The Cake Shop at Mandarin Oriental Taipei

Whenever I go to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei, I like to stop by the Cake Shop located on the ground floor of the inner part of the retail courtyard. Similar to other parts of the hotel, the shop can be entered from more than one place. The best and most direct way is through the front door from the courtyard. Upon entering the shop one immediately sees the cakes and pastries displayed in vitrines set on a large white stone counter. To the left of the entrance are freshly baked bread and Viennoiseries. To the right, are chocolates and the wonderful macarons. The back walls behind the display counters are shelves for the various packaging materials. I just love the colors of the boxes, ribbons, and the way they are composed on the wall.

Outside to the right of the shop is a small area with tables and chairs for customers to eat and be served. But I really dislike this space because it feels like one is sitting in a large corridor. In contrast to the shop, there is no ambiance and it is not really designed in any thoughtful manner. Therefore I always buy the various items to go. In fact, the Cake Shop has become the place I like to go to buy birthday cakes for other people. Not only are the cakes delicious and beautiful, the packaging is just delightful.

The box for the cake is a tall round cylinder with studs at the bottom to be secured with strings. This makes a serious impression on anyone.

Given that everything in the Cake Shop is fancy, one would think the prices would be exorbitant. In fact, the prices in the Cake Shop are comparable to other lesser pastries shops in town. Some of the items are actually cheaper.

A few months back I purchased a beautiful and delicious 7-inch strawberry tart for NT$1,000.

I only hope the Cake Shop will be able to maintain the standards as time goes on. I wish it will not be like Sweet Tea by Yannick Alleno on the fourth floor of Taipei 101, where when it opened the pastries were in boxes with magnetic latches, the tarts were in beautiful rectangular boxes that slid open, and there were special items like Galette des Rois during the holidays. But now to save costs there are only paper-like boxes, the tarts are circular, and the Galette is only available at the sister store Lalos.  I worry about the Cake Shop because the sous chef Alexis Bouillet has left, and his boss, the chocolate master Frank Haasnoot, is also rumored to be on the way out. Will the Cake Shop remain as good as it is or get even better? I certainly hope so. I am a fan.

Sacrificial Lamb

The traditional food eaten at Easter is lamb. I am not a Christian, but I am happy to observe food related customs. The traditional way of cooking a rack of lamb is to sear it first on the stove top and then finish the cooking in a hot oven. Instead, I prefer to cook the lamb in a more modern manner, namely sous vide. I use the recipe by the British chef Heston Blumenthal, which consists essentially of four parts. First, place the rack of lamb with some olive oil and herbs in a plastic bag, seal, and cook in 60 degree Celsius water for one hour.

Second, lift the bag out of the water bath, discard the herbs, remove the rack from the bag, and pat dry. Third, season the lamb and pan-fry the lamb on all sides with some olive oil. Traditionally one is taught to leave the protein on the hot pan and just flip it once. However, I do the opposite and flip the lamb every 20 seconds or so. Frequent flipping actually allows one to brown the meat quicker and more evenly. Fourth, remove the rack from the pan, rest, coat with tapenade, slice, and serve.

While I personally don't associate lamb with being a sacrificial agent, nevertheless, the lamb was killed for my lunch. I hope I cooked it with the respect it deserves.

Café Un Deux Trois at Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental Hotel opened in May of last year in Taipei. Looking back now it is hard to imagine the hype that surrounded the opening. Everyone seemed to want to be the first to experience the hotel. Needless to say, the local bloggers and the press were all promoting the hotel like mad. Yet, it was interesting to note that in terms of the food at the hotel, all the focus was on the Michelin-starred chef at Bencotto (Italian restaurant) and the World Chocolate Master, Frank Haasnoot at the Cake Shop. There was no mention of the chef for Coco, the French restaurant at the hotel. The coverage of Coco was all about the design and its New York based designer Tony Chi. People knew more about the rhinoceros on the wall of the restaurant than who was in charge of the kitchen. This was a clue that something was amiss in the restaurant.

The reason that the chef at Coco was not publicized at all was he left Mandarin Oriental Taipei shortly after the opening. Therefore, for several months in 2014, there wasn't a chef in charge. This wasn't well known to the public and probably would not have deterred people from going to the restaurant. When Coco first opened everyone wanted to go immediately. However, the restaurant management knew they were not ready so they limited the amount of customers. Unfortunately, the hard-to-get reservation only added to the customer's expectation of the restaurant, which the restaurant couldn't meet especially without a chef. The results were a series of negative reviews on various social media sites that lasted for months. A friend of mine said after her dinner at Coco that the Mandarin Oriental in Taipei is simply not the Mandarin Oriental that she is familiar with; she has not been back since. Needless to say, I stayed away from Coco after hearing all these negative stories.

Around six months after the opening, the management of the hotel made a rare move and changed the name of the French restaurant from Coco to Café Un Deux Trois – essentially an acknowledgement that the previous setup was a disaster; probably one of the worst roll-out of a restaurant in Taipei in my memory. Mandarin Oriental also finally brought in a new chef, Florence Dalia, who used to be at the New Heights in Shanghai and prior to that at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Hong Kong. It seems right for the Café to have a woman as a chef. After all, the symbol of the restaurant is a woman balancing on a horse and moving forward. The management also hired Alexis Bouillet as the pastry chef; he trained at George V and Plaza Athénée in Paris prior to coming to Taipei. With the new team installed in the kitchen, I finally decided to make a lunch reservation at the restaurant in December of last year. In short, I really enjoyed my first lunch. Since then I have gone back to the Café a few times for both lunch and dinner.

Located on the 5th floor of the hotel, Café Un Deux Trois is not an easy place to get to from the street. The elevator opens onto a blank wall and on the right is a small blue stand displaying the menu of the restaurant. But crossing through the first threshold does not get one to the restaurant, instead a perfume bar. Combining a perfume bar with a restaurant is a bit strange since perfume interferes with the smell of the food. It is not uncommon to see restaurants asking the customers to not only dress appropriately but refrain from using strong perfume. After passing through the perfume bar one arrives at a small cake stand selling some Viennoiseries and pastries. This seems to be a satellite store of the Cake Shop on the ground floor. After the cake stand, comes a small bookstore situated half-story below. The store seems to only sell English language coffee table books published by Assouline and Taschen. I wonder who will actually buy books there; certainly not any local residents in their right minds. Only after walking pass the entrance to the bookstore does one reach the reception desk for the Café. Alas, the actual dining room is still several meters away. All of these programs: perfume bar, cake stand, and bookstore, seem to exist solely to animate a long interiorized corridor connecting the elevators to the restaurant. I have to question the architectural design of the hotel with such a convoluted circulation. There must be some better ways to design the space.

At least there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Café Un Deux Trois is essentially a big rectangular space divided into three large rooms, with two main dining rooms, and one function room in the back. The dining rooms have windows on one side with views of the trees along the Dunhua Boulevard. Chi designed a series of alcoves along the window. Each alcove contains two separate tables. I sat in one of the tables inside an alcove for a lunch and I don't really like it. The seats on the inside is a settee and the furniture fits very tightly within the confines of the partition. While there is a window on one side of the alcove, one only gets an oblique view of the outside. The alcove seems to be private, yet one is actually very close to the adjacent dining party. The space is a bit too cozy and the proportion just seems uncomfortably vertical. Since the Café operates like a brasserie during lunch, it is more fun sitting in the main dining rooms and take part in the ambiance.

The main spaces of the two dining rooms consist mostly of square tables arranged along two rows. The seats are comfortable but I wish the tables are slightly farther apart. The high ceilings in the two main space of the dining rooms consist of tilted mirrored panels, a design idea repeated from Chi's design for the South Gate restaurant in New York City. The different reflectivity of the ceilings and walls add a certain intrigue to the space. The choice of Rosenthal TAC Skin Platinum line for the dinnerware also echoes the ceiling of the room very nicely. Sitting in the main dining room for lunch is very pleasant.

Café Un Deux Trois actually operates like several different restaurants in one. In the morning it is the place where hotel guests take their breakfast. At lunch time, besides the hotel guests, the restaurant is often filled with office workers near the hotel and ladies who lunch. There is a set lunch menu mostly consisting of French food. However, since the Café also serves as the all-day dining venue for the hotel, one will also find Asian classics such as Beef Noodle Soup and Chicken Rice on the menu. In the afternoon, from 2pm to 5pm, the restaurant serves afternoon tea with a set priced at NT$1,000. And at dinner time, the Café becomes the signature French restaurant for the hotel. Therefore, depending on the time one is at the Café, the experience will be completely different from another time.

