Pierre Gagnaire & Bordeaux Cuisine, Le French Gourmay Preview (Hong Kong) -

Chinese food

Pierre Gagnaire is in town doing a Bordeaux inspired cuisine as a preview meal and later on in May, 5 of the dishes from this menu will be presented as a Le French Gourmay 5 Courses meal. This preview menu is surprisingly fuller at 8 courses versus only 5 dishes, so we took the opportunity to come earlier to try out more food. Personally the meal came to around $ 2200 per person in the end, I thought some of the dishes were quite fun and great indeed but I would have been happier if some dishes paid more attention to some blunders. Some items also couldn't be co-related to the menu descriptions. A Duck Crackling dish on menu, turned out to be a duck terrine with shiitake mushroom, or a Apple Compote turned up as an Apple Crisp, and a Chartrons Apple Tart wasn't even a tart. I am still totally baffled by the randomness. You could call it artistic, or you could call it Pierre Gagnaire's latest style. Some dishes were quite enjoyable though, but the poor ones really distracted from the overall experience.

Badoit Sparkling Water - $ 105
Seriously, over priced bottle of water.
Water is a necessity, not a premium product especially when this is only a Badoit not some exotic elixir portion of a water with healing powers. It is not worth this premium, and they were low on stock on the Chateldon which I actually ordered first.

(Rear) Parmesan Biscuit with Radish and Anchovies, Olives and Eggplant Tapenade.
Whisky and Beer jelly was unbalanced and more gimmick than really enjoyable, not enjoyable at all! The best amuse bouche was the Cheesy Gougere. Overall not as impressive as dinner starters, despite serving the same course. We chose lunch for ease of taking photos, but if you want a better overall experience, come at dinner! ~ 5/10

Bread -
The bread basket welcomed lately a thinner crispy bread which was good. The au Lait milk bread was still great, and the cheesy roll totally awesome. The small baguette pales in comparison to Macau's Robuchon au Dome though, not much flavours. ~ 7/10

Butters -
The Lunch butter is different from Dinner Butters. Totally understandable due to the different price range. But like the amuse bouche, we are actually paying for our Bordeaux Experience at exactly the same price during lunch as dinner, so shouldn't it have the same pre-starters as visiting at night?? Thanks to the staff for bringing to us the final Bordier's normal and seaweed butter without us making an request. Totally appreciate this impeccable and smart service. ~ 9/10

2005 Chateau Perenne, Bordeaux Wine - $ 140 a glass
With a Bordeaux Tasting Menu, on theory it should be paired with their only available Bordeaux wine by the glass? The Full Wine Pairing course is more interesting but I can't take it all in during lunch time, I'll try it during dinner.

Button Mushroom Jelly, Sliced Button Mushroom,
Iced Potato Soup with Horseradish, Aquitaine Caviar -
The Caviar was quite neutral in taste and not that salty, good. The Mushroom duxelle was slightly missing mushroom flavours. The various methods of! treatin g the mushrooms was appreciated more for texture variation than for taste, and the horseradish component flashed across once but didn't appear again. The latter part had me in a mystique. Nice cold soup. ~ 6.9/10

Country Style Bordelais -
Grenier Medocain, Duck Crackling &
Black Pudding w Apple Compote with Golden Grapes.
The Grenier Medocain is similar to a Andouillette tripes sausage and came with Sauterne braised radish. The Duck Crackling became a chopped duck terrine with shiitake mushrooms ~ what is going on with the terminology? The apple compote with gold grapes, turned out to be apple crisp Sad smile ~ 5/10

Grenier Medocain -
I liked this, but it was over-powered by the pile of Sauterne braised radish beneath a little.. ~ 7/10

Duck Crackling -
Why is a duck crackling a duck terrine and shiitake mushrooms?
This tasted a little benign and not enough duck meat or duck liver like. Over shadowed by the mushrooms taste. ~ 5/10

Black Pudding with Apple Compote and Golden Grapes -
The black pudding was too mild and missing the blood taste. The apple compote wasn't a compote but a dehydrated apple crisp. I think this would work very well in the ideal situation but this was an epic fail in execution. ~ 2/10

Hi Pierre -
What a nice guy indeed and all smiley. Probably a little random with his food plays, some people like this serendipitous and artistic style, some might prefer some sort of continuity. I am in the middle somewhere!

