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1. •  
     CommentAuthordawn (CommentTimeApr 26th 2008 edited)

    
   Okie I'll start first...I had the privilege of sampling Chef Marco Sacco's cuisine at Domvs yesterday! I must say his cooking is on par (possibly even better than) Michel Roux of the Waterside Inn at Bray, but perhaps it's because I haven't tried the latter's dinner degustation menu.
   
   Marco Sacco should really be a 3 michelin-starred chef. 2 stars for his home restaurant Piccolo Lago in Italy really doesn't do him justice. He's a real genius at cooking! He really has the mark of a Michelin-starred chef-his food is super-refined, innovative and very tasty. I sampled Spaniard Ramon Frexia's food at Dolce Vita's the other day, but for some reason, his food didn't seem as good to me...I suppose it's because he likes to jolt people out of their comfort zone by mixing his flavours rather jarringly to the tastebuds. For e.g., on the dishes I sampled, Frexia frequently liked to mix very salty, and very sweet ingredients together. But I see no point in doing that...even though some of it was very creative, because as a whole, it didn't add to the taste. You only try to mix and match things like that if the flavours complement each other.
   
   Food by Marco Sacco, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish altogether (pun not really intended). His mastery of how flavours blend together is absolutely mind-boggling. For e.g., on our degustation menu last night, we had the pasta filled with potato and cured meat chips. People normally complain that pasta's too heavy, too overwhelming (and perhaps salty) on its own.
   
   To take the intensity off the taste, Marco Sacco artfully blended a few light, fluffy little beetroot pieces into the pasta. It added a certain sweetness to the dish, and made it oh-so-refreshing and tasty. Now, THAT'S how you combine opposite flavours together, not just for the sake of shocking people, otherwise it all comes out disjointed.
   
   Another dish that I was completely bowled over by was his excellent Bettelmatt cheese flan. There's a picture of this dish in the Life section of today's Straits Times. If you wish to check out pictures of his food in greater detail, go to http://www.piccololago.it/ricette2.html. There's a beautiful picture of the cheese flan, and trust me, it tastes far better than it looks, though of course, even the looks are great. :) And I have never tasted Carbonara like his!!! The presentation was stupendously artful too...he served the cream sauce (which you pour over the pasta) in a half-egg shell on the side, with a sliver of milk sugar! The carbonara was so light and delicious I felt a heady burst of pleasure with every mouthful! Argh, how will I ever get used to Pasta Fresca ever again??! I am spoilt for life...haha...
   
   The tiramisu was wonderful; it got better and better with every spoonful..he must've added more sweetness in the centre, because as you delved deeper and deeper into the glass, it just tasted so good. It was liquid indulgence, delicate sweetness with every spoonful of it. The glorious smell of roasted coffee assailed my olfactory senses even as I enjoyed every mouthful of the vanilla cream. This dessert was nothing short of perfect.
   
   So, in short, here were the dishes we sampled:
   
   Degustation Menu
   
   Menu by Master Chef Marco Sacco
   
   Tartare di fassone all’aceto di lamponi, Verdure in agrodolce
   Beef tartare with raspberry vinegar, sweet and sour vegetables
   
   
   Flan di bettelmatt, mostarda di pera e mirtillo speziato
   Bettelmatt flan, spiced candied pears and spiced blueberries
   
   
   Raviolone di patate e barbabietole, Spuma di mascarpa
   Pasta filled with potato and beetroot with meat chips, veal essence
   
   
   Carbonara au coque
   Tagliolini pasta with ham, cream and egg yolk
   
   
   Crema di piselli con mantecato di luccio
   Whipped pike with cream of pea
   
   
   Maialino in doppia cottura, spuma di patate e salsa di liquirizia
   Twice- baked suckling pig, liquorice sauce
   
