A trend. Chefs working in Michelin starred restaurants, gaining Michelin recognition and then moving off into their new ventures. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Well one of the newest members to do this is none other than Chef Olivier Elzer formerly the Executive Chef at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, the current and only holder of three prestigious stars in French fine dining in Hong Kong.
His new venture ‘Seasons’ carries the theme of eating with the four Seasons, where different sections of the restaurant will be covering certain aspects of its designated Season i.e the main dining room is Autumn, a bright little court room filled with sunlight at the back of the restaurant is Spring and stepping outside into the courtyard is Summer, but Winter I’m not so sure…
Stepping into Autumn, you are met with an open kitchen on your right together with bar table and high stools, but for comfier seating there are banquettes opposite. The grey interior is no doubt elegant, but makes the room quite dark despite the overhead spotlights and it reminds me a little of the decor used in Agnes B.
We were there during the soft opening stage, but by then they were already pushing out set lunches as well as an extensive a la carte menu. A little unsure of what to pick, we decided to let Chef Olivier do the hard work for us with my sole request of foie gras terrine.
French salami compliments of the chef 🙂 Served with neat toast points and an amazing sticky sweet tomato jam.
A small bread basket, a semi-dried tomato scroll if I’m not mistaken and a good baguette slice made even better by the special hand-churned butter served alongside.
Our first dish was none other than my foie gras terrine *all smiles* while he had the Fried egg a la basquaise. A serving of two thick slices of terrine accompanied by peach chutney. Quite smooth while the peaches gave a much needed sweetness to balance the heady essence of duck. The ratio of terrine and peaches is a little off and a bigger portion of fruit is needed please.
His dish certainly looked cheerful. A colorful bed of capsicums and tomatoes where a perfectly fried egg rests atop, ringed by a circle of toast. A hearty dish with Mexican flavours.
I recieved salmon as my next course and really, that was one piece of perfectly cooked fish! Just so mouth meltingly tender. Despite it looking eerily similar to something served at Robuchon from presentation, components of salad mix to the slight lemon tang of the dill vinaigrette it was still one of my favourites.
Escargots is not something I would pick unless it is slathered in garlic butter so excuse me for not remembering too well what his dish tasted like. All I recall was the escargot being cooked to a nice bouncy texture and the presentation of the empty shell being quite cute~
Gnocchi was my next dish, cooked in a smoked milk sauce with bacon and egg yolk. Essentially a carbonara, I didn’t find this very special at all although the gnocchi was the adequate fluffy, mushy texture, but if you are after a filling dish for lunch this is certainly an option.
I loooved his prawn dish though. Obsiblue prawns on a bed of venere rice. He saw me eyeing his dish and was sweet enough to swap with mine 🙂 Perfectly grilled prawns and slightly chewy rice, it was really good! The colours of the dish contrasted nicely against each other and don’t you think the rice looks like glutinous purple rice Chinese dessert? A big thumbs up.
Our last savoury course was a squid bouillabaisse for me and duck confit for him. The squid arrived in a murky ochre coloured broth, quite strongly flavoured of a type of spice, I’m guessing tumeric. The squid was again perfectly cooked, but I felt the flavour of the broth was too overpowering.
Chef Olivier certainly knows Mr. C’s heart when he served him duck confit. They do a boneless version paired with daikon braised in dark guinness. Presentation was lovely, but it was a bit too dry and lacked the crispy skin that makes duck confit sparkle.
And dessert…
My moelleux au chocolate or simply chocolate fondant, was spectacular. A rich, intense flavour that can only come from good quality chocolate and yes the centre was wonderfully melty~ The vanilla Bourbon ice-cream didn’t have a strong alcoholic flavour which was fine by me, but he thought it needed more vanilla bean.
Pretty strawberry jelly with a generous squeeze of mascarpone cream. I was swooning in my own chocolate heaven so didn’t really pay much attention to his dish, but from the small spoonful of jelly I had, it was very fruity.
Some very good dishes, if you are a fan of seafood I would recommend you come and try as the seafood here is cooked particularly well. Oh and don’t forget to order the moelleux au chocolate~ it will make your chocolate dreams come true 🙂
Just Something About Me 