Mandarin Oriental is not a place where bargains are offered. However, the prix fixe lunch at the Café is a fairly good deal. For NT$950 one gets a three-course meal including coffee. In comparison, a three-course lunch at Bencotto one floor above is NT$980 without coffee. An order of coffee or tea at Café Un Deux Trois and Bencotto is NT$200.

At lunch, there is no amuse bouche, only a good quality bread basket with some butter. I understand there's a cost to everything, nevertheless I would love to have a little snack before the appetizers; something like gougères will not dent the budget much. For the set lunch at the Café, there are three choices for each of the three courses. At my first lunch, I started with Oeuf en Meurette, a classic dish of Burgundy (where the chef is from), egg poached in red wine sauce served with lardons and mushrooms. The color is beautiful and it is such a joy to cut the egg and have the yellow yolk seep out. Often times people in search of the latest trends forget how wonderful the classics can be; there's a reason why some dishes become the classics. I absolutely love this dish and eating it is deeply satisfying; as the French would say, miam miam.

For the main course, I ordered a fillet of fish and it was cooked perfectly, crispy skin with moist interior. The vegetables on the side were fresh and vibrant.

One of my friends ordered the vegetables with creamy quinoa which was delicious; the superfood quinoa is on the dinner menu as well.

My other friend had the cassoulet, which was wonderful as well.

The desserts on the lunch set menu is not as interesting as the à la carte desserts. At one of my lunches at the Café, I had a cherry tart – nice but frankly a bit paltry. Another choice for the dessert is just three plain scoops of ice cream. Coffee is served with a coconut bonbon. The dessert for the prix fixe lunch may be fine for a business person in a hurry or someone who is watching her weight.

However, I prefer to pay a supplemental charge and order the various wonderful desserts from the regular menu. Many of the desserts by Bouillet are his interpretations of the classics: baba, soufflé. choux pastry, and chocolate tart; some are done with tropical fruits such as the grapefruit and passion fruit. They are all executed well technically and simply delicious, a great way to end a meal.

Dinner at the Café feels very different from lunch. First of all, one no longer sees the trees outside the window and the focus become more interiorized. The lighting inside is darker and dim enough that I couldn't really take decent photos of the dishes. Frankly, I prefer the room during the day because the reflective surfaces of the walls and the ceiling are more animated and interesting. At night the room feels a bit flat and lacks a bit of sparkle.

In the evening the Café becomes a slightly more formal restaurant with a shorter menu of just French food. In my two dinners at the Café I found there were less patrons than at lunch time. Instead of two main dining rooms, the Café essentially operates only the room in the front during dinner. For both of my dinners I opted for the 4-course menu, which is priced at NT$2,200 and consisted of a starter, soup, fish or meat, and dessert with coffee; for each course there are only two choices.

Unlike at lunch, dinner starts with an amuse bouche. At my first dinner, it was a tiny (around the size of my thumb) piece of duck served with a small fork. At my second dinner, the amuse was a bit more substantial: nice and fresh vegetables with couscous. The variations in the size of the amuse seem a bit random.

I found the starters at dinner to be wonderful, especially the marinated tuna served over different layers of vegetable purée; the dish is fresh, complex in flavors, and beautifully plated. The other starter that I had at a dinner in March was a new interpretation of the Burgundy classic, Jambon Persillé, served in a bowl with toasted bread on the side; good flavors with delicate plating.

For the soup I ordered the consommé with poached foie gras. The consommé was clear with good flavor. Unfortunately, the soup was not hot enough; the bowl that the soup was served in wasn't too warm either. For the main course, I had the braised lamb shank served over soft polenta. The various components were all good. However, the dish came with a whole clove of unpeeled garlic, the skin of which was mostly white and the texture was closer to raw; the garlic was not cooked long enough. Similar to the soup, the dish was not hot enough. I find it strange that the two dishes (soup and main course) I had, were all prepared earlier and just required reheating, yet they were not hot enough by the time they got to the table. The dishes probably sat waiting in the kitchen for too long.

Unlike at lunch, the dessert for the dinner set menu is more substantial. My friends and I were able to try several different desserts on the menu and they were all nice.

Based on my four meals at Café Un Deux Trois, I can say I quite like the restaurant and the dishes that Dalia and Bouillet are making. At this point I prefer the Café for lunch better than dinner. During the day there seems to be more energy in the restaurant, and even the rhinoceros in the room feels more alive. Since there are many repeat customers for lunch, Dalia changes the menu fairly frequently. If I live and work close by the hotel, I would happily go there on a regular basis. However, I am less convinced about the dinner at the Café. For a fancy dinner at the current price point, I want a few more choices for the various courses. The prix fixe at lunch has three choices for each course, yet the menu at dinner only has two. I also prefer to have slightly more expensive ingredients, or alternatively more interesting proteins. Furthermore, some different mignardises from the one served at lunch to finish the meal would be welcomed as well.

Overall Café Un Deux Trois is a very pleasant restaurant to dine at, but it certainly still has room for improvement. At my lunch in February, we ordered four set menus but only got three desserts. They forgot one dessert and it wasn't served until the other three people finished their desserts. Coffee and tea also took a long time to arrive. This was probably an anomaly. For the most part, the service led by Alva Liang, is fine and pleasant. If anything, the staff seems slightly stiff, more afraid of making mistakes than being confident and relaxed. The kitchen has glitches as well, such as the aforementioned temperature of the food. However, these are not large structural problems, but will require more attention to details during the rush of service. Mistakes happen to everyone, including three-star restaurants, and it is not easy to operate a large multi-purpose restaurant like Café Un Deux Trois. Furthermore, one cannot help but to have high expectations for Mandarin Oriental with its so-called six-star status. What's important is the restaurant acknowledges the problems and will correct them. In my exchanges with the chefs and the manager, I find them to be open to criticism and care about the customer's reactions. I feel confident that the restaurant will get better moving forward. They always seem happy to receive me and in turn I am happy to go back.

Architect, Foodie, and Blogger

Late last year, the writer Jules Quartly, emailed me out of the blue to see if I would be interested in discussing the fine dining scene in Taipei with him for an article in Topic magazine's annual wine and dine issue published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. Jules found my blog and liked some of my posts about the restaurants in Taipei. I responded to Jules that since I only go to a handful of restaurants in Taipei, I might not have much to offer. He wasn't concerned with my limited knowledge so we arranged a time to talk.

I often found that people who like to eat also like to talk about what they eat; I am no exception. I shared my thoughts with Jules over the phone and some of which are in his article, Reserving a Seat at the World’s Fine-Dining Table. Frankly, I don't remember I said so much until I read the article. Below are a few of my one-liners:

On Western food in Taipei: “It’s a bit like eating Chinese food in Manhattan. You’re not getting the real thing most of the time, so there’s a limited number of places to go to.”

On the possibility of Michelin issuing a Red Guide for Taipei: "If Michelin can’t make it work in L.A., I don’t know how it will work in Taipei."

On the lack of visibility for Chinese chefs: “The chef in Chinese culture doesn't have such an elevated position as in the West, where over the past 20 years or so they have become celebrities like artists and rock stars. In Chinese restaurants, you often don’t even know who is cooking the food.”

On chef Angelo Agliano: "big fan of".

On the limited revenue generated from wine: “We [Taiwanese] didn't grow up drinking wine with meals, that’s why the business model here is so much more difficult.”

On L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and chef Oliver Jean: "setting the standard around town."

On three-star restaurants in Taipei: "doubts there is a true three-star restaurant in Taipei yet."

In the article, I was described as an architect, foodie, and blogger. While the word "foodie" has been used for over thirty some years, I was never comfortable with it. Also, for the longest time I always tell people that I am not a real blogger since I don't write much. Nevertheless, the two basic needs of human – food and shelter – are where my interests lie.

Spinach with Tofu and Preserved Duck Egg

A few days ago, my mother invited her friends over for lunch. One of the dishes she served was Spinach with Tofu and Preserved Duck Egg. Her friends really enjoyed the dish and asked for the recipe. My mother says this is one of her family’s signature dishes. I have been eating it ever since I can remember. My mother learned the dish from her father, who was from Yangzhou. Therefore I can only assume this is a common dish in Huaiyang (淮揚) cuisine.

