Three-Star French Chef cooks at the Hong Kong Jockey Club
Christophe Muller, the chef at the Michelin 3-star Paul Bocuse in Lyon, is cooking at the Hong Kong Jockey Club for two weeks. We went for lunch.
The venue is Derby Restaurant in the Jockey Club's Happy Valley Clubhouse. It is their top restaurant. All wood panels and widely set tables, the service is excellent. As soon as we sat down, Teresa saw a famous wine writer in Hong Kong. He now runs luxury wine tours. We chatted for a long time.
We both chose a foie gras first course. Teresa's is a custard with yabbies and herb butter. I had an duck foie gras aspic "Alexandre Dumaine". The foie gras taste is more intense in the aspic but the custard was simply heavenly. Teresa especially liked the melding of flavors in the wine sauce.
I went all Guigal for the wines by the glass, a 2003 Hermitage white and the 2003 Chateauneuf-de-Pape. I still have a couple of the latter at home but I just love the white. The waiter was surprisingly knowledgeable, saying that Guigal's Chateauneuf is not estate. I told him I have been to Guigal's home.
For the main course we had a fricassee of Bresse chicken and olive-encrusted lamb loin. Although the lamb loin was supposed to come with saffron risotto, it was more like a layer of polenta. Three cylinders of lamb loin, about an inch in diameter and 1.5 inches in height were intensely flavored and cooked medium rare. The Chateauneuf was a very good match indeed. The fricassee of chicken had a breast portion and a leg portion. Though obviously frozen previously, the chicken tasted fresh. I thought the leg portion was more flavorful. But the tarragon came through mostly in the risotto.
As we were finishing, the chef came out and greeted each table, had photos taken and signed the menu. We had a nice conversation. I said I had come all the way from Los Angeles to eat his lunch, which is partly true. Teresa asked Muller whether he had been to the USA and he said he is waiting for his kids to be older to appreciate Disneyland!
The two-course lunch was HK$418 (US$54) and the wines were HK$130 (US$17) a glass. Members tip annually and not at each meal.
I looked at the cellar at Derby and just about everything worth having is there. I just want the bottles of Chave.