L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - 6th Oct 2017
It took me 7 years before visiting 2 michelin star L’Atelier
de Joel Robuchon last week. I was at the Great Food festival at Resorts World
Sentosa and was very impressed by the dishes churned out by the L’Atelier booth
that Senior Huber and I decided to have dinner here with our wives before
opening chef Lorenz Hoja moves to Hong Kong.
Upon entering the main doors, you can either go right to 3
michelin Joel Rubuchon or turn left to L’Atelier. Upon entering the restaurant,
the ambience is dark with lots of black and contrasting red chairs. I love how
they have jars of pickled fruits and vegetables lining the shelves along with
herbs and plants which really give the restaurant colour and life. The open
kitchen is also in full view of diners and it is always fun when you sit at the
bar and watch the chefs do their thing.
We started with a bread basket. At Joel Robuchon, they come
around in a bread trolley however here it is downsized to a basket. Still it is
nice selection but most importantly the quality of the bread is good. I
especially liked the olive bread. We started off with Imperial Cavier from
Sologne on dashi jelly with delicate cream. The mini croutons on the cream was
almost too cute to eat. This dish was full of umami and saltiness from the
dashi and cavier. Next up we had the marinated king crab in a vine tomato on
top of basil puree and tomato jelly. I loved the presentation of this dish and
cutting the tomato revealed chunky pieces of crab. There are a lot of
restaurants that put a whole bunch of ingredients on the plate because it
sounds good or they think it goes well with one another when it doesn’t. Here
at L’Atelier, every ingredient has a purpose and everything just blends
together to make the dish excellent. The spicing and seasoning is just right
and I’m sure a lot of testing was done to get it perfect.
Bread basket
Imperial Cavier from Sologne on dashi jelly
King crab in a vine tomato on top of basil puree and tomato jelly
The highlight of the night for me was the chicken broth with
foie gras gyoza and fresh herbs. The dumplings were packed full of flavour and
there was even some prawns in there for texture. Senior Huber exclaimed that he
could eat this everyday. I reserved comment and just slowly enjoyed the
flavours in my mouth. Next dish was a chestnut veloute with bacon on a foie
gras custard. Amazing as well but super rich. The ladies had trouble finishing
this one as they feared they could not finish the main course. The foie gras
paired really well with the chestnut and the chunks of bacon provided some
texture to the dish.
Chestnut veloute with bacon on a foie gras custard
Foie gras gyoza
For our main course, we had the roasted farm chicken with
girolle mushroom. It was served with the most buttery mash potatoes and rice!
Not any ordinary rice but rice cooked in crustacean broth. The chef told us
that the kampong chicken is marinated in butter overnight then sous vide and
finished off on the rotisserie. It was paired with a classic brown chicken
broth cream sauce and served with the in-season and very earthy tasting
girolles. Senior Huber enjoyed the girolles while my wife found them a bit too
strong for her liking.
Mash potato with rice
We finished the meal off with berries on a Brittany biscuit,
dark chocolate sorbet and tonka bean sauce poured in at the table. A not too
rich but sweet ending to our meal.
Dessert of the day!
This dinner made me wonder why I never made it sooner to
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon. I can definitely see why they have 2 michelin stars
and it will be interesting to see if the new chef can keep the standard or even
better it!