The dish certainly fits the characteristics of Huaiyang cooking, which emphasizes the natural tastes of the ingredients and knife works. The dish is very simple to make as there are only three ingredients: spinach, tofu, and preserved egg. Since this is home cooking, we do everything, as the French would say, “au pif” or by the nose.

First, cook the spinach in a large pot of boiling salted water for a minute or two. The bigger the pot the better, so the water stays hot. Dump the spinach immediately into a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking and set the color. Squeeze the collapsed spinach to drain out as much water as possible. Dry and finely chop the spinach.

Second, gently cook the dried tofu in some boiling water to soften and then finely dice. Finally, cut the preserved egg into pieces similar to the tofu. Mix the spinach, tofu, and preserved egg, seasoned with some light soy sauce and finish with some drizzle of sesame oil. Serve.

RAW Stands for Restaurant André W?

RAW is the most anticipated restaurant opening in Taipei last year. The restaurant is the latest venture by the Taiwanese chef André Chiang 江振誠. His eponymous restaurant in Singapore has garnered many well-deserved accolades. I visited the restaurant in Singapore in early 2012 and liked it very much. There was something magical about eating at Chiang's home-like restaurant. Chiang's eight-course tasting menu has many great dishes, including "Memory" which was a foie gras jelly topped with truffle; the dish wasn't the most technique-driven one, yet it was deeply satisfying to eat. Three years ago, Chiang only had one restaurant and came by every table to greet his guests at the restaurant. By now Chiang is world famous and is associated with several restaurants including Porte 12 in Paris. His new restaurant in Taipei is not a fine dining restaurant like the one in Singapore, rather a bistronomy, similar to his restaurant in Paris.

Plans for RAW were released in June of 2014 and a press conference was held in September. The restaurant didn't officially open until early December. Prior to the opening Chiang even organized a "Taiwan Flavor Symposium" to discuss the flavors of Taiwan. The rollout of RAW makes the restaurant into a player in culture and identity rather than just food. Chiang's aspiration is certainly refreshing and encouraging. However, I am not sure if RAW quite fulfills the ambition.

The story of the famous Taiwanese chef coming home to produce and promote Taiwanese flavor is just too good for the local media and bloggers. Needless to say, most of them are completely gushing over Chiang to the point where facts are overlooked and criticisms are nowhere to be found. For instance, some people cannot mention Chiang without saying he is a Michelin 3-star chef. Chiang worked in 3-star restaurants, but that doesn't make him a 3-star chef. His restaurant in Singapore doesn't have any stars because Michelin doesn't have a guide there. Restaurant RAW has also been described as Chiang's gift to Taiwan, forgetting the fact that the restaurant is very much a profit-driven business rather than a charity; the "gift" will be rescinded if the restaurant doesn't make money. Some in the media made a big deal out of Chaing's employment of young Taiwanese, ignoring the fact that many of the fine dining restaurants in Taipei, such as L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, STAY, and Angelo Aglianò, have employed and trained many young Taiwanese for years. In fact, two staff members at the front of house and a cook at RAW worked at Robuchon Taipei. The chef de cuisine Alain Huang came from Yannick Alléno's restaurant in Taipei. Chiang is a talented chef with a sense of style who certainly deserves to be the pride of Taiwan. I am sure if the Michelin guide ever publishes a red guide in Singapore, he will get multiple macarons. However, we should not put him on a pedestal nor is he beyond reproach. I suspect he may not want to be treated that way either.

Chiang's RAW is located on the ground floor of a new building one block away from Miramar shopping mall. Entering the glass storefront one arrives in a foyer-like space that feels like a lounge. This space seems a bit too generous and doesn't get used much. Separating the lounge from the dining area is a curvilinear bar carved out of wood. The opposite end of the dining area is another curvilinear wood piece. The two sculptural elements are dramatic and conjure up various images such as ship, shore, and cloud. The material provides a certain warmth while the shape signals the use of modern technology. The design of the restaurant is by a Dutch architect and it is quite nice. The mix of wood panels, bare concrete, wood furniture, and soft lighting creates a very pleasant atmosphere for dining.

We start the meal with some bread served in a bag. The bread and the spread are wonderful, one of the most memorable parts of the meal. The only blemish is the restaurant charges NT$150 for bread and I don't find out until the bill is presented. Frankly, I am a bit annoyed. Chiang's similar restaurant in Paris doesn't charge for bread, so why do it in Taipei? I understand there is a cost to everything, but I rather the restaurant simply pads the price of the menu.

The bread doesn't come with the roasted corn that I saw on the Internet with other people's meals. The special grapes that are well-publicized to start the meal and trigger memories are not offered either. I am told the corn and the grapes were only served for the opening days; they were sort of a publicity stunt. In other words, for a normal meal the restaurant doesn't serve any amuse bouche, which is slightly disappointing. What is ironic is Chiang served the Taiwanese corn when I was dining in his restaurant in Singapore, yet he doesn't serve it in Taipei.

There is a menu but there are no choices to be made as everyone is served the same thing. The menu merely lists the ingredients and the sequence of dishes, of which there are a total of 8, the price is NT$1,850 plus 10% service charge. Each dish averages out to be around NT$230. The price is reasonable but the menu doesn't contain any expensive ingredients.

The first course is a single stalk of average-sized asparagus with broccoli puree and a few touches of miso. I am not sure why the restaurant wants to serve cold asparagus near the time of Christmas. Even in Taiwan, asparagus is probably at its best in the spring time. The asparagus is cut on a bias at the bottom, which means some of the good parts are cut off as well; this seems to be purely an aesthetics decision. The dish is served on a rectangular slate like plate, which looks a bit awkward sitting on the circular grey mat that isn't large enough. The server encourages us to use our hand to eat this first dish, but I still prefer using some utensils. Chiang has expressed an interest in the Chinese idea of 24 solar terms. But if that really is the case why doesn't Chiang start the meal with something more seasonal. The asparagus is a good dish but a bit too willful. Instead of making a statement about "Taiwan Flavor" it merely raises doubts in my mind.

The second dish is raw kampachi with daikon julienne. My first impression is why is the plate so small since the fish is almost overhanging over the edge of it. The second impression is the fish looks a bit butchered. At the bottom of the plate is a fromage blanc-like sauce. I suppose this is a bit like the classic New York combination of salmon and cream cheese. This dish is okay but I wish there is more acidity; the flavor just seems a bit wan.

The third dish is a play on the Spanish soup ajo blanco and served with cauliflower and grilled squid. This is probably the most interesting and witty dish of the meal. I like very much the fact that the dish is basically all white. The squid has a bit of smokiness and the temperature contrasts with the cold components.

The fourth dish is described on the menu as the "Perfect Egg"; it is interesting to note that the Chinese version of the menu just says "Egg". The egg is served with some vegetables and praline. Of all the courses, this is perhaps the weakest and a bit too simple. Frankly, it is not too difficult to cook a "perfect egg" with an immersion circulator; even I can do it at home. I am guessing RAW cooks the egg at around 64 degrees Celsius. I can't help but think why doesn't the restaurant just serve the egg with the asparagus, instead of having two unsubstantial dishes.

The fifth dish is the only overtly brown dish of the meal: mushroom consommé. The soup is poured table side and very fragrant. I like this wholesome dish. The only complaint is I wish there is more consommé.

The sixth dish is an abalone "risotto". The slimy nature of the okra serves as a replacement for the creaminess of a traditional risotto. This is an interesting dish, but also the worst dish of the meal – a consensus amongst all the diners at my table. The abalone is just too rubbery and very hard to chew. The texture of the abalone is also a bit similar to the squid. I don't know why they both have to be on the same menu.

The last savory course is roasted quail with watercress and Asian pear. The quail is cooked well but the yogurt-like white and green sauces take away some of the quail's flavor. By now I am getting a bit weary of the white or green yogurt-like consistency of the sauces.

The last course is a dessert, which is an ice cream served with grilled mochi and cocoa mousse. This dish is definitely not gastronomical and even some bistros serve better dessert. The dish is a bit wanting as it lacks depth in the flavor - just tastes sweet. Since there is only one dessert course for the menu and this same dish gets served at every meal for more than a month, RAW probably does not have a dedicated pastry chef; this might explains the inadequacies of the dessert.