Oyster in Oyster Broth with Graves White Wine, Slow Simmered Leek and Shallot,
Brioche toast and Tricandille Bordelaise -
This was nice, but probably can do with more oyster broth flavour. The oyster texture was perfectly only slightly cooked. The Tricandille Bordelaise sausage is also a tripes based one, and this had a stronger organs smell but surprisingly didn't clash with the oyster. ~ 9/10

Plain Duck Liver Terrine, Caramelized Pear Segment flavoured with Espelette Pepper, Cannele with Aged Balsamic (Canele), Celeriac in Mustard Sauce -
The cannele/canele looked a bit wrong, I am surprised they were allowed out of the kitchen, and even the texture was more like an overbaked Yorkshire pudding. The Duck Liver Terrine texture was also slightly too melty and wasn't sliced very cleanly either. ~ 6/10

Bordelaise Style Lamprey Eel, Velvety Spinach Soup with Sorrel -
Not s ure if it's the sorrel or more citrus added but initially this was quite acidic, I added some salt and the dish was much better. The French imported eel texture was more like canned sardines as it was quite lean but I liked the overall dish composition. ~ 9/10

Heart of Beef Fillet, Bordelaise-style Chopped Cepe Mushrooms with Bream Crumbs & Roquette, Bone Marrow, Beetroot Syrup with Foie Gras and Mustard.
Ordered Medium-Rare, as apparently rare in French cooking will be blue.

Some others plates were better, but mine was too dried out and over-cooked.
The staff happily cooked me another one.

This 2nd one was much much better, and surprisingly had grill marks on it. It was moist inside and even had more beef flavours. We already suspected the above dish was 'roasted' and had dried out in the oven. This freshly grilled piece was easily better and everyone on the table also tasted it to compare. They should stick to grilling this muscle piece. Seriously ~ 9/10

Difference of night and day.
Was better when cooked this way…

Thinly sliced 36 months Comte, White Chocolate Pearls,
Sauternes Jelly and Chopped Vegetables -
This was pretty good as a cheese course. The aged comte was still only semi-hard.

Armagnac Ice Cream, Bitter Fruit Marmalade with Berries -
A refreshing dessert. Could have had more Armagnac taste in the ice cream. ~ 6.9/10

Apple Chartrons Tart with Sponge, Frozen Grapes, Blackcurrant Juice, Lime Foam -
This is a modern interpretation and the apple was cooked mille feuille style. Honestly I like playful food but I just didn't think this worked, as an Apple Tart should at least have the expected flaky pastry texture somewhere, right? ~ 4/10

Chocolate Cake with Ganache, with Chocolate Ice Cream and some Gianduja paste -
This is not on the menu, but tasted brilliant by itself. But the recipe seemed like what you can find in a cake shop or buffet dinner. Knowing Pierre HK from previous visits, this dessert is probably not that impressive in recipe enough to be part of the tasting course? ~ 7/10

A glass of Lillet comped by the restaurant,
as a tasting... Thanks.

The meal had it's Ups and Downs, much like most Haute Cuisine meals. That's a Given.
But unlike downstairs Mandarin Bar and Grill (1 Star) which is honestly one of the best restaurants in Hong Kong over several visits, if not also the world, when even their lowest performing dishes are usually still above-average grade. Some of the lows encountered at this Pierre meal must need to past through a more stringently QC'ed kitchen. I thought some of the Bordeaux inspired dishes were exquisite and educational, if they could fix some of these weaknesses and the Menu inconsistencies, it could become a very good Le French Gourmay experience indeed. I did liked some individual dishes.