The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| Top hotel restaurants in the world Posted: 07 Oct 2013 09:32 PM PDT It's called é, and like the brevity of its name, the restaurant itself has been widely described as a beacon of discretion in a city of flashy lights. Set within chef José Andrés' restaurant Jaleo, a visit to the exclusive eatery requires an escort away from the main restaurant, down a long corridor and into a hidden dining space and reservations must be made about three months in advance. Its online presence is minimal, with the exception of a blurb buried within Jaleo's restaurant description where it's called a "secluded setting." And according to a panel of bloggers, restaurant critics, food and lifestyle writers selected by The Daily Meal, the open-kitchen restaurant helmed by celebrity chef José Andrés is the best in show, beating out Michelin-starred eateries and longstanding hotel landmarks around the world. For the list of top 100 hotel restaurants, establishments had to have a minimum of 15 rooms. Eateries come from more than 50 countries and represent 80 cities around the world. If the é dining concept sounds familiar, that's because Andrés' Washington D.C. restaurant minibar is also hinged on the same idea, serving multi-course avant-garde dishes that challenge diners to rethink traditional notions of food. Meanwhile, conspicuously missing on the list are a few notable hotel restaurants such as celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's eatery Dinner at The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel in London, which was promoted from one to two stars in the latest Michelin guide, and Amber, a dining hotspot at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong which also holds two stars. Here are the top 10 hotel restaurants according to The Daily Meal: 1. é by José Andrés at The Cosmopolitan (Las Vegas, Nevada) 2. El Motel Restaurant at Hotel Empordà (Figueres, Spain) 3. Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace (Las Vegas, Nevada) 4. Felix at The Peninsula Hotel (Hong Kong) 5. Emiliano Restaurant at Emiliano (São Paulo) 6. Aubergine at L'Auberge Carmel (Carmel, California) 7. Livingstone Room at Victoria Falls Hotel (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe) 8. Joël Robuchon Restaurant at MGM Grand (Las Vegas, Nevada) 9. Epicure at Le Bristol (Paris) 10. Man Wah at Mandarin Oriental (Hong Kong) |
| Anand Gaggan’s progressive Indian cuisine Posted: 07 Oct 2013 08:25 PM PDT After leaving school in India, Anand cooked in the kitchens of some of Asia's best hotels before studying with the research team at Spain's famed El Bulli restaurant where he learned to physically and chemically transform ingredients. At the eponymous Gaggan restaurant in Bangkok, Anand applies his training at Ferran Adria's culinary lab by translating traditional flavours from his homeland into works of art that challenge preconceptions about how Indian food should taste and look. A self-proclaimed rebel, Gaggan spoke to Reuters about his deconstructive approach to Indian cooking, ranging from spherical raita that bursts in the mouth to "Viagra" oysters with truffle foam served in a treasure chest. Did you always know you were going to do molecular cuisine when you opened Gaggan? I was bored of doing the same old thing because I'm the kind of person whose anxiety levels are very high, so I wanted to do something which had not been done before to Indian food. At first we wanted to open a curry house with tapas style food but over time our concept evolved. It was a journey that I did not plan. How was your concept received in Bangkok? My misconception was that, apart from their own cuisine, Bangkokians only like Italian and Japanese food. I was proved wrong and our restaurant, with its cutting-edge approach to Indian food, has its own market which is people who want to eat comfort food made using new techniques. This is food for the common man and not for the pretentious foodie. Your cuisine has been described as molecular gastronomy. Do you accept that definition? I call it progressive cuisine because the first thing I learned at El Bulli was that there is no such thing called molecular gastronomy. Ferran Adria explained that we cannot be molecular scientists because we are chefs. We don't count when we put salt in food because we know from our hearts how much salt we need to put. What I'm doing is progressing the history of Indian food. What inspires you? My ideas are based on Indian history and my nostalgic tastes including what I've eaten before, where I've eaten it and where I've been in my life. That's why I travel so often to India, at least once every two months, so that I get more exposure to my own cuisine and so I don't forget the flavours. Your kitchen is stocked with tanks of liquid nitrogen. Tell us about the tools you have in your arsenal. Of course you have to understand some basics like you can't put your hand in liquid nitrogen or it will fall off! With liquid nitrogen you can do things you could not do with ice like freezing alcohol in seconds. But you can't serve it or customers would burn their mouths. You have to make sure it is palatable. You started off as a musician. What do you play? I play the drums, hard rock music. We play music in the kitchen every day because I want the ambience to be playful. When I worked in hotels they thought I was a rebel because I do things hotels don't allow like play loud music and doing away with hair nets. Maybe I'm crazy for talking like this but there are rules I'm trying to break. Where is Indian cooking going next? One good thing is a lot of Indian chefs are leaving their hotel comfort zones and venturing out more. Indian cuisine is diverse, unscripted and not homogeneous. There is so much potential there. "Paradise" (Serves 1) 4 cl Malibu 2 cl White rum 5 cl Coconut milk or cream (canned) 1 cl Fresh lemon juice 1 cl White syrup 1 cl Fresh coconut water 1 Tonka bean 1 Coconut, cut in half with the water poured out Dry ice (1 cl = 1/3 of a US ounce) 1. Pour the Malibu, white rum, coconut milk, lemon juice and white syrup into a cocktail shaker 2. Shake the mixture for a few seconds 3. Pour into one half of a coconut shell 4. Whip the coconut water using an oxygen whip 5. Place the coconut water foam on top of the cocktail 6. Grate a pinch of Tonka bean on top of the foam 7. Serve on a bed of dry ice with a glass of hot coconut water on the side - Reuters, October 8, 2013. |
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