Racines

营业中

休息中

4.5

4.5

20 食记

味道

环境

服务

卫生

抵食

|

11284

上环

$801以上

法国菜 Fine Dining

19

1

0

Judith Tong

等级3

79

1

It’d been a long time since I felt such excitement from dining at a small restaurant. Given the credentials of the chefs, I'd set a high bar on the restaurant but Racines still didn’t disappoint. We chose the kitchen counter seats. Throughout the course of dining, while Chef Adrien was engrossed in the cooking at the back most of the time, Chef Romaine was enthusiastically explaining to us the details of how each dish was prepared and what ingredients they used behind the counter bar. I knew

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It’d been a long time since I felt such excitement from dining at a small restaurant. Given the credentials of the chefs, I'd set a high bar on the restaurant but Racines still didn’t disappoint.

We chose the kitchen counter seats. Throughout the course of dining, while Chef Adrien was engrossed in the cooking at the back most of the time, Chef Romaine was enthusiastically explaining to us the details of how each dish was prepared and what ingredients they used behind the counter bar. I knew by then Racines was a special creation. In the simple descriptions of the menu lay profound thought and ingenuity.

【 Champagne Louis Roederer Collection 242 】

Racines offered a 2 or 3-glass wine pairing option yet I preferred choosing my own wines. To start with, a glass of Champagne Collection 242 by Louis Roederer. Not Cristal of course, this sparkling wine heralded a good start though honestly not quite as impressive and expressive as Louis Roederer claimed it was.

Champagne Louis Roederer Collection 242

【 Sourdough from Levain Bakery | Butter 】 The multi-grain sourdough from the local artisan bakery tasted amiable and it met the highest standard for bread. Texturally — the crispiness of the crust and moderate softness for the crumb — it spotted on. I always suspect that sourdough in HK is adapted to the local palate, which is more used to agreeable tastes than ready to accept the challenge for their senses to new things. This big bread in the picture was for your IG only. A fresh one would be sliced and served.

Sourdough from Levain Bakery

The butter was placed on a nice dish with a lid. When the lid was opened, some hazy wisps of smoke came out of the dish. This added some theatricality we all like these days.

Smoked Espelette pepper with Plum Jam and Sourdough

Made in the shape of a leaf, the smoked butter was topped with plum jam and scattered inside out with the French Espelette pepper. On the palate, the butter showed smooth, velvety softness. I enjoyed the French pepper’s subtle smokiness and not overpowering heat very much. The sweetness of the plum went well with the piment d'Espelette too. Racines worked miracle on a simple butter with careful combination of Espelette pepper, plum jam and smoking it.

As an aside, Les Beurre Bordier makes excellent le beurre au piment d’Espelette as well. That’s one of the reasons I cherish every visit to Gaddi’s, which has le beurre au piment d’Espelette served all the time.

【 Pre-appetisers — Artichoke Tart, Chicken Liver Parfait and Barba Juan 】

Beautifully prepared pre-appetisers demonstrated layers of flavours in harmony. The delicious tart and liver parfait aside, it is worth mentioning that before picking up that fried Provençal dumpling — Barba Juan as it is called — by hand, you were advised to rub the sage with your fingers to add fragrance to your hand.

Pre-appetisers - Artichoke Tart and Chicken Liver Parfait

Now, the ‘antipodes’ Menu.

【 Squid | Escabeche | Leek | Citrus 】

On top of the squid rolls were julienned carrot and leek heaped up. They were then encircled on the plate by squid ink coconut milk sauce that tasted dramatically in resemblance of Tom Yum. That Kaffir lime leaf fragrance in the sauce not least represented a beautiful twist-and-blend but also led you through a sublime gastronomical experience in what’s supposed to be essentially French (or French-Spanish, in case you were aware of the escabeche).

Squid | Escabeche | Leek | Citrus

Chef Romaine said he spent 2 years in Thailand. The influence was clearly shown in this appetiser that combined French cooking with Thai cuisine. He told us that Kaffir lime leaves were normally infused for their taste but he took this herb to another realm by powderising them so that he could control the exact level of aroma as he needed.

【 Beef | Tartare | Oyster Mushroom | Soybeans | Périgord Winter Black Truffle 】

The pickled mushrooms beneath the beef gave the dish some warmth in addition to the flavoursome acidity that usually came with traditional beef tartare, whereas the milder-tasted soybeans served to give certain texture and balance out the strength of the beef tartare. The gestalt was mesmerising and I deeply savoured it.

Adding slices of winter truffle was nice but for me the dish had been too strong in taste to complement the subdued, earthy tone and minimally minty flagrance of the truffle. It’s a nice to have though not absolutely necessary in terms of taste enhancement.