After the dessert, our server asks if we want some coffee or tea. The coffee is a collaboration with Fika Fika Cafe. The coffee comes in three types (light, medium, and heavy) and are hand-poured. The three coffee drinkers of my table decide to order all three, with me ordering the heavy. The coffee is very light and more like tea. What's worse is the coffee tastes watery and the temperature is barely hot enough. Frankly, the coffee can also use some acidity, or some brightness in the taste. All three of us are very disappointed with the coffee. Each cup of coffee costs an additional NT$220, which is about the average price of a dish. Maybe I just don't understand coffee, but if I go back to RAW, I will not order the coffee again. For the price, I wonder if I can order an extra course. I understand Fika Fika won an award for their coffee but in the contest they entered, their espresso was ranked number one instead of the pour over coffee. I can't help but wonder why not serve some award-winning espresso. The restaurant doesn't serve any petite fours with the coffee. I must say the meal ends on a relatively low note. The coffee is almost a representation of the entire meal: clean taste but flat flavors.

One leaves the restaurant full, but not really satisfied. Some of the dishes are good with very interesting ideas, but they don't seem to provide the "yummy in my tummy" feeling or as the French would say, "miam miam". After eating most of the dishes, one doesn't get the desire to ask for more of it. There is also a sameness to the dishes in my meal at RAW. Of the seven savory courses, six of them are overtly in the colors of green or white. Only the mushroom consommé is brown but even that has drops of green sauce in the soup. The menu seems to be a statement against brown food, which is unfortunate because brown food tastes good. I also wonder if it is necessary to have eight dishes given the similarity in color and yogurt-like sauces. Maybe a 6-course tasting menu with each one being more substantial will be better.

Service throughout the meal is very good. The waitress for my table is Cheryl Tsai who worked in L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Taipei before joining RAW. It is comforting to see a familiar face in a new restaurant. RAW doesn't have much of a wine program with only a few handful of bottles organized along the taste. The restaurant does offer half portions for most of the wines and serve them in a carafe. I receive no help with the selection of the wine. After I choose the wine, another waitress, perhaps she is in charge of wine service, comes by to say "good choice". This is a bit annoying because I don't really need her approval.

As I leave the restaurant, I see some writings on the wall of a statement by George Calombaris. Since I don't watch Master Chef, I prefer Top Chef, I have to look up Calombaris on Wikipedia. This has to be my first time in a restaurant where the statement for the place comes not from the chef patron but another chef. One sentence in the quote says: "It’s not about the country or the culture, it’s about the state of mind." This seems to be in contrast to RAW's website: "The mission of RAW is to bring ‘The New Interpretation of Taiwanese Flavor’". Frankly, I find it strange to have a meal of Taiwanese flavor without any pork. Even the French and the Italian eat pork around New Year's. Personally I feel the proclamation about Taiwanese flavor is a red herring. What matters more is whether the food is good or bad. Based on my meal, I say the food is, as the Taiwanese likes to say, "okay lah". I wish RAW will just do away with some of these proclamations, whether it is about bistro, gastronomy, or Taiwan. Instead of having actual writings on the wall, the food at RAW should make more of a statement. There is a timidity to the food that doesn't quite match the bravado of the concept.

Since RAW is capitalized I can only surmise the name to be an acronym. I am guessing R and A stands for Restaurant André, but I can't associate a specific word for W; I find myself describing the meal as wonderful, willful, wan, white, witty, weak, wholesome, worst, weary, wanting, and watery. Perhaps W should just stand for "well" which can mean: 1. in a good, proper, or positive way, or 2. used to show that you are unsure about something you are saying. In the similar manner, I am a bit ambivalent about RAW. I like the space and some of the dishes, yet I am less sure about the concept and the menu. Nevertheless, the restaurant is a serious proposition by Chiang and deserves to be treated with respect and careful considerations. Based on my one meal, the restaurant doesn't fully deliver on its promise. I hope the restaurant will evolve and I will go back when the menu changes and the reservation becomes a bit easier to come by.

Cooking with Olivier Jean and Reflets de France

"Hello, Michael, this is Olivier. Reflets de France invited me to do a demonstration next month, will you have time to come to the event?" Normally I don't get invited to food-related events. After all, I am not in the business of food and beverage, nor am I a journalist or a real food blogger. However, chef Olivier Jean of L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Taipei knows I like to dabble in cooking and kindly called to extend an invitation. I am always keen to learn some new techniques, thus I was happy to make the time to attend the event.

Reflets de France was started in 1997 by Promodès, which later merged with Carrefour. Reflets de France seeks out small producers across France to make local specialties for the brand. Under Carrefour, the brand has steadily grown and has now expanded to Asia. The Carrefour in Taiwan started selling Reflets de France products in September of 2013. Reflets de France is a high-end supermarket brand, rather than a luxury brand. However, what separates Reflets de France from some of the other supermarket brands is Carrefour has enlisted chef Joël Robuchon as a consultant.

While Robuchon is the chef with the most Michelin stars, he also endorses products and acts as a consultant to other brands. For instance, Robuchon has formed a partnership with Veuve Clicquot to promote the champagne. His name can also be found on a beer by Sapporo. Recently Robuchon renewed his consultancy with Air France to design the menus for the first and business class passengers. Of all his endorsements, Reflets de France is probably the most curious one as it is the most value-oriented of Robuchon's endorsements; furthermore, Robuchon doesn't use Reflets de France's products in his restaurants. Yet, Reflets de France is one of Robuchon's longest relationships with a brand, an association that started in 1996.

In his role as a consultant to Reflets de France, Robuchon holds monthly meetings at his kitchen laboratory in Paris with the executives of Carrefour. Together they taste and discuss the quality of the old and the new products. Last November, the French television show Capital on M6 was provided access to one of these meetings. Chef Robuchon was seen with his right-hand man chef Eric Bouchenoire discussing the cheese and the new kouign amann products with Carrefour's director Richard Vavasseur and his staff. The products are scored from a range of 0 to 10 with 6 as a passing grade. Products that don't pass the taste test will be reworked based on the comments provided in the meetings.

Carrefour in Taiwan now carries around 80 Reflets de France products, ranging from juices to jams to duck confit. For this holiday season, Carrefour has asked Robuchon and Jean to create three dishes using Reflets de France products: Foie Gras Terrine with Sweet Potato, Duck Confit with Kabocha, and Caramelized Apple with Crepe. To promote the products of Reflets de France, Carrefour held an event at ATT 4 Fun in the Hsin Yi District of Taipei. When I arrived at the venue I thought I was just going to watch Jean cook the dishes. Instead Jean handed me an apron and said we will be cooking together.

The top floor of ATT 4 Fun is a cooking studio with cooking stations setup along two sides of a long counter. Each station has two induction burners and a small work area. Earlier in the day Jean and the staff at the venue have already set up the equipment and the mise en place for cooking the dishes. Jean stands in the middle of the counter and demonstrates each step along with verbal instructions.

We start first with prepping the kabocha of the main course as it takes some time to cook in the oven. Split the kabocha in half lengthwise; scoop out the seeds with a spoon; drizzle with olive oil; season with salt and pepper; wrap in aluminum foil; and bake in a 150 degree Celsius oven for around 45 minutes or until soft to touch.

While we wait for the kabocha to cook, we begin on the preparation of the starter. The first step is to take the foie gras terrine out of the jar: lower the jar into boiling water for a few seconds; stick the knife along one edge of the jar to allow a little air to enter; and finally flip the jar over onto the cutting board to release the foie gras. The second step involves scraping off the fat on the outside of the foie gras; splitting the foie gras in half; and placing the foie back into the refrigerator to harden for around 30 minutes. The third step of shaving the foie is perhaps the most challenging. When Jean demonstrates the technique it looks easy.

While I know the theory – the foie needs to be quite cold and the peeler needs to be dipped in hot water before peeling – it isn't that easy to execute. Even when one manages to successfully shave the foie in one large piece, it isn't easy to shape the foie into an arch-like form. Nevertheless, Jean says that it's fine if the foie breaks. Just try to assemble it back in pieces; the garnishes will cover some of the cracks in the form.

The second component of the starter is the sweet potato, which Jean has already cooked earlier in simmering water for 30 minutes. Jean instructs us to peel off the skin of the sweet potato with a spoon. The sweet potato is then thinly sliced crosswise,  cut into calisson-shape with a cookie cutter, and placed on a plate. Diced shallots, thyme, salt and pepper are added. Everything is covered in cling film with as much of the air squeezed out as possible. The sweet potato is set aside to marinate for two hours at room temperature.

