A few weeks ago, I invited several friends to celebrate an important birthday with me. One of the first chefs I ever wrote about on this blog, M. Thierry Marx, had moved from Pauillac to wow the Parisians with his own rendition of molecular cuisine at the sparking new restaurant Sur Mesure at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Eric, Gaby, and Adriana accompanied me on this exciting journey to the cutting edge of French cooking.
M. Marx has spent a lot of time in Japan, and this is reflected in his art. His creations are beautifully presented jewels, artfully composed and delicious.
The restaurant itself is stunning and the service impeccable. The space is organized into little alcoves, with the result that each tables feels like it is in its own little quiet restaurant. This is a modified version of the Japanese kai-seki restaurant that provides private rooms for its customers. For this important evening, my friends let me be in charge and so I chose the Menu Degustation 9 Plats (nine dishes tasting menu) for all of us. We each had choices though: in several of the appetizers, the main course and one of the desserts.
There were the lovely Escargots/ravioles végétales/pulpe piperade/pain croustillant: an extemely creative snail dish.
These were little crunchy snail fritters dusted with toast and served with intensely- green raviolis made entirely of vegetables and accompanied with the line of bright red pepper pulp. Sensational!
A signature dish is the heavenly risotto and this evening they served the risotto de soja aux huîtres/truffe noir. This was a dish of a heavenly sauce that was crunchy but not with rice: with soybean sprouts! It was garnished with black truffles and is one of the best dishes any of us had ever had. So inventive, so sublime and so surprising.
For the fish course, there was a choice of Homard aux cerises/vieux Balsamique (which I chose, being the most adventuresome)
or Turbot de Bretagne, gross pièce/couteaux/dentelles d'encre
Couteaux means knife and this dish is a wonderful large piece of turbot (my favorite white fish) served with the couteaux (a long slim shellfish served in its shell) garnished with squid ink lace. This was a very sexy dish.
We all chose different main courses: Canard des immortels/oignons nouveaux/figues--that is, duck with figs and sautèed baby onions
Boeuf charbon/réglisse/laqué de petits pois/lard de Colonnata: beautifully grilled beef, a subtle licorice flavor, a layer of snow pea coulis, and fine Italian ham
Pluma caramélisée/pomme et ananas acidulés: Caramelized pork with tart apple and pineapple.
These dishes were all gorgeous to view and to eat.
Such a stellar meal begged to be accompanied with stellar wines. Before we left for the restaurant, I served a Bollinger Grand Année 2002 champagne, so we were well "apéritifed" when we arrived. And then, with most of our meal, we had a wonderful Puligny Montrachet, Louis Carillon 2009. For the meat courses, each of us had a different glass of red: Priorat GV5 2007 from Spain for the duck, a wonderful Burgundy Volnay Boillot 2009 with the beef, and a delicious Languedoc Domaine de Montcalmès 2008 with the pork.
Desserts seemed to come without end. First there was a traditionally modern Japanese bento:
with a variety of chocolate tarts, fruit and cream tarts, and ylang ylang (an exotic flower) ice cream....and....
Fraise/litchi (strawberry and litchi with a beautiful interesting tuile with rosemary)
Miroir cassis
Abricot juste poché/crème Madame
These were three different fruit desserts that we had chosen at the start of the meal.
And then there were the little ice cream cones...
For Happy Birthday:
And chocolates....
And the four of us....
None of us will ever forget this beautiful evening. For once (after El Bulli) I found a sampling of molecular cuisine that speaks to me. Not only dramatic in presentation but beautiful and delicious in execution. I had had another excellent molecular meal at the first Thierry Marx, and am glad to see that he is keeping up with such a fine display of his ultra-modern art.
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