2-MICHELIN-Starred Ecriture unveils seasonal << Furs, Feathers & Iode 2020>> menu by Executive Chef Maxime Gilbert

With hunting season in full swing, Chef Maxime and his team have prepared a series of exquisite game dishes for the Furs, Feathers & Iode menu available now until early January 2021.

The menu begins with Premices (“the beginning of good things”) of Bouchee de Pithivier made with fur animals of baby deer and hare, served alongside homemade grouse and bonito ham on homemade brioche with XO sauce. This is served together with a doe consommé, which is made into a dashi by infusing with foie gras, and finished with shaved “bambi-bushi” – a play on the Japanese katsuobushi.

Dishes that follow feature the season’s best game meats, including Grouse, a small, heavily-built, and tender dark-meat game bird, and Galinette, otherwise known as the bottom-dwelling Red Gurnard fish with their distinctively large heads and eyes. Chef Maxime’s dish is a traditional French galantine of galinette and grouse, wrapped in their own skin and served with herbaceous lovage cream, clarified jelly of grouse and pheasant carcass, and white truffles.

Hagatsuo (bonito) is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family. Chef Maxime prepares the Hagatsuo from Nagasaki, Japan, by simply cooking over a charcoal grill on the bone and finishing with grouse sauce and whisky over shavings of lime and lemon zest.

The delicate Partridge is a medium-sized game bird with a light and finely-textured meat. This year, the partridge has been dry aged in butter over twelve days, oven-roasted, then carved “a la volee” with smoked herbs, confit Chasselas grape, kabu puree, and ceps mushroom.

Yari Ika, or the Japanese spear squid, is mainly caught wild with nets or lines in winter and spring off the shores of Aomori, Hokkaido, Ibaragi, Mie, Aichi, and Yamaguchi prefectures. The texture of their skin is thin, yet soft and sweet, and are among the most popular seafood delicacies in Japan. At Ecriture, Chef Maxime prepares the Yari Ika by stuffing it with a medley of feather animal game meats including grouse, pheasant, and duck, before grilling on a barbecue and pairing with charred and burnt bell pepper condiment.

The young female Doe is known for its slightly leaner and gently flavoured meat, pairing well with the flavours of the highly versatile seasonal root vegetable, celeriac. The doe has been cooked ‘au sautoir’, swimming in a fondue of salsify and spinach, celeriac emulsion, and with a generous topping of caviar.

The Hare’s red meat is distinctly gamey in flavour, appealing to the most ardent of wild game lovers. Chef Maxime’s beloved signature Hare a la Ecriture makes a comeback this year, cooked “a la goutte de sang” with live creamy Japanese sea urchin and gorgonzola agnolotti. Upon slicing into the hare that is served inside the hand-caught French sea urchin, guests will find smoked eel and foie gras nestled inside. Legend has it that Hare a la Royale was first invented for King Louis XIV, who loved the gamy meat but had no teeth left, thus requiring the meat to be cooked long and slow enough that it became tender enough to savour with a spoon.

Locally-born pastry chef talents Tia Cheung and Cyrus Yan present their signature modern twists on Écriture’s seasonal dessert creations. The Quince is a refreshing palate cleanser created with fresh quince sorbet and compote, and a sweet beetroot salad. This is followed by the aromatic White Truffle Chocolate dessert, made with yeast ice cream, white chocolate, sake lees ganache, caramelized koji, white feuillantine, and shavings of Alba white truffle.

The Furs, Feathers, & Iode menu is priced at HK$2,888 + 10% per guest, with an additional HK$4,000 for an exceptional top of the range sommelier-curated wine pairing by Restaurant Director, Marc Antoine Compper.