   
   Tiramisu’ liquido
   Liquid tiramisu, coffee & mascarpone cream
   
   
   Coffee or Tea
   Petit Fours
   
   I didn't have the wine pairing. Needless to say, there were legions of people in Domvs restaurant last night, and they were snapping pictures of every dish (must be for their food blogs) and lots of them took pictures with the maestro! A pity that was his last night in Singapore! Otherwise I might've brought my mum there...she would've been enthralled with his dishes...sigh...:)
   
   Dawn
   (Completely spellbound)

   PANERAI
2. •  
     CommentAuthorcloudgal (CommentTimeApr 26th 2008 edited)

    
   I had the full dessert course by Pierre Hermè at Mezza9 with ice. Like how I tell many ppl, for a non dessert crazy person, the desserts by this master chef completely bowled me over.
   
   List of dessert items that we had as follows:
   
   1) Assiette macarons (5 assorted macarons)
   Namely white truffles with piedmont hazelnuts, rose petal, milk chocolate and passion fruit, passionately chocolate and 3-flavored vanilla (mexican, madagascar and tahitian)
   
   2) Variation autour du marron, du fruit de la passion et du thé vert matcha
   Variation of chestnut, passion fruit and matcha green tea
   
   3) Révélation
   Puff pastry with tomato, mascarpone cream, olive oil, pieces of black olives, tomato and strawberry compote
   
   4) Crème brûlée au foie gras, compote d’airelles et poires
   Crème brûlée with foie gras, cranberries and pear compote
   
   5) Tarte mogador
   Shortcrust pastry, milk chocolate and passion fruit ganache, roasted pineapple, flourless chocolate cake
   
   6) Emotion satine
   Compote of passion fruit, seasoned orange segments, cream cheese cream, shortbread cubes
   
   7) Dessert ispahan
   i) ispahan – rose-flavoured macaron biscuit, rose petal cream with raspberries and lychees
   ii) sorbet ispahan – lychee, rose petal aromas and raspberry sorbet
   
   Am pretty lost for words in trying to describe my thoughts and feelings and experience of the desserts above. You can only try to imagine the surreal feeling I had.
   I can only say, j'aime beaucoup Pierre Hermè !!
   
   
   
   P.S. : perhaps ice can describe it better. ice? your turn...:)
3. •  
     CommentAuthorice (CommentTimeApr 26th 2008)

    
   Hur me?
   
   okie… everyone would have known by now that mua’s the dessert queen.
   
   when news broke early march that Pierre Herme’s preparing a 5-day long special dessert dinner from April 14 - 18 at the Grand Hyatt’s mezza9 for the World Gourmet Summit (WGS), I went totally delirious and no guessing…I think I was the first to make reservations for the event lol.
   
   Pierre Herme’s at my doorstep? It’s not like everyday that anybody can pay That One Holy Pilgrimage to his nectarous Mecca in Paris to savor his dazzlingly bewitching collections. So instead of fantasizing myself silly frittering over those gloriously delish pastries over the computer screen, of coz I just had to grab this chance! With The Cloud of coz.
   
   Well, all said, I enjoyed every single item and its intricate details that night right down to the last polysaccharide. My favorite’s got to be the Emotion Satine (as described above) and the macarons especially the white truffle and the 3-flavored vanilla ones. Canele and Bakerzin should really hang their heads in shame for replicating Pierre Herme’s macaron creations. Imagine rich chocolate ganache in between dense pastry shells…so lusciously chewy, crisp and rich! Those are his macarons!! White truffle? Put ganache and the essence of the coveted fungi together and you get…E.U.P.H.O.R.I.A.
   
   Yups… then I was burping foie gras the whole nite. keke
   
   Now…don’t be painfully desirous of my dessert affair…just pop here for more epicurean pleasures and hedonic thrills.
   
   Oh…btw all other desserts seem so juvenile now…
   
   
   oh! and I can't imagine how anyone can complain about spending $15 on dessert at that 2am place...when I spent close to $100 on desserts alone in one sitting! and I'm not complaining....