When the sweet potato is ready, the dish is ready to be plated. This is actually the easy part because Jean has already prepared all the other components: thin slices of radishes, toasted baguette, shavings of parmesan, slivers of arugula, and vinaigrette. The three pieces of sweet potato are first transferred to a plate and then topped with foie gras shavings. The garnishes are added, then drizzled over with vinaigrette, and finished with some Reflets de France fleur de sel and espelette pepper. While I know my foie gras shavings and plating techniques are not up to Jean's standard, I am pretty happy with my plate; looks more like a plate at a restaurant rather than my usual home cooked dishes. I like this dish and it is reminiscent of the dish Robuchon serves at his restaurants. The combination of shaved foie gras with parmesan, bread chips, and vegetables is a classic in the Robuchon repertoire.

With the starter plated, we start to work on the main course. The first step is to take the kabocha out of the oven, scoop the flesh out with a spoon and slather it on top of a tamis. The next step is to use a scrapper to push the kabocha through the tamis. This requires a little strength and patience. I suppose one can use a potato ricer or food mill instead, but the result will not be as smooth. Scraping through the tamis is one of the basic tasks at Robuchon's kitchen since it is the technique used to make the famous mashed potato. As I am scraping through the tamis, Jean says the commis at L'Atelier does the same task twice a day everyday and for at least 45 minutes each time. Afterwards, the kabocha purée is transferred to a pot over low heat and combined with some milk. Whisking constantly, butter is gradually added into the mixture to finish.

To prepare the duck confit, we first scrape off the duck fat, which is not used in this recipe but can be saved for other uses. Jean shows us how to take the skin off the duck using the edge of a spoon. We then clean off the fat on the underside of the skin and place the skin on a pan with low heat. The goal is to crisp the skin so it will be like a chip. Jean says it is best to cook the skin on a low heat for a long duration. High heat and overcooked skin will make the taste a bit bitter. I find the cooking of the skin to be the most tricky step in the recipe. It is not easy to achieve a crispy skin. The duck skin I prepare is crisp when I cut it into small pieces. However, by the time I assemble the dish and eat it, the skin has gone a bit soft. I believe part of the reason is the humidity of the room. I probably also should cook the skin a bit more. However, I don't have enough experience to know how to cook the skin to the edge of overcooking but not beyond. The precise control of heat is one thing that separates a home cook from a professional. The rest of the duck confit is deboned and cut into bite size pieces and set aside.

Next, we prepare the vegetables that will be served with the duck. Jean first demonstrates the cutting of the scallion. Here is another case where the home cook differs from the professional. The technique Jean uses with the pulling of the knife after the cut produces a very clean cut. I don't have the knife skill nor the correct motion. Therefore, while my scallion pieces may look okay, they are not as good as Jean's. The same can be said about the dicing of the mushroom, which we did after the scallion. To cook them, a little butter is first added to a gently heated pan. The scallion is tossed in to be soften but not colored. Then the diced mushroom is added to the pan. This method produces a more stew like dish. As a variation, Jean says one can sauté the mushroom first at high heat and then add the scallion, which will give a more roasted flavor. A few coriander seeds are added and toasted to provide some additional flavor. The duck meat is then folded into the mixture follow by some chicken stock to deglaze the pan and moisten the meat. After a few minutes in the pan, the ingredients are ready to be plated.

The ideal dinnerware for the dish is a shallow bowl. First, spoon the duck meat mixture into a bowl and roughly shape into a mound. Second, add the kabocha purée on top to completely cover the meat. Jean instructs us to gently tap the bottom of the bowl to let the puree settle around the meat and spread out on top. The garnishes include a lightly dressed frisse salad and the crispy duck skin. I must say my final result is pretty good. The little touches on the top really elevate the dish not just in terms of taste but appearance as well.

This main course is quite interesting to taste. Normally at L'Atelier the purée is served on the side of the protein. Here the two are mixed together, thus every bite of the dish is a combination of the purée and the duck meat. The occasional bite of the corriander seeds do add a nice elegant flavor profile. I only wish the duck skin is a bit more crisp to provide more contrasting textures.

The last dish of the day is dessert: caramelized apple wrapped in crepe. The first thing to do is peel and dice the apple. Second, we use our hands to crumble the cookies into large and small pieces. We sandwich the crepe in between two plates and place them over a bain-marie to soften and warm the crepe. I believe one can do this with the microwave as well, but Jean says the bain-marie method provides more control. In the mean time, we add some confiture du lait to the pan to heat and caramelize it. Apples are then added to the pan to cook. Once the apple is a bit soft and caramelized we pour in some Kinmen rice wine. One can almost immediately smell the fruit flavors of the alcohol. Jean says the more adventurous cook can also flambe the alcohol to make the dish even better. While there is still some liquid in the pan, we add some of the cookie crumbles and cook them with the apple mixture.

To plate the dish, we first lay the crepe flat with the lighter side up, spoon the apple mixture onto the middle, and topped with a dollop of whipped cream. I brush the edge of the crepe with some more jam, which helps the crepe to stick together as I fold up the sides of the crepe like a soup dumpling. Afterwards the crepe is transfer to a plate and topped with a little more whipped cream. A little cookie crumble is added to the side to anchor the ice cream. I spoon the ice cream as best I can as a quenelle and pretend to be like a professional, by rubbing the bottom of the spoon to release the ice cream onto the crumble. The result of the dish is quite nice. With more practice I am sure I can fold the crepe into a prettier shape. This is a nice and fast dessert to make. The products of Reflets de France allow one to save some time since one doesn't have to make the caramel and crepe from scratch. I can also imagine using other fruits such as pear or pinapple, in lieu of apple.

After the dishes are made we all sit down at a table to taste our own creations. As I taste the dishes I cannot help but be critical of my own work. I suppose this is just part of my training as an architect. Every time I visit my own buildings I just see the faults and think about ways to improve. For the dishes, I start to wonder whether I should have made the shallot brunoise finer for the starter, crisp the duck skin more for the main course, and cook the apples longer for the dessert. To be fair to myself, I probably shouldn't judge my dishes based on the criteria that I judge a restaurant. However, since the dishes turn out to look like restaurant dishes, one starts to be a bit more ambitious. Cooking is very much about technique and refinement. All the little techniques that Jean uses to make the dish, even with the simple tasks such as peeling the skin off of a sweet potato, all contribute to the refinement of the dishes. While a home cook may not need to be so self-demanding, it is important to have a high standard to strive towards.

I am very glad that Carrefour invited me to the event. It is a privilege to cook along with Jean. I benefit a great deal from simply watching Jean work. Besides learning from Jean, I am also able to try the recipes that he designed. After the session I can say the recipes by Robuchon and Jean are not difficult to execute, and they are ideally suited for a nice family dinner or even a large dinner party. I can easily imagine doing the recipes for a party for 8 guests. The use of Reflets de France products make the dishes look more complex than they really are. While each dish contains several components, most of them can be done hours before the meal. The dessert can even be done à la minute after the main course is finished. Jean is very keen to allow the cook to not be stressed at the dinner party and to spend some time with the guests or family instead of being tied up in the kitchen. Now I just need to invite my friends and family over for dinner. Perhaps I won't tell them upfront that I am using the products from Reflets de France. Maybe they will think I work very hard and appreciate my cooking more.

"Hello, Arthur, this is Michael, do you have time next month to come over for dinner? I am going to make a foie gras terrine, duck confit, and apple with crepe."

