When one door — at the Raffles Hotel, in Singapore — closes, another one, on the 44th floor of Gloucester Tower, in Hong Kong, opens. I was sad to see Anne-Sophie Pic end her five year run at the grand dame, but celebrity chefs (including Ducasse) have had mixed results there. Now, we have a sibling in @cristalroombyasp that rivals its predecessor in ambition.
Not much, thankfully, is different. You are now faced with dramatic views of the Hong Kong cityscape, alongside mirrors on the ceiling (!) to amplify the effect; a (very) open kitchen where chefs in crisp whites say ‘oui’ loudly, on command; a surfeit of Baccarat, with all the chandeliers and miniature table lamps on display. The outfits that servers wear — multicolored blazers, white sneakers — may distract you from how formally they behave. In a good way: as it is in Paris, or Valence, the site of Pic’s flagship, nothing here skips a beat. Not even the haircuts.
The food, therefore, is as manicured as you’d expect. For every nascent flavor that tries to break through, something else reins it in. The woodsy sobacha that counters the salty Comte in the berlingots; the subtle use of lapsang souchong and pickled sweet purple cauliflower on frogs legs meunière. Yes there’s tea here and tea there. Tea can be challenging to work with, but Pic and her CDC, Marc, aren’t shy about it. And though these flavors don’t always land — her use of chamomile can be heavy-handed — I’d take adventure over staid retreads.
There are few concessions to Hong Kong. Pic’s play on what appeared (to me) as black-bean spare ribs is noteworthy: a roulade of pork with a peri peri sauce reinvented as an au poivre, lightened with tonka, over silken celeriac puree. It’s a knockout entree. Equally compelling is the way the kitchen recycles the celeriac: thin, raw ribbons brightened with yuzu — a counterpoint to the heady sauce.
There’s a lot going on, but few chefs have the chutzpah to go a little wild. Pierre Gagnaire’s late, great outpost at the Mandarin, in Hong Kong, reminded us that the halo of his Paris flagship could travel well. I’m happy to report that Pic has done it again. And this was lunch.
