Posts Tagged Pierre Gagnaire

To celebrate R’s God-Mother’s birthday, we headed to Pierre (from the Michelin chef Pierre Gagnaire), on the top floor of the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong. And whenever we celebrate anything, there’s sure to be good food and wine to come. In hindsight, that’s a real understatement.

The amuse-bouche was in a bamboo steamer filled with a shrimp ball, squid ink gnocchi and veggie. An interesting presentation. And on to our first wine of the evening…a 1966 Palmer from the Margaux region. A very plumy taste and smooth…hold on…I think we have one bottle in our wine fridge somewhere Yippeee.

Our first course was the beef jelly with juniper and grilled bread. Paired with Gillardeau oysters, smokes salmon, aubergine and of course oscietre caviar, this combination is to die for. A roasted lobster complemented the 1996 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill Champagne, one of our favorites, but paled in comparison for what was to come.

Then came the highlight of the evening. When tasted blind, the nose had strong scents of leather and lacquer. A very fruity and balanced wine. We knew it was old but not that old – we all guessed it was from the 1950’s because it was still quite powerful and didn’t seem like anything older. Boy were we wrong…it was a 1918 Gruaud Larose!!! 1918!!! WOW!!! Surprisingly it had pretty good body for such an old wine. This was definitely the highlight of the evening our wine drinking lives. We had this with Parmesan émulsion with black truffle, but the 1918 wine didn’t do this dish justice.

Our next course, foie gras pot au feu with Morteau sausage and Gillardeau oysters. Boy do the Gillardeaus know how to produce oysters, very meaty and creamy. Seemed like the oysters were the main ingredient for this one. Then came two dishes made from roasted Bresse chapon, which is a castrated chicken supposedly yielding more meat that is tender and moist. The first service, as they called it, was the breast and then followed by the leg. At first, the notion of the chapon had us expecting a lot. Maybe it was the high expectations that left us a bit disappointed, it was a bit dry and not extremely tender. Well, we can say that we tasted a castrated chicken! To compliment our main courses, we were lucky to enjoy two great Burgundies – a 1955 Seguin-Manuel Mazis-Chambertin as well as a 1995 DRC Richebourg. What a night!

There were plenty of desserts to satisfy our sweet tooth. The first collection started with an almond with milk jelly, white truffle marzipan and a Beaujolais sorbet. Next was the ginger milk with wild strawberries, which was like the Chinese boiled milk with ginger (薑汁撞奶). But still think such traditional desserts should be enjoyed at places like Yee Shun. And that’s not it…there was a coffee mousseline to complete our satisfying meal, not to mention the birthday cake too!

– 17/20

Pierre
25th Floor, Mandarin Oriental
5 Connaught Road
Central, Hong Kong
T: +852 2825 4001
E: mohkg-pierre@mohg.com
W: www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong/dining/restaurants/pierre/

100108 Pierre

100108 Pierre - Menu

100108 Pierre - Amuse-bouche