“你好，Michael，我是Olivier。下個月Reflets de France禾法頌邀請我示範幾道菜，你有空來參加嗎？” 食品相關的活動通常不會邀請我參加，畢竟，我不在餐飲業，也不是一名記者或是美食部落格作者。然而，台北侯布雄餐廳的主廚Olivier Jean知道我喜歡涉足烹飪，所以來電邀請我。我當然很高興挪出時間來參加這個活動，因為我總是熱衷於學習一些新的烹飪技巧。

 Reflets de France由Promodès於1997年成立，後來併入家樂福集團。Reflets de France在法國各地尋找小型製造者來為它做當地有特色的產品。這個品牌在家樂福管理之下一直穩定的成長，並且已經擴展到亞洲。家樂福去年九月在台灣開始賣Reflets de France的產品。Reflets de France並不是一個奢侈品，而是一個高端的超市品牌，但是Reflets de France與其他超市品牌不同的是，家樂福聘請了Joël Robuchon擔任顧問。 

雖然Robuchon是世界上擁有最多米其林星星的廚師，他也有幫產品代言和當品牌的顧問。例如，Robuchon目前與Veuve Clicquot合作推廣香檳。Sapporo 也有一瓶以 Robuchon為名的啤酒。最近Robuchon與法國航空公司續約，為頭等和商務艙的乘客設計菜單。在Robuchon所有代言的商品之中Reflets de France可能是最特別的，因為Reflets de France是一個平價商品，此外，Robuchon的餐廳並不使用Reflets de France的產品。然而，Reflets de France卻是Robuchon合作最久的品牌之一，源起自1996年。 

作為Reflets de France的顧問，Robuchon每個月在他巴黎的主廚實驗室與家樂福的主管舉行會議，他們一起品嚐舊的和新的產品，討論它們的品質。今年11月，法國M6電視台Capital節目跟隨了Robuchon拍攝了一個會議的過程。節目中Robuchon與他的左右手Eric Bouchenoire廚師和家樂福主管Richard Vavasseur代領的團隊試吃了乳酪和兩種布列塔尼蛋糕。會議中所有的產品都會獲得0到10之間的分數，6分以上為及格。不及格的產品將基於會議中提出的意見進行改良。

目前家樂福在台灣，有販賣大約八十個Reflets de France的產品，包括果汁，果醬，油封鴨腿。因為聖誕假期的來臨，家樂福特別請Robuchon和Jean使用Reflets de France的產品打造三道新菜: 精選鴨肝凍綴甜薯，香料南瓜泥與油封鴨肉，焦糖蘋果可麗餅。為了促銷Reflets de France的產品，家樂福在台北信義區的ATT 4 Fun舉辦了一場活動。一開始我以為我只是去看Jean煮菜，沒想到當我到達會場時，Jean遞給我一件圍裙說我們會一起烹調三道菜。 

ATT 4 Fun的頂樓是一個烹飪工作室，場內有一個長檯，兩側均是料理台，每個工作站有兩個感應爐。Jean和工作人員當天早上已經幫我們把工具與食材準備好了。Jean站在櫃檯的中間，一邊示範一邊解說每個步驟。

我們先開始準備主菜所需要用的南瓜，因為它需要在烤箱中烤上一些時間。將南瓜緃向劈成兩半;用勺子挖出種子;淋上橄欖油;灑上鹽和胡椒;緊緊包在鋁箔中;放入攝氏150度的烤箱約45分鐘或直到柔軟。

當南瓜在烤時，我們就開始準備前菜。第一步就是要把鴨肝凍從罐子拿出來：將瓶子放入沸水中煮幾秒鐘然後取出;用一把小刀插入瓶子邊緣，讓少量空氣進入瓶中;最後把瓶子翻轉過來讓鴨肝凍釋放出來。第二步是將鴨肝凍外的油脂刮掉;切成兩半;把鴨肝凍放回冰箱大約30分鐘使其硬化。第三歩是要用削皮刀將鴨肝凍刮成片，也是這道菜最有挑戰性的步驟。看Jean示範這個技巧好像很容易。雖然我知道此技巧的理論 – 鴨肝凍需要是冰冷的，然後削皮刀在切割前需要浸在熱水中 – 實際操作這個動作並不容易。即使可以成功削下一片完整的鴨肝凍，也不容易將鴨肝凍塑造成拱型。然而，Jean說，就算鴨肝凍在削的過程破裂也沒有關係，祗要盡量嘗試著把鴨肝片重組回去;另外，其它的配菜也將會把一些不好看的裂縫隱藏起來。

前菜的第二個原料是地瓜，我們做菜之前Jean已經把地瓜在水中燜煮了三十分鐘，Jean教我們用勺子來剔除地瓜皮，橫向切成薄片，然後用模子切成類似calisson的形裝，並放置在盤子上。接著將紅蔥末，百里香，鹽和胡椒灑在地瓜上。用保鮮膜蓋住一切，並且盡可能的擠出所有的空氣。讓地瓜在室溫中醃上兩小時。

當地瓜準備好了，就可以開始擺盤了。實際上這倒是比較容易的部分，因為Jean早已準備好所有其他的配料：櫻桃蘿蔔薄片，法國麵包，帕馬森乾酪，芝麻葉，和沙拉油醋醬。首先將三塊地瓜放在盤子中間，上方曡上鴨肝凍片，再用配菜裝飾，之後澆上油醋醬，並灑上一些Reflets de France的鹽之花和espelette辣椒。雖然我知道我的鴨肝凍片和擺盤的技術達不到Jean的標準，我還是對我的成品蠻滿意的;看似一盤在餐館的菜餚，而不是我平日做的家常菜。我很喜歡這道前菜，它很像Robuchon餐廳的一道前菜。鴨肝片，帕馬森乾酪，麵包片，和蔬菜是一個Robuchon的經典組合。

前菜完成後，我們開始準備主菜。第一步就是要把南瓜從烤箱取出，用勺子挖出南瓜肉，放在篩網上。第二步是使用刮板將南瓜過篩。這需要一些力量和耐心。我認為簡單一點的方式可以使用食品粉碎機，不過口感也會相對的比較不柔順。過篩的動作應該是Robuchon餐廳廚房的基本工之一，因為Robuchon有名的馬鈴薯泥就是這樣製作的。Jean說在L’Atelier的年輕廚師每天都有做與我們同樣的動作，每天兩次，每次至少45分鐘。過篩後的南瓜放入一個鍋子，用小火煮，加入一些牛奶，拿一個打蛋器不停的攪拌，逐漸加入一些奶油直到完全混合。

接下來我們製作油封鴨，首先刮去鴨油，這個食譜不需要用這些油，但是油應該保存下來用於其他菜的製作。Jean先教我們如何用勺子取下鴨皮。刮起鴨皮下的脂肪，然後放入平底鍋用小火煎。目地是要得到一片脆的鴨皮。Jean說，煎鴨皮最好慢慢用小火。大火煎或煎過頭的皮會有一些苦澀味道。我發現煎鴨皮是主菜食譜中最具挑戰性的步驟，要成功的完成一片脆皮並不容易。我的鴨皮當要切成小塊時還挺脆的，然而，到了我在吃的時候，皮已經有點軟。我相信一部分的原因是來自房間的濕度。但是我大概也應該將鴨皮煎的久一些。不過，我沒有足夠的經驗，不知道如何將鴨皮煎到過熟的邊緣而不超過。火候控制的精準度是專業廚師和家庭廚師最大的不同之處。其餘的鴨腿則需要去骨，切成小塊，然後放置一旁。

之後，我們準備主菜所需要用的蔬菜。首先Jean示範如何切蔥。刀工也是專業與業餘廚師不同的另一個例子。Jean的刀法可以切出非常精確的蔥末。相對的，我沒有同樣的工力，因此，雖然我的蔥末看起來還不錯，但是沒有Jean的好。蘑菇的切割也是一樣，Jean切的每一塊都一樣大,而我的則沒有那麼準確。先將少許牛油加入平底鍋，用小火炒至蔥軟化，但不著色。然後加入蘑菇塊。這個比較如同燉的做法。Jean說，我們也可以嘗試另外一個方法，先用大火炒蘑菇，然後再加入蔥末，這將產生類似烤物的味道。接著Jean建議加入一點莞荽籽來增加一些額外的香味。最後把鴨肉加入鍋中，翻炒，倒入一小杯高湯，用小火慢慢收乾。此時就可以準備好裝盤了。

這道主菜最理想的餐具是一個碗或是湯盤。首先，將鴨肉放入碗中，並塑成一個土堆狀。第二，覆蓋一層南瓜泥，同時用手掌輕輕拍打碗底，這個動作可以讓南瓜泥滲透到肉中的空隙。最後在上面放置菊苣和香脆的鴨皮，主菜即製作完成。我必須說，我做的結果看起來還相當不錯。

這道主菜是蠻有趣的。通常在L’Atelier馬鈴薯泥與肉是分開的，這裡將兩者混合在一起，因此每一口都是南瓜和鴨肉的組合。另外莞荽籽也的確提供了一點優雅的風味。假如我的鴨皮可以更脆一些，口感會更好。

