Pierre

Pierre is Pierre Gagnaire's eponymous restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong. It has one Michelin star (although he has 3 at his restaurant in Paris).

Timing is everything at Pierre. Four times a year Gagnaire himself comes to cook and he always puts on something special. At the time my visit luckily coincided with his, this included hand carrying frog's legs from France to cook that night. Before the meal he toured the restaurant and introduced himself to all the diners, and afterwards he came back out and accepted our plaudits. As a special treat he signed all our menus.

Because Pierre himself was cooking the only menu option was the degustation dinner. Needless to say I didn't need to have my arm twisted too much. The dinner consisted of such "ordinary" ingredients as sole, zucchini, artichoke, fennel and lamb, but what creations he made of them. And then there were the frog's legs - my first experience - and they were sublime.

As is traditional at his restaurants, the meal ended with "Les desserts de Pierre Gagnaire". This consisted - I initially thought - of one dish, somewhat of a misnomer (although the dish did have a side sauce and 4 petits fours on it). However after that was cleared, five more desserts appeared! With my sweet tooth I was in heaven.

Si tu parle Francais, tu peux accéder à son site. Otherwise, use the hotel's website from the link above.