Furs, Feathers & Iode– Wild Game Tasting Menu by 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 2022.
The menu begins with Premices (“the beginning of good things”) of Bouchee de Pithivier (mini-pithivier) made with fur animals of baby deer and hare, served alongside a tartine of homemade grouse and bonito ham. 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 Wild Birds that feature in a Pate En Seiche with foie gras and chilli pepper confiture, wrapped with an outer layer of Cuttlefish. The Pheasant, a long-tailed chicken-like bird with a small head and plump body, and Galinette, otherwise known as the bottom-dwelling Red Gurnard fish with their distinctively large heads and eyes, are combined for a traditional French galantine wrapped in their own skin and served with clarified jelly of pheasant and galinette carcass and white truffles.
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 legs and mushroom tart. Kinki, a highly prestigious fish in Japanese cuisine otherwise known as the red jewel of the sea, is stuffed with Bambi (red deer) fillet, and is served with beurre blanc white chocolate sauce and smoked caviar.
Grouse, a small, heavily-built, and tender dark-meat game bird, is prepared like a bourguignon with honey and fermented red plum. The dish is served with Paimpol coco bean custard infused with smoked eel. Based on Chef Maxime’s famous classic hare ‘a la royale’, Wild Duck ‘a la Royale’ is slow-cooked to perfection using rich-flavoured canard, with live creamy sea urchin, gorgonzola agnolotti, and sabayon. Legend has it that the original 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.
Local pastry chef talent Cyrus Yan presents his signature modern twists on Écriture’s seasonal dessert creations. The Quince is a refreshing palate cleanser created with fresh seasonal quince sorbet and compote, and a sweet beetroot salad. This is followed by the aromatic Hazelnut dessert, uniquely created as a souffle-in-tart with pear sorbet and shavings of Alba white truffle.
The Furs, Feathers, & Iode menu is priced at HK$2,880 + 10% per guest and full menu is as below:
Furs, Feathers, Iode 2021
HK$2,880+10%
Premices
Mini pithivier, tartine de jambon de grouse et bonite, consommé gras aux copeaux de “Bambi-Bushi”
“Pate en seiche”
Wild birds, foie gras, chilli pepper confiture
Pheasant and Galinette
Galantine, carcass jelly, lovage cream, white truffle
Partridge
Dry-aged in butter, oven roasted, carved ‘a la volee’ smoked with fresh herbs, mushrooms tart on confit legs
Kinki/Bambi
Whole grilled fish stuffed with bambi fillet, beurre blanc white chocolate sauce, smoked caviar
Grouse
Cooked like a bourguignon with honey, fermented red plum, Paimpol coco bean custard infused with smoked eel
Wild Duck
A la royale, sea urchin, gorgonzola agnolotti, sabayon
Quince
Sorbet and compote, beetroot salad
Hazelnut
Souffle in tart, pear sorbet, white truffle
For reservations or bookings, please call 2795-5996 or email to ecriture@lecomptoir.hk.