這一天的最後一道菜是甜點：焦糖蘋果可麗餅。第一步準備蘋果：淸洗，削皮，切成二公分的小塊。其次，用手將餅乾捏成大與小的碎塊。接著將一張薄餅夾在兩個盤子中，放在一個有熱水的鍋子，隔著水將餅加熱和軟化。在做的時候我在想，可能在家裡也可以用微波爐來熱可麗餅，不過Jean説，微波爐比較不好控制火候。與此同時，我們放了一匙焦糖牛奶抹醬到平底鍋中加熱，加入蘋果塊後攪拌翻動，直到蘋果軟化顏色呈焦糖狀。接著倒入一小杯金門高粱酒。酒一入鍋即可以聞到美好的水果風味。Jean說，比較有經驗的人可以先點火燃燒酒精,口味會更好。在還沒有收乾前，將餅乾碎片加入，一起均勻攪和。

裝盤的第一步是將加熱好的可麗餅放在盤中，淡色的面朝上，然後把混合好的蘋果和餅乾放在餅中央，淋上半湯匙的鮮奶油。之後用焦糖牛奶醬塗在可麗餅的週邊，這有助於餅粘在一起，折曡的方式如同做小籠包一般，可麗餅粘好之後再淋上少許鮮奶油。另外將一些餅乾小碎片放在盤子的一角以固定冰淇淋。我用勺子挖冰淇淋，盡我所能將其型成一個quenelle，學著專業的廚師，用手撑摩擦勺子的底部來釋放冰淇淋至盤中。我這道甜點的成果還不錯，若是有機會多練習幾次，我相信可以把可麗餅折的更漂亮。製作這道甜點很快。使用Reflets de France的產品可以更省一些時間，不必自己做焦糖和可麗餅。另外我想應該也可以使用其他比較結實的水果，如梨或鳳梨，來代替蘋果。

菜完成之後我們一起坐到一張長桌品嚐自己的作品。邊吃著我不禁要批評我自己。我想這是我做為一個建築師的本性。當我每次近入我自己設計的建築物，我都只看到一般人看不到的各種問題，並一直想如何可以改進。對於眼前的三道菜，我開始懷疑是否應該將前菜的蔥切的更細，將主菜的鴨皮煎的更脆，將甜點的蘋果煮的更久。不過我也應該對我自己公平一些,我不應該用批評餐廳的標準來評判自己做的菜。  但是當我的作品開始像似餐廳的菜餚，我的野心也變大了。烹飪的重點在於技巧和追求完美。所有Jean使用的技巧，即使是很簡單或是基本的工作，像是剝地瓜皮，都有助於菜餚最後完成的精細度。雖然一般家中的料理並不需要達到米其林餐廳的水準，不過內心有一個目標或是知道一個標準還是有其必要性。

我很高興家樂福邀請我參加這場活動。有機會與Jean一同烹飪是我的榮幸，單純看著Jean工作，我已經學到很多技巧。此外，能夠當場嘗試著做，得到Jean的指點，更使我受益匪淺。活動結束後，我可以說 Robuchon和Jean的食譜並不難執行，而且非常適合一個周末的家庭晚餐，甚至一個大的晚宴。使用Reflets de France的產品可以讓簡單的菜餚看似複雜。Jean非常了解在一個家庭晚宴，主人不應該整個晚上都困在廚房中，重要的還是要能夠與家人或是朋友共同用餐。因此，雖然每道菜中含有許多個原料，大部分其實都可以在餐前幾小時先完成。甜點甚至可以在主菜吃完後再開始做。所以現在我應該邀請我的朋友到我家來。我想我先不告訴他們我會用Reflets de France的產品。他們或許會認為我工作的很辛苦和費時，因而更欣賞我做的菜。

“嗨，Arthur，我是Michael ，你下個月有空來我家吃晚飯嗎？我會準備精選鴨肝凍綴甜薯，香料南瓜泥與油封鴨肉，和焦糖蘋果可麗餅”。

Bencotto Poco Cotto

Since Mandarin Oriental Hotel opened in Taipei in May of this year, the press has referred to the hotel as a 6-star establishment. I have little ideas regarding the differences between a 5-star, 6-star or 7-star hotel, and I don't really pay much heed; I am sure the hotel is wonderful. What I do care about is the number of stars in the restaurants of the hotel, especially in the town that I live in; after all I'm not going to stay at the hotel. In my mind, the hotels in the Mandarin Oriental group are not really famous for their restaurants. Mandarin Oriental doesn't have a single three-Michelin-star restaurant in any of its branches in the world. Most of the restaurants in Mandarin Oriental hotels, with the exceptions of Hong Kong, London, and Paris, are not terribly interesting. Even in Hong Kong, the Chinese restaurants in Mandarin's hotels have a total of one Michelin star. In New York, where I used to live, Mandarin Oriental is certainly not the fine dining destination. The same can be said for the Mandarin in San Francisco, the other food capital of the U.S. Given Mandarin Oriental's track record with restaurants, I wasn't as enthusiastic about the new restaurant openings in Taipei as some of my friends were.

The early days of any restaurant are usually not the best time to go. The staff at the restaurant simply needs the time to be in sync. Hence it is not a surprise to hear about disappointments from people who visited Bencotto, the Italian Restaurant at Mandarin Oriental Taipei, in the first couple of months. A friend of mine in the restaurant industry said I should give the chef several months to settle in before I go. Therefore, after more than five months since the opening, I finally made a reservation and dined at Bencotto.

Bencotto is located on the sixth floor of Mandarin Oriental Taipei. If one has never been to the restaurant before, it is not an easy place to get to from the street; the circulation of the hotel is maze-like and the way to the restaurant is not self-evident. In fact, there are actually two entrances to the restaurant but unfortunately they are located on opposite sides; this is the restaurant's biggest design flaw. Multiple entrances are never a good thing for a restaurant because there is only enough staff for one hostess station. Generally a designer will deal with this situation by connecting the secondary entrance to the primary entrance with a dedicated corridor; forcing the guests to enter the restaurant from the primary entrance where the hostess is. An example would be the entrances at the Bar Room at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Multiple entrances also happen at shopping mall as a restaurant can be entered both from the street and inside the mall. Without a corridor, there is very little control over the movement of the guests as they can simply wander into the dining area. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens at Bencotto. The New York-based Tony Chi who is responsible for the design of the restaurant tries to resolve this by the placement of furniture and a differentiation in floor paving materials. However, he does not succeed. He may not have created the problem, but he does not solve it.

If by chance one entered at the primary entrance of Bencotto, one will find the elevators open directly into the space of the restaurant, almost like a New York loft. This is not an ideal situation since there isn't a transitional space. In fact there is very little space between the elevator doors and the hostess table. The hostess table is a normal dining table height, which is a bit awkward for the standing customers being greeted by the sitting hostess. What I also find to be strange is the diners in the front room of the restaurant all have direct views of the two elevator doors, which are nice but frankly not that attractive.

If one enters from the back entrance, which actually has a set of doors, one will not be greeted by a hostess. Instead one will simply be inside the back dining room. The design of the back room is slightly different from the front room as there aren't any hanging light fixtures; the ceiling is white with down lights instead of grey. Connected to one side of the back dining room is a semi-enclosed room designated for wine tasting and storage. This room is very beautiful but it doesn't seem to get used much. On the other side of the back dining room is the sofa/lounge area - the strangest space in the restaurant. This space, besides the kitchen is, farthest in from the two entrances. Not only is the space somewhat unrelated to food and beverage, there is even a large flat screen TV on the wall. The setting feels more like an airport lounge than a restaurant. In the times when I was at the restaurant, the TV is always on with some sports program with no one sitting in front watching. In fact, the TV is a bit of distraction for some of the diners in this room.

Putting aside the aforementioned problems, some of which may or may not be the fault of the designer, Chi has created a good ambiance for the restaurant. I like the lighting, the choice of materials, as well as the Tuscan color palette. The various glass vitrines that hold wine glasses are elegant. The tables are not big but are placed enough apart. The kitchen is semi-open and the big light fixtures above the work stations make the kitchen feel inviting, more of a residential feel than a normal professional kitchen. With the use of patterned glass screens, Chi is able to achieve a nice balance of openness and room-like spaces.

