweetened curry really reminded me of pierre gagnaire...
Pre-dessert: citron sorbet - this was my favorite dessert of the night. the warm, nicely churned citron cream was so foamed up and smooth that it tasted almost like lemon whipped cream, and underneath was a chilled icy grapefruit sorbet. it was warm, cold, sweet and sour all at the same time and yet so harmonious and straight forward. liked it.
Dessert 1: rose ice cream with wild strawberries and raspberries, raspberry tuile - this one was quite institutional.
Dessert 2: pistachio cream, sago, grapefruit pulp - interesting dish. the pistachio cream was smooth, aromatic and paired with the tartness of grapefruit quite nicely. the whole color composition was very pleasant and almost picturesque. i also found the use of sago quite clever, which made a traditionally oriental dessert material seem so natural and fit-in in a french dessert.
Dessert 3: vanilla cream, dark chocolate plates, coffee granite - it could have been a prettier dish but the vanilla cream was very much melted by the time it arrived at our table... the chocolate plates were a bit too soft.
Dessert 4: hot chocolate - it tasted like a very light mocha with a hint of cinnamon. simple but hearty.
Dessert 5: chocolate-covered sparkling sugar - playful, which is what a dessert should be!
Petit four: marzipan, macaron, pate de fruit, marshmallow - these were quite below average :-( the macaron was not just wet - it was soaked and soggy. pate de fruit was so flat that it was almost as if i was eating a sugar cube. marzipan was wet and left a thick layer of syrup on my fingers. everything seemed half melted.
it's altogether quite an impressive dinner. the food was inventive, daring, yet modest and harmonious. smart and creative use of vegetables in all of the savory dishes to highlight flavors. though cooking technique was still very french from soup to nuts, the name "european cuisine" has given chef O more liberty to use his ingredients (i don't think the prawn cocktail could ever pass the test in a french restaurant). composition was dimensional without too busy or distracting. the veal sweetbread was really memorable and unlike what i have in other places.
on the negative side, sometimes temperature control seemed a bit off. the oyster was a little too warm, and some of the desserts appeared to have sat for too long. seafood supply was called into question, but fortunately was saved by good cooking.
it's a shame that the restaurant is located in TST and not central, which is a lot more accessible for me and its target customers.
on service - friendly, courteous, and eager to serve, though admittedly lack of knowledge on the menu. food was often placed in front of us without any introduction. bad english, let alone french - the server could have spoken for 3 minutes and i had no idea what he was talking about. but on the fact that i was escorted to ladies' room as any proper french restaurant should do, i shall excuse these teething problems. however, can someone NOT turn up the air-con at 10pm? i was freezing!
full post with pictures: http://randomnomad.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/st-george/
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