Viajante Saturday 19 February 2011

Me and the main man (Sam titled this 'Happy' - good choice!)x

Anyone reading this blog will think I have just won the lottery seeing as this is the second week running that I have been privileged to eat at two Michelin starred restaurants two weekends 11th and 19th Feb) -
on the trot. No I haven't booked one for this weekend but I will be playing the lottery. The similarity of both restaurants starts and ends with the fact that they both have Michelin stars and they serve food. Every aspect of these restaurants (Le Gavroche for those that didn't read last weeks)is entirely different. The locations speak volumes about what experience you're going to have - Mayfair - foie gras. Bethnel Green - Sea Buckthorn! The latter was a favourite of Genghis Khan who treasured it as an essential ingredient in keeping his soldiers strong. I can't say that foie gras would have done the same - what does that say about the French army?! (sorry for casting aspersions on our bravery of our Gallic (garlic) allies (although 17 to 9 in the rugby in our brave warriors favour tastes so sweet this morning!). Anyway I seem to have sailed off course with this review partly as I am unsure how to start to comment about this meal - much easier talking waffle as those close to me can attest...

Right, OK, here we go.

Having sat down and offered cocktails from the bar we are served with a glass of complimentary champagne (the benefits of going with someone of note (Sam! xx).  We are given the run down on what to expect and looking around for a sheet of paper listing the evenings promises....However we are told the menu is received AFTER the meal, a fact that may seem strange to some of you - and to us at the time. The menu, we are told  is to REMIND you what you have eaten not what you are about to eat, you just have to decide how much!. Annoyingly we forgot to take the menu home but they have kindly forwarded what we had although on closer inspection it does appear that we were treated with some slight variations to the dishes as Sam had already eaten at the restaurant a few days previously. We also had, we think 10 courses rather than 9 or 12 so the memory is a little sketchy, that and the 10 glasses of wine that accompanied the dishes can only have assisted in the memory loss.

The first step in the process is to choose between the number of courses whether it be 6, 9 or 12 (it is less at lunchtime for obvious reasons.). When you have 4 people with varying appetites this does present the first hurdle as appetites are different. We were informed however that you have a similar quantity of food in that the portion sizes are greater the fewer dishes (not the price). The other main option is wine - to opt for the wine pairing or not. With so many dishes and tastes it would not have been the right option to have gone for a bottle of white or a bottle of red and we were all very glad that we went for the paired option.

I am going to summarise the evening and the experience rather than try and remember each dish as that would not only be unreadable (OK impossible to write without a great embellishment and a tissue of whoppers!) so I have simply listed and shown some of the dishes we THINK we had.  The most memorable part of the evening was the grace - the quiet, deliberate way all the staff went about their business. From the incredibly well briefed waiting staff (there was no need of a Maitre D - if there was one I would never have guessed), each and every one knew exactly what was going on and yet how could they?  It was almost like a Victorian stage magician in that there seemed to be no dialogue between anyone and the kitchen was completely exposed and yet each dish arrived, perfectly executed and the description an exact narative on the plate in front of us, a conjurers trick surely?  We can't have been in the real world as the sommelier didn't laugh at my jokes??!!  Reality was put to the test when we were served ice cold sake paired with the langoustine and then razor clams (which aren't on the menu supplied) with what we really thought was topping up the water but in the wrong glass burst into flavour when paired with a Portugese wine the name I don't annoyingly have.

The chef, Nuno Mendes and you must look at his website Viajanate is clearly of the new school.  He hasn't quite gone the whole nine 'foraged' yards like Rene Redzepi (who I may add I have the utmost respect for...) but he is de-constructing food in a very pleasurable way and paying homage to the new culinary way of 'thinking about food' - and for that you get a star without foie gras.

The Kitchen

Note Nuno, like a conductor, getting the best out of his well rehearsed orchestra

This was a noble experience, one where you feel you have been privileged to experience a man at the beginning of a new chapter in the way we eat and the way we appreciate food.  Some of it didn't rock my world but that's why you need to experience a whole journey and not just go for starter, main course pudding.  This won't appeal to everyone and that's good as it means financially this will still be obtainable to those that don't have expense accounts to impress the impressionable and I hope that it doesn't become like El Buli, where Nuno cut his teeth, another notch in the proverbial headboard of a black Amex card because they managed to get in.  This really was exciting and I have taken away more from this experience than any other in a very long time and you know what - Nuno is a very humble man and deserves to be admired for what he does not the ratings he generates on TV or the shopping centres he opens....

I have resisted the temptation to compare this with DJ/producers but as a wannabe DJ and foodie I can see the parallel.  The establishment enshrined in the Radio One/ Tong autocracy pumping out shit versus the underground and mostly unknown likes of Oxia, Joris Vorn producing the music that most of us really get off to without even knowing...

I said bravo to Michelle Roux last week and I meant it but what I say to Nuno Mendes is simply

Thank you.

PS

Some of the dishes below - they are not in the right order and I am sorry to say in case Genghis Khan is reading (I doubt from above) I have no picture of the Sea Buckthorn with burnt meringue and yoghurt sorbet which was sensational

Thai Explosion 

Champagne

Bread and Buttter!

Scallops with carrot, mustard and watercress

Pares Balta "Blanc de Pacs" 2010, Penedès

Lobster, potato, confit egg yolk and saffron

Kooyong ‘’Clonale’’ Chardonnay 2008, Mornington Peninsula 

Roasted squab with beetroot and pistachio

Maisonneueve-Cosse “Abstémes s’Abstenir” 2008, France (Cahors)

Frozen maple pannacotta with shiso granite and green apple

Duck heart and tongue, celeriac, pine and hazelnut

Teruzzi & Puthod ‘’Carmen Puthod’’ 2009, Toscana