The food at Bencotto is described by its website as "Home-cooked Italian Cuisine". I always find the idea of "home-cooked" in a restaurant to be a misnomer. If I want home-cooked, I would have just stayed home and cooked. For me, the point of going to a restaurant is to eat things that are hard to do at home. Perhaps Italian home cooking can be given the benefit of the doubt. After all this is a country where mamma and nonna's cooking reign supreme. I don't think there is another country where you will find the mother of a three-Michelin-star chef, Massimo Bottura, claiming, "Massimo’s cooking is fantastic, but I cook better." At Bencotto, the chef in charge is not an Italian mother, but Mario Cittadini, who used to be a chef and co-owner of Il Postale in Italy. Prior to coming to Taipei, he was the chef at an Italian restaurant of Regent Hotel in Beijing for five years. Cittadini's resume doesn't strike me as a "home-cooked" kind of chef. However, he does have an Italian women, Luisa Franceschetti, as sous chef to help him run the kitchen.

Based on two meals at Bencotto, lunch and dinner on two weekdays, the food is good but there is clearly lots of room for improvements. How the restaurant is judged partly has to do with our expectations. If we treat Bencotto as a neighborhood osteria, then we should be happy. But, Cittadini is referred by Mandarin Oriental and the press as a Michelin-starred chef; his previous restaurant Il Postale has a Michelin star. If we view Bencotto through the lens of Michelin and other Michelin-starred places, I would say the restaurant is clearly wanting.

The first meal I had was for dinner, where I ordered the set menu of 4 courses priced at NT$1,800. The restaurant does not serve any amuse bouche. Only bread is offered of which there are three kinds: sourdough, focaccia, and ciabatta. The quality of the bread is fine except, by dinner time, the bread seems a bit stale. In a subsequent lunch the breads seemed slightly better. The bread is served only with olive oil, which is slightly peppery and quite nice.

There are three choices for appetizer and I went with the Hokkaido scallop with cauliflowers. The dish consists of just one scallop with cauliflowers of different textures. The scallop was well cooked with a nice caramelized surface. The combination of scallop with cauliflower is a classic one and I enjoyed the flavors. I wish the dish was seasoned a bit more. The other problem with the dish is the cauliflower chips. I assume the chef wanted to provide some crunch in the texture but the chips were not crisp at all and didn't contribute much to the dish. I can only suspect that the chips were made early in the day and were simply not kept well.

For the second course I picked Spaghetti Carbonara because I read that Cittadini's old restaurant Il Postale is famous for its carbonara. Usually I don't like to order carbonara at a restaurant because it is a dish that I make fairly often. There are only a few components thus it is a nice dish to make at home and it is a plus that my kids like the pasta. Cittadini makes the dish a bit fancy by putting the egg sauce in an egg shell and pouring it table side. I like the flavor and the pasta was cooked well. The only downside was the dish wasn't hot enough by the time it got to my table.

For the main course, I selected roasted pork neck. As with the other dish, the protein was cooked well and the sauce was nice and clean. Again, as with the appetizer, I feel the dish was slightly under seasoned. By this point, I asked the server to provide some salt. The problem was again with the garnish, which was simply gummy; probably made early in the day and wasn't kept well.

For the dessert, one can choose any item from the regular menu and I went with one of my favorites: rum baba. One problem with the dessert is the menu said roasted pineapple but the pineapple on the plate was fresh and only has the surface caramelized. When I emailed the restaurant the next day about the discrepancy, I was told the pineapple has been served fresh for some time and they simply did not update the menu. I would have preferred some roasted pineapple, especially since the fresh fruit was not sweet. I can only surmise the chef wants the acidity of the fresh pineapple to balance the sweetness of the baba. I also wish the baba was soaked with more rum; there was hardly any.

Despite the problems encountered at dinner, I went back for lunch shortly after. Instead of ordering from the set menu, which is cheaper than at dinner but with less interesting choices, I decided to go à la carte. I started with a slow-cooked and char grilled octopus served with potato and dusted with bottarga. This was a very good dish and my sole complaint is again that it was a bit under seasoned.

My second dish was a tortellini with hen consomme. I am not sure why the chef decided to serve the tortellini with a deep bowl as opposed to a shallow bowl like the ones I had in Bologna; I prefer to see all the tortellini at once. Nevertheless, the soup was very fragrant when poured table side. Similar to the other dishes I had to add some salt myself.

Besides the seasoning, the biggest flaw of the dish is the lack of uniformity in the tortellini. The smallest ones are almost half the size of the largest ones. One cannot help but wonder what happened to the quality control of the kitchen. One assumes that the tortellini were made in the morning before the service. Someone should have rejected the ill-formed tortellini instead of serving them to the customers. You would think uniformity is very important not only for the sake of appearance but also for cooking time.

For the most part, the prices for the food at Bencotto are not unreasonable. The portions are standard but not generous. The prices may be a little higher than I would have liked, but for the most part they are acceptable. The same cannot be said for the beverages at Bencotto.

I'm not remotely an expert on wine, yet I find the wine list to be of very little interest. There doesn't seem to be much thought placed on the construction of the list. The list is short and has a little bit of everything - as if the restaurant went to every wine importer in Taiwan and bought a few bottles. The prices of the wine is a bit crazy, with many bottles costing four times the retail price in the U.S. I understand the need for markup, a restaurant needs to pay for storage, glassware, and a sommelier. However, whatever happened to the usual 2.5 or 3 times the wholesale price? I understand that given the import tax, the prices of wine in Taiwan is higher. Nevertheless, one expects Mandarin Oriental to have big bargaining power with the local dealers. To add insult to injury, some of the expensive wines are too young to drink. I feel the restaurant basically bought recent vintages from the stores to fill the cellar. Bencotto is too eager to make money from drinks. Perhaps the restaurant thinks tourists or expense account business people tend to be price inelastic. Or maybe the restaurant simply wants to encourage people to bring their own wine with the NT$1,000 corkage fee.

Given the high prices for wine, you would think there would be some great service from a sommelier. Instead, I ate at the restaurant twice and did not meet the sommelier. My server simply gave me the wine list and offered no help. I ended up ordering the wine by the glass on the menu, which is actually priced more reasonably than the bottles. When the server brought over the wine for me to inspect, I told him it was the wrong vintage. He was incredulous, as if he couldn't believe a customer would question him. I repeated my claim and he reluctantly went back to check the menu. Five minutes later, he came back to apologize. They ran out of the 2010 vintage and the menu has not been updated. I should have wagered him some money. To the restaurant's credit, they didn't charge me for the wine.

The cost of an after dinner drink such as an espresso is also a bit too high in relation to the food. An espresso at Bencotto is NT$200. In some 3-star restaurants, that may be acceptable. But at Bencotto this is half the price of the chicken appetizer. The restaurant also does not offer regular (free) water. One has to order bottled water, which costs around NT$250. While the three-course set menu at lunch is $980, an order of water in the beginning and an espresso at the end will balloon the cost to $1,430.

Bencotto is a restaurant that I really want to like. The menu consists of many Italian classics that I love. Furthermore, unlike other Italian restaurants in Taipei, there are many large format dishes meant to be shared. The restaurant also seems to be children friendly and well suited for family gatherings. The biggest flaw with Bencotto is a sense of casualness about how things are done. For instance, there are three risottos listed on the menu but only one said the rice is by Acquerello. When I asked the manager about the rice used on the other two risotto, the response was all three risotto use the same aged Acquerello rice; and he doesn't know why only one of them lists the source. When I asked about the origin of the culatello, the server just said, "Italy". For a culatello that the restaurant charges NT$1,600 per 100g or around US$250 per pound, you would think the server can be a bit more specific. Some of the items on the menu, such as the previously mentioned wine and pineapple are no longer valid. Yet, the restaurant doesn't update the menu. I am hard pressed to think a so called six-star hotel cannot pay for the printing of a new set of menus. Many of the problems I have with the food are with components that are made prior to the service. In other words, the mistakes were not made during the mad rush of the dining hours. Someone in the chain of command should have checked the quality of the preparation. There is really no excuse for serving the customers an inferior product such as the mushy chips or sub-standard tortellini. Do the staff at Bencotto think the customers will not notice?

One cannot help but wonder if Bencotto is simply a place for tourists and the guests of Mandarin Oriental Hotel. I suppose a business traveler with an expense account would probably be content with the food at Bencotto after a long flight or long day of work. However, for a local diner, I have higher expectations. I need to see more care put into the operation of Bencotto. The restaurant has potential. I don't necessarily expect or need a Michelin-star quality restaurant, but Bencotto needs to raise its standard for me to become a regular customer.