Our fourth course was hake poached in butter fondue with cod tripe, garnished with ginger and onion gratin. Hake is a white fish belonging to cod family. Its taste is similar to cod with a softer flesh. Once again, the fish was poached at the perfect temperature with the perfect cooking time.

Poached hake in butter fondue Cod tripe with Ginger and onion	Green peas ice with fresh mint Fried artichoke in Bombay curry / Tomato water

Our fifth course was fried artichoke in Bombay curry along with green pea ice with fresh mint served on a spoon. The yellowish semi-transparent foam was very interesting. It had a strong tomato taste, but without the usual tomato red colour. This was actually another innovation by the chef. Lycopene, which is the substance that gives tomato the red colour, is not water soluble, so a filtration process can actually eliminate it. This can give a liquid no colour, yet its natural taste remains. This invention is named Tomato Water.

The sixth and seventh courses came together, stacked one on top of the other separated by a plate. After finishing the sixth course, a thinly sliced eel with diced chorizo and mussels sandwiched in between two slices of grilled zucchini set on top of a crunchy toast, the server took away the top plate. Hidden underneath is the next course, a rabbit medallion accompanied by a round patty of pepper pâté and few tuna cubes, decorated by a triplet of moscatel and finished off with a beef broth in jelly form.

Chorizo is a Spanish sausage that is quite common in tapas bars, but it was our first time eating it with zucchini, eel and mussel. For the blue-fin tuna, chef Gagnaire applied beet juice to provide an extreme reddish colour, and hence he calls it “red” blue-fin tuna. The three muscatels, grapes that produce Muscat wine, added an extra fruity touch to this complicated dish.

Glazed eel on crunch toast Grilled zucchini / Chorizo and mussel	Beef broth with rabbit and combava leaves “Red” Blue-fin tuna / Eggplant / Pepper pâte / Moscatel

What an interesting and complex blend of so many unexpected tastes and textures in a single dish! The two-layer presentation was intriguing, but to be honest, we don’t think it serves any purpose.

Our eighth course was Veal with mace / Risotto with saffron and sorrel / Ricotta with green mango / Tamarind. Mace is a spice obtained from nutmeg flower. The dish was inventive and the veal was obviously of top quality. Nevertheless, I found that putting tamarind at the side of the dish was a bit over the top. The chef’s purpose of the using this particular ingredient was difficult to identify.