I visited Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, one of only two restaurants in London to score the coveted maximum of 3 Michelin stars, for the first time today. Like any celebrity chef, Ducasse has a restaurant empire that spreads across much of Europe, USA and Tokyo. This London outpost is helmed by Jocelyn Herland, one of his protégés.
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| Entrance |
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| Interior |
Two glasses of red/white wine, a bottle of mineral water and coffee are included in the lunch menu, which is a real steal. I chose to have the pinot blanc which was very fruity and refreshing.
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| The most arty plate I've seen! |
Yummy choux pastries to start, with a black paprika and cheese filling. Served warm, very light and fragrant.
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| Lovely oyster shell-shaped dish and porcelain table decoration |
Bread was excellent enough to eat on its own, didn't really need the salted butter or cream cheese spread (which were also great).
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| Excellent esp. the black olive bread (left) |
A rather substantial amuse-bouche of butternut squash with a dollop of Stilton cheese and dash of paprika. Wonderful combination of flavours - sweet, creamy and just spicy enough to prepare the palette.
Starter from the seasonal 'Nature' menu: soft-boiled egg, cep mushroom and crispy bacon, with mushroom velouté poured over. I love mushrooms and this full flavoured dish was just perfect, with the bacon providing a satisfying salty crunch. The egg was exquisitely done, with a totally runny centre and a solid but almost gelatinous egg white. Comfort food at its best.
The above was the wafer-thin crispy bread that went with the starter - with hazelnuts and fig/prune, I figured. Very nice complement!
Main course: Gilthead bream fillet with raw and cooked fennel and sauce vierge. Top-quality fish cooked to perfection, very fresh, tender, smooth and preserving much of its natural juices. The fennel and sauce were an excellent and subtle complement to the light taste of the fish.
Pre-dessert: this was what really surprised me - can you imagine all that?! These were all complimentary extras not on the menu, made inhouse by the pastry chef. I was so full by the end of the actual dessert that I had to ask my server to do a takeaway of all these goodies, which he happily obliged.
Macarons - lemon, tonka (a type of chocolate), and raspberry flavours. Not too bad, but still nowhere near the standards of macaron specialists Ladurée and Pierre Hermé. It's really difficult to get these right.
A selection of dark and milk chocolates. The dark chocolates had a very distinct coffee filling, topped with bits of coffee beans, while the milk chocolates had a creamy hazelnut feuilletine centre - yummy.
Chocolate-coated almonds. This humble nibble was coated in the most intense dark chocolate and glazed over with a very thin layer of sugar - totally luxurious.
Salted caramel and soft nougat.
This was amazing - the nougat so chewy and chock-full of nuts, and with a most unusual but delicious hint of candied orange peel. The caramel was so intense, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth, admittedly on the rather salty side but I loved it! There was an additional variety of caramel they gave me in my take-home pack, a really unusual and sourish passionfruit flavour, with visible bits of the fruit and crushed seeds.
Dessert served in a signature Ducasse 'cookpot': a stew of apples, lavender honey and ginger, topped with chopped pistachios. Sweet, spicy and fragrant - what struck me most was the presence of lavender as soon as the dish was presented. Very interesting combination that works surprisingly well although one usually expects spiced apple to be paired with cinnamon. This would be a perfect winter dessert, like those sold in German christmas markets.
This simple scoop of pistachio ice cream that went with the cookpot dessert was nothing short of a revelation - so velvety, light and not too sweet, made with the freshest cream that one can taste, and with delicious bits of pistachio in every mouthful.
Double shot of espresso to end the meal and put me through the rest of the day - this was potent and very well-made!
Quite a good first lunch experience and value for money - I know I will be back to try its tasting menu soon!
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| Old-world charm and opulence within the hotel |
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| Entrance to The Dorchester |
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