What do you get when you have three international gold medal-winning chefs? A problem for the writer! Because it becomes difficult to track the multitudinous accolades amassed by Hilton Colombo’s celebrity chefs Rohan Fernandopulle, Gerard Mendis and Buddhika Samarasekera.
However, what the gastronome has is Colombo’s first 8-course, wine-paired Menu Dégustation à la Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurants. Even Europe’s epicurean capitals restrict themselves to seven-courses usually. Therefore, Colombo is pushing culinary boundaries. Its first Menu Dégustation propels the city into another epicurean dimension.
The mindfully conceived and meticulously crafted Menu Dégustation was launched this week. Chef B’s intense culinary creativity translates into innovations that Chef Rohan then hones and chisels into veritable works of art which Chef Gerard finishes off with panache and pastries. Chef B is ever emphatic that it’s a team effort.
By cramming a menu with fancy-sounding concoctions and the interiors with extravagant decorative paraphernalia, as happens all too frequently in Colombo, you cannot claim to have a fine dining restaurant if chefs haven’t technical prowess. Thus, I reiterate, that Spoons is Colombo’s only gastronomic restaurant and Chef B alone is of Michelin-star calibre amongst chefs heading a Colombo restaurant. That this is no whimsical predisposition is attested by the fact that Hilton Colombo singularly has won gold medals, and repeatedly, at prestigious international culinary competitions.
True, Aitken Spence hotels culled some awards in Luxemburg last year, but Aitken Spence hotels aren’t in the capital. Hence, Chef B & Co. remain Colombo’s only chefs to have been recognised internationally. Little wonder then that they impressed an international jury at Culinary Art 2010 to win Sri Lanka’s “Best Hotel Team,” sweeping a staggering 21 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze medals. One expects them to break their own record at this year’s event next week.
Chef B says, “Every time I create a menu I think it’s my best.” But the humble and soft-spoken chef keeps surpassing himself and indeed some of the Michelin-starred European chef “gurus” he has trained with. Having rarefied his technique to perfection he seeks to revolutionise restaurant kitchens in Colombo with super sophisticated implements. Whilst most people head to Malaysia for the imminent KL Shopping Carnival to pick up handbags and laptops, Chef B will be shopping for individual smoke machines to smoke and send dishes immediately to the table.
But for now Spoons has already had customised for their 8-course Menu Dégustation an array of exclusive and elaborate Zeher crockery from Germany. They have also sourced premium ingredients from across the globe including foie gras and black truffles from France, lamb and Angus beef from Australia, olives, olive oils and balsamic vinegar from Italy etc. Chef B’s creations are nuanced with subtleties like almond oil, walnut oil, oil of Argan... And fromages affinés (fine cheeses) garnered from France and Italy will be showcased on Colombo’s first cheese tray, again as at European gastronomic restaurants.
However, what a European Michelin-starred restaurant cannot offer is the distinctively Sri Lankan tweak Chef B imparts with the deployment of local ingredients like lemon grass and spices. Explore dishes incorporating Modern European through to Asian fusion in a medley of pan-fried Angus tenderloin with smoked beef profiteroles, foie gras melded with Wagu beef, or creations encircled in Sri Lankan bouillabaisse! Expect eloquent flavours and dramatic presentations with adornments in striking edible flowers. And dine by a glass-encased facade overlooking a patch of stylishly gardened green.
I ask Chef B to pick the menu’s star creation and he smiles mischievously, “Everything is good!” I sample his specially designed vegetarian menu, “a challenge for the chef,” he confesses and challenges me to remain unawed by an enfilade inaugurated with plump walnut-crusted goat’s cheese cookies. The staff headed by Asanka and Chamil circulate smoothly with the streaming courses. Sumptuous pumpkin velouté is poured over a little spinach parcel. Polenta and brie patties perched with poise beside ginger mousse and a smear of cauliflower puree and baked camembert wedges in exotic date dressing achieve textures of extreme elegance.
Precious black truffle ravioli, a solitary piece in an unctuous herbed cream, is unveiled under a glass cloche shaped like a pear head. Passion fruit sorbet cleanses the palate before the meal culminates in tofu cake layered with oriental ratatouille and in a trimming of spiced reduction. Enfin, miniature desserts including ginger pudding with coffee coulis, butterscotch ice cream and chocolate brownie. Gerard Mendis, Governor of the Sri Lankan Chefs’ Guild, is away travelling but next time I look forward to his more avant-garde desserts.
Champagne is an aperitif, but sommelier Ian pairs bubbly with dessert (Michelin-starred restaurants do for diners who prefer champagne to sweet dessert wines). Ian is amongst the few sommeliers in town who can actually pronounce the names of French wines. He brings me an exquisite Rosé d’Anjou from the Loire, proceeds to a 2007 Bordeaux and ends with a Medoc. But Ian’s repertoire comprises Château de Margaux going for Rs 160,000 a bottle.
With Michelin-star prices, Rs 8, 500 for the Menu Dégustation, Spoons feeds the crème de la crème. One glimpses high profile ministers or top CEOs hurriedly ushered into the private dining room. Of course, society’s darlings prefer to display themselves in the smart aquamarine restaurant, seeing life through rose tinted glasses, tasting it with silver spoons, and settling for nothing less than golden gastronomy. |
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