French chef shows off skills on edge of Forbidden City
He once cooked up a storm in St. Tropez, the French seaside holiday resort, with all its glitterati, and later served the patrons of one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, a stone’s throw from the River Seine and the Champs-Elyees, with all its glitter.
But while the surroundings of his new workplace in Beijing may not have quite the sparkle of grand European cities and their waterways, it has its dyed gold left all over the place by fallen ginkgo leaves. And across from the moat in Donghuamen where the restaurant is located is a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) gate of the Forbidden City.
Thus French chef Johnny Pham may well feel at home, and more importantly, these are the kinds of surroundings likely to appeal to any diner at TRB Forbidden City, which opened nine months ago.
The restaurant belongs to a group that also runs TRB Hutong, which opened in 2011, and was rated No 1 among the best fine-dining restaurants in China in TripAdvisor’s travelers’ choice this year.
TRB Forbidden City is anything but forbidding. The exterior has a warm, welcoming appearance with its understated colors of white and brown, lit up by golden window sills.
Inside, the table linen also shines, and one is struck by how waiters appear to go out of their way to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Pham, who’s of Vietnamese origin, hails from Lyon, another grand water city, where he attended culinary school, before working at Cheval Blanc Courchevel in Courchevel, in the French Alps; La Residence de la Pinede in St. Tropez and Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris — all of which have been awarded three Michelin stars.
Starters at TRB are warm and rich.
A box of bread served as an entree has loaves that are soft and warm. Another course comprises truffleonion puree that is shaped like fortune cookies. And the cheese puffs with a crispy outer layer and creamy inside are shaped into little gourds.
“Most of the flavor is derived from my experience,” says Pham, who became executive chef of TRB about two years ago, before taking control of both restaurants seven months ago.
The key elements of the cuisine are simplicity and revealing the original flavor of the ingredients, he says.
For example, the lobster is gently roasted in butter, potato and celeriac, and ingredients are applied moderately so as to accentuate the flavor of the lobster rather than diminish it.
At the same time, Pham says, attention needs to be paid to balancing flavors. Traditional French food tends to be very heavy, and everything is cooked for a long time with a lot of cream and butter, he says.
So, he wants to present traditional flavor and present contrasts with a light sauce — or the reverse, a light garnish with a strong sauce — to make diners feel gratifyingly full but not too heavy after eating.
With his arrangement, the grated lemon rind on the lobster adds a bit of freshness.
Pham says he constantly looks to come up with something new in his cooking, incorporating elements and inspiration accumulated from encounters with different food cultures and heritages.
What he learned in his hometown is critical to what he has learned and works with, he says. Crayfish is very popular in Lyon, and well known in the rest of France. He is surprised to see Chinese people’s passion for it, especially after he tasted crayfish with a lot of chili on Guijie street in Beijing.
It is obvious, then, that crayfish can be used in a course that appeals to both Chinese and non-Chinese tastes, he says.
The restaurants change their menu every two months according to season and local tastes, Pham says.
“Right from the cuisine we serve, we are constantly finding new angles and approaches to delight our guests.”
TRB says it will open a cafe named Hulu early next year that will be in the Sanlitun area of Beijing where it will serve comfort food and sharing dishes in a casual yet contemporary ambience.