Business Times - 21 Feb 2009
GUEST CHEF
Unequivocally umami
Three-Michelin-star chef Bruno Menard believes that every dish should be a fine balance of sweet, salty, sour and bitter. By Audrey Phoon
IF YOU'VE ever wondered what sort of culinary creations impress Michelin-star chefs, the answer is: roast chicken and potatoes - at least when it comes to Bruno Menard.
The Frenchman, who helms the three-starred L'Osier restaurant in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district and is here until this weekend for Raffles Hotel's 14th Annual Wine, Food and Arts Experience, still remembers the Sunday family lunches of his childhood in his hometown of Tours that comprised 'good things like chicken with crisp skin and delicious potatoes'. In fact, it was those dishes that helped give him 'the right education, taste-wise', he believes.
'My grandfather and my father were fantastic cooks - we used to all live together and have wonderful meals like that together,' he recalls. 'I loved the food and watching my grandfather cooking. So, as early as I can remember, I wanted to become a chef, never a firefighter or anything like what most kids wanted to be. Maybe to me it's a way of keeping those memories somewhere inside, or replicating them.'
'Replicating' is actually a rather modest way of describing what Menard turns out these days. The menu at his French restaurant in Tokyo's Shiseido building (L'Osier is run by the beauty company) is full of poetic creations such as wasabi'd pigeons, and features lots of premium produce such as Japanese seafood and Osce-tra caviar. Every dish should be a delicate balance of the four main tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter - that perfectly harmonious combination known as 'umami, as we say in Japan', states the chef. He continues: 'I try to base everything on a very specific place, moment or season, and attain a balance of all the tastes. I also play with the consistencies, colours and volumes so every dish is colourful and tasty.'
You have to experiment when it comes to creating food, he feels, as cooking is all about 'inspiration and creating a great moment from beginning to end'. That inspiration can come from anywhere - just a few days ago, Menard shares, someone offered him a whisky and a cigar, which he accepted even though he doesn't usually smoke. 'But it was the whisky and the cigar, and it created a divine moment,' he explains. 'One day, I'll do something with it because it will inspire me somehow.'
He adds: 'You shouldn't be rigid and follow recipes exactly; I find that very disturbing. You have to go with your feelings, share, remain open-minded and be communicative and sensitive.'
That intuitive culinary touch aside, the Frenchman has a remarkably wide-ranging knowledge of produce and he applies it liberally to his creations: instead of the more popularly-known Kobe beef, for example, he uses miyazaki beef from Kyushu that one diner claimed he could slice with a spoon, it was so tender.
Other less-common ingredients that the chef has a preference for include Hokkaido uni (sea urchin), as well as sudachi, a small Japanese citrus fruit. Unlike the Japanese who eat the fruit with sashimi and sushi, however, Menard reckons the best way to have a sudachi is on top of 'barely grilled matsutake mushrooms, and with a cup of sake'.
Those mushrooms, whose aroma is as strong as black truffles, are some of his favourite ingredients, too, when they are in season during autumn and winter. 'To prepare each mushroom, just wipe it with a tissue - you almost don't clean it - and chargrill it until warm,' he says. 'Or cook it with rice. It's a dream.' For Singaporeans, particularly, Menard has another food recommendation. 'You're a big fan of crab here, apparently, and the best crab in the world, in my opinion, is kekani (hairy crab) from Hokkaido. The flavour is absolutely unique.'
When it comes to pairing his food with wine, however, the chef still favours French varietals, as reflected in the wine list at L'Osier. For the trout recipe here, he recommends a wine from France's Loire Valley, 'because I am from there'. A dry Vouvray is Menard's first suggestion, 'for its citrus and confit flavours that are exactly what you have on this dish', but he quickly changes his mind: 'Wait, wait, I have a better one - a Domain de la Taille aux Loups from Jacky Blot in Montlouis. He's doing a fantastic job with the wines, they're very aromatic and citrusy - I love what he's doing.'
As with his cuisine, it is the poetry of the pairing that Menard is after: 'Trout or any river fish would be a great match with that because there would be meaning to it too - the fish is from the river and the earth around this vineyard is rich with the river that surrounds it.'
Mount Fuji trout with oil d'argan
Serves one
Ingredients:
100g trout
300g macadamia nuts
500ml milk
100ml macadamia oil
Salt to season
Soya salt to season
Orgeat emulsion, argan oil praline, and citrus reduction with passionfruit (recipes below)
Orgeat emulsion:
200ml macadamia nut milk (see step 2)
50ml orgeat syrup
Citrus reduction:
250g lemon juice
50g passionfruit puree
A dash of yellow colourant
A dash of bonbon argan oil
Argan oil praline:
A pinch of hazelnut paste
A dash of argan oil
A pinch of salt
Method
1. Season the trout with the soya salt and salt then steam in the oven at 50ºC until the heart of the trout reaches 38°C.
2. Make a macadamia puree by bringing the milk to boil and adding the macadamias. Blend 300ml of that together with the macadamia oil. Set the remaining 200ml aside for the orgeat emulsion.
3. Bring all the ingredients for the orgeat emulsion to 70°C, then blend the mixture as cappuccino, until foam forms.
4. Boil the lemon juice and passionfruit puree until reduced by half. Add the colourant.
5. Mix the ingredients for the argan oil praline together to form a smooth paste.
6. To serve, spread the argan oil praline and orgeat emulsion onto a plate in a design. Plate the trout and spoon the macadamia puree on the side of it.
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