Beef | Tartare | Oyster Mushroom | Soybeans | Périgord Winter Black Truffle

【 Golden Threadfin Bream | Bouillabaisse | Yunnan Potato | Rouille 】

The warm and beautiful bouillabaisse was poured on to the golden sea bream - don’t forget the octopus — and mingled nicely with rouille sauce, the unparalleled jewel for fish soup. Though creamy, it was not too thick yet effusive with the deep flavours. I had no second thought using small pieces of bread to clean up the plate at the end. A faux pas this might be but it was a sin to waste one drop of such delicious soup.

Golden Threadfin Bream | Bouillabaisse | Yunnan Potato | Rouille

【 Justin Giradin 2020 Santenay Vielles Vignes 】For beef cheek, likely a more powerful Bordeaux suited better but my friend knew me well - I always love Burgundy. So for me he chose Justin Giradin 2020, a Santenay VV.

Justin Giradin 2020 Santenay Vielles Vignes

For info, Racines charges corkage $800 for your own bottle but gladly waives it if you order one from their wine list. Though not extensive, the wine collection is interesting. If your party can consume two bottles and you have a beloved wine, you should bring your own to pair with such excellent food.

【 Beef | Cheek | Basmati | Red Curry 】

The chef served this excellent beef cheek with light and sweet red curry from Blue Elephant and crispy basmati rice on top. When it touched my palate, the flavours fanned out to my taste buds like light going through a spectrum.

Beef | Cheek | Basmati | Red Curry

When I got carried away by the dish, my friend asked Chef Romaine about his days at Petrus where he and me had a unhurried and beautiful lunch (if interested, please refer to my review Unhurried and Beautiful『徐缓美丽』in March 2022, written in Chinese though 🙄). This main reminded us of Petrus’s French Lamb Shoulder, Eggplant, Caponata, Ras el Hanout. Chef Romaine said they still do the lamb at Petrus.

Both dishes shared a punch in taste alike and both were eclectic in style yet diverged from cuisines of two different regions. The lamb shoulder at Petrus came with the influence of the Middle East while today’s beef cheek told a story about an elegant and beautiful Thailand built upon a very French beef dish.

After the Petrus lunch last year I called Chef Romaine the painter J. M. W. Turner as his food was bold and complex but within the splash of flavours you’d find beauty almost to the extent beyond description as you’d discover from the dashes of colours on a Turner.

On the other hand, I appreciated Caprice for the classic approach in a more controlled, structural setting, and today I got to know Chef Adrien’s own interpretation of how food could bring about such radiant happiness in a freer and more cozy environment, not to mention the complexity and harmony in each dish.

I always believe in nurture as much as in nature. Apart from training and striving for the better, I am sure Chefs Adrien and Romaine are born with a refined palate and the genes for gastronomy which are expressed in their food. Glad that the two gentlemen ventured out to Racines.

【 Of note 】 The table knives for the main course are hand made for Racines by Les Couteliers Basque in France, each having a different word etched on the blade that means something special to the chefs and in the course of making Racines a dream come true.

【 Ossau Iraty | Hazelnut Crumble | Persimmon | Oxalis 】

The Basque semi-hard cheese made from sheep milk was plated to go with persimmon jam, and texturally supplemented by hazelnut crumbles. It was not an overpowering cheese but with some kick and overall quite smooth and palatable. Such amicability surely would go well with a lot of fine foods and wines yet a reasonable amount of sweetness, as in this case, persimmon, was a definite complement to the cheese. The dish was finally nuanced by a hint of sourness of oxalis, a touch ‘to turn gold into diamond’.

Ossau Iraty | Hazelnut Crumble | Persimmon | Oxalis

【 Banana | Tart | Almond | Baileys 】

Before serving, the banana tart was showcased on the countertop for us to take pictures, then we all got a small slice paired with Bailey ice-cream and caramel. The combinative effect was astoundingly delicious. Contrast in temperature between the tart and the ice-cream, texture between the banana dessert and the nuts, and finally the flavours among all on the plate simply made me on cloud nine.

Banana | Tart | Almond | Baileys

Banana | Tart | Almond | Baileys (on Plate)

【 Mignardises | Coffee 】At the end sea salt and butter cookies, and almond chocolates to go with a rather light coffee. The cookies were not of the entirely crispy type but partook of certain — a very slight degree of — chewy-gluey-ness in them. If I still described them as crispy, I meant the taste - the cookies were crispy in the sense that they were clearly and sharply tasted. The use of sea salt on chocolate and cookies was not new but this belonged to another level. To complement such nice texture and taste of the cookies came the crunchiness of the almond chocolate. Hard not to say this was a perfect finale of the meal.

【 Some more to say 】The tins showing the homes of the chefs and souvenirs to take away.

Beautiful Tin for Mignardises

Beautiful Tin for Mignardises

All in all, this was a beautiful and colourful lunch at a sunny noon in France — Le midi de la France as the region where the chefs come from is called.

Then my friend booked for dinner in April and needless to say this said of our compliments to the chefs. We look forward to seeing Chefs Adrien and Romaine again soon.

(以上食记乃用户个人意见 , 并不代表OpenRice之观点。)

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用餐日期

2023-02-25

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$1700 (午餐)

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