Thierry Marx is in town. And he's brought his chopsticks with him.
This week — through Sunday (the 23rd) — the Parisian chef is preparing a selection of the dishes that have propelled his double-Michelin-starred restaurant, Sur Mesure inside the Mandarin Oriental Paris, to the centre of the gastronomic map of the French capital.
Despite his long connection with Japan — first through his life-long practice of judo, then through his deep passion for Japanese cuisine — Marx is not a well known name here. That deserves to change. He is one of the new generation of chefs who have brought modernist techniques and an acceptance of other countries' cuisines into the Michelin mainstream. Not without attracting criticism from the old guard, but effectively silencing the naysayers through the quality of his cooking.
Since I'm not planning to be in Paris for the foreseeable future — though actually, these days the foreseeable is never too distant — this was far too good an opportunity to miss. So I made my way up to Restaurant K'shiki, on the 38th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Nihonbashi, intrigued to see how dinner was.
The answer: very good indeed. This was how it unfolded…
• The setting: K'shiki is nice, serious but not too plush, with a great view out of those floor-to-ceiling windows towards the evening light over the western hills.
• The appetizer: a light mousse of nishin (herring) blended with fine-diced apple and onion and lightly crunchy pink tobiko roe, topped with a sorbet of smoked herring (kunsei), served with a "crouton" wafer.
This was a great way to open dinner, with just enough umami and saltiness to prime the taste buds. Really good.
• The starter: "tube pizza" w/ stalk caper
• The 2nd starter: yari-ika (squid) and asparagus.
The centerpiece was the croustillant, a battered/deep-fried cube of creamy squid mousse, served with white asparagus coated with squid ink; a line of yari-ika powder reminiscent (in flavour) of the cuttlefish snacks served with beer at Japanese seaside resorts; with yari-ika emulsion; foam of the same squid with lemon zest; and a dainty blob of red chili sauce providing a counterpoint of both colour and flavour.
• The fish course: hirame (turbot / flounder); caramelized onion; cauliflower puree; and citron sauce.
The fillet of flounder, landed in Aomori, was perfectly tender but firm, with none of the flabbiness I associate with sous-vide cooking. The sheet of caramelized onion had a vinegar tartness to balance the sweetness; the cauliflower also had a tartness, but from citrus; and the sauce was introduced as being made with natsu-mikan, but I'd go with the French description, citron cédrat.
Unfortunately, the light was fading badly by now. And while the semi-darkness of the K'shiki dining room makes for intimacy, it does not favour photography. My photo just doesn't do the dish justice, so underneath I've added one of the press release pictures.
• The meat course: boeuf charbon; chickpea; aubergine gnocchi; chard emulsion; chickpea purée; aka-miso sauce.
• The first dessert: Saint-Honoré with caramelized profiteroles so sweet they could not be balanced by the citrus ice cream. (another "official" photo as mine were too washed out…
• The 2nd dessert: miroir cassis.
This one really hit the spot and left all the right lingering notes in the mouth: dark rich cassis on a bed of pannacotta; a blackcurrant milk chocolate ball; spheroids of liquid cassis; lemongrass foam.
And that — apart from the coffee and petit fours (which were not from Paris) — was it. Not a major tasting menu of complexity, but skillfully woven classic yet modernist gastronomy accented with subtle surprises.
As I said before, very good indeed. In fact, highly recommended.
Full details of the menu are on the K'shiki website here…
