Chef-Bill_Portrait-1

French fusion

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Recently we had a chance to go to one of our favourite Cantonese fine dining restaurants, Lai Heen at The Ritz-Carlton for a unique gastronomic experience, with Chef Bill Fu presenting his latest creations as part of his ‘Taste of Innovation’ menu.

Macau is renowned for blending East and West influences, and for this menu, Chef Bill decided to take this concept in a new direction, combining superb French ingredients with distinctive traditional Cantonese-style cooking methods like steaming, double-boiling, braising and stir-frying.

 “With French National Day or Bastille Day celebrated on July 14, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce our guests to some French ingredients,” explains Chef Bill.  “In particular, French Blue Mushrooms are very special and are in season right now, so they are very fresh and I wanted to include them in some of our signature dishes.”

To warm up our palates, we first enjoyed an entrée of Steamed Brittany Lobster with Egg White, Barbecued Iberico Pork in Honey Sauce, and Baked Mushroom with Crabmeat – a perfect way to get ready for some of the upcoming flavor combinations in the rest of the meal.

The first main dish to arrive was the Sautéed Garoupa Fillet and Scallop with French Blue Mushroom. Leopard coral garoupa is renowned as the highest-quality garoupa in its class, and when paired with the French Blue Mushroom, the intense scent of the fungi is infused with the delicate aroma of the fish, to offer delightful new flavors. To add yet another layer of taste, the garoupa and scallop are lightly fried, before being tossed with fresh, succulent French Blue Mushroom in a superior stock. 

 “This is the first time I have cooked with French Blue Mushrooms, so naturally I did a lot of experimenting and trying different methods to see how best to combine the ingredients and bring out their true essence,” says Chef Bill.  “And I discovered that the mushrooms really go very well with Cantonese style seafood”.

Chef Bill’s second creation is the Mashed Potato Accompanied with Duck Liver in Snow Date Puree and Ginger. Hand-picked to balance out the more intense flavor of duck liver, the snow date offers a sweet flavor and fresh sensation that complements the subtle aroma of ginger. Two slices of duck liver are presented, each prepared in a different way. The first is quintessential French style – rich, buttery and delicate goose liver – while the second slice uses Chinese cooking techniques adding potato and lam yu (fermented beancurd), with an intricate process of blending, freezing and frying. 

In true Cantonese cuisine, no meal is considered complete without noodles, and for our next dish, the humble noodle was combined with exquisite Brittany Lobster for a very unique twist.  To prepare his Tan Tan Noodle in Lobster Bisque Topped with Brittany Lobster, Chef Bill first removes the lobster meat and then bakes the shell with other select ingredients for two hours. The stock is a mixture of lobster shell, Chinese spices, cinnamon, brandy, and lobster roe which is then cooked for three hours, before being carefully hand-blended with a vegetable and tomato stock. 

This meticulous cooking method brings out the full taste of the ingredients, and harmoniously pairs the worlds of French and Chinese cuisine. The dish is topped off with a freshly steamed lobster claw, which is only placed on top of the noodles right before the dish is served, to retain maximum moisture. 

Finally for dessert, we indulged in a sweet Fresh Fig Stuffed with Blueberry Puree – seemingly so simple, but beautifully presented and a lovely sweet and refreshing way to end the meal.

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