French dining at Mandarin Oriental
Sébastien Bras is bringing a taste of Aubrac to Le Normandie
L
egendary French restaurant Le Normandie at Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok welcomes once again Michelin three- starred French chef Sébastien Bras, who will showcase his illustrious cuisine in the City of Angels from Dec 12-17. Bras is the executive chef of his family- run Relais & Chateaux
Le Suquet Sébastien Bras hotel near the village of Laguiole on the Aubrac plateau, southern France. A member of the fourth generation of the family, he took over the business after graduating from the Institut Bocuse in Lyon and garnering experiences with worldfamous cooking maestros such as Michel Guerard and Pierre Gagnaire.
Bras’ culinary aim is simple. He wants to show his guests “les bonnes choses” (the good things) and to have them aware of nature and the importance of respecting and preserving the environment. With a white dinner plate as a canvas for his food, he takes pleasure in creating different culinary combinations that bring surprise and joy. His cuisine rests on the perfection of the ingredients from the best sources. His food, as he describes, centres around “Nature, the season and the particularly good catch that morning. The perfect maturity of a vegetable that just makes you want to bite into it. Or a ripe fruit laden with sugar, ready to be plucked from the tree. A basket of wild mushrooms unearthed by chance and immediacy”. For epicureans in Bangkok, chef Bras, who returns to Le Normandie restaurant after his last visit in 2010, will present a selection of degustation menus paired with a selection of fine French wines. The special multi- course menus are available for both lunch and dinner.
Dishes include le gargouillou of young vegetables, herbs and sprouting grains dressed with toasted sesame- seed oil; scallops rolled à la plancha ; charcoal- roasted lamb rack with napa cabbage and lacto- fermented leaves with pan-fr ied girolle mushrooms ; pan- fried turbot fillet with whey butter; prime Aubrac beef; vegetable spaghetti with black truffle, Tomme cheese and niaced scented with reduction of meat juice; and duck foie gras with Madagascar black peppercorn. Prices are 5,297 baht net per person for a 7-course lunch and 9,887 baht net per person for 9-course dinner. An exclusive 9- course wine dinner is to be held on Saturday, Dec 17, and costs 15,184 baht net per person.
For more information, call the Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok at 02- 659-9000.