Signature Tasting Menu at Azur by Mauro Colagreco - Shangri-La Hotel, Beijing.

The name world’s number 1 restaurant, Mirazur by Mauro Colagreco, when loosely translated, means  “look at the blue” from a certain perspective, with its restaurant affording guests views of the azure colored waters of the French Riviera. It’s sister restaurant, Azur by Mauro Colagreco, located at the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing, cannot boast that mesmerizing location, but what it can do is evoke the sentiment and power of that colour. As you walk into the restaurant, azure is used very tastefully and subtly. The iconic chandeliers, themselves shaped like a wave remind me of the waters with flashes of azure completing the illusion - blue chandeliers would have been too overwhelmingly obvious and garish. 

However, Mauro Colagreco’s influence at Azur is most strongly and fittingly felt in the menu with several dishes taken from the menu at Mirazur. As I am seated and shown the restaurant’s Signature Tasting Menu, I cannot help but feel a tranquility permeating me,  a similar sensation to what I would feel were azure coloured waters to wash over me - my carefree imagination suggests.  Maybe it is the jazz in the background or the familiar warm Shangri-la greeting, but it I feel something alluring about this day. 

A sip of champagne works its magic while I have a chat with Chef Deepak Bhattari who runs the Azur kitchen. It is a brief hello and welcome and then he makes his way to the kitchen. Another sip of champagne when a short while later...

An espresso cup is brought but this is not espresso. It looks like a cappuccino but this is not a cappuccino. It is one two amuse bouches and the most noteworthy. You would be forgiven for thinking it is indeed a cappuccino. This is mushroom soup, with a rich foam and dried bits of mushroom sprinkled on top, creating the illusion of a small cappuccino. A sip reveals how flavoursome it is. It is hot, like soup should be. It needs to be sipped slowly. The only thing missing is a teaspoon to complete the illusion - I want to scoop out the remaining foam. A warm start. 

Warm, double-fermented bread, based on a recipe by Colagreco’s grandmother, is also served, complete with  a poem by famed Chilean poet, Pablo Naruda in which he espouses the virtues of bread, something so simple yet so beautiful and rich in metaphor. As a Literature man myself, I love this. I have long felt a strong connection between the word and the plate, and it sets the mood for the afternoon. The poem ends thus:

Everything

Exists to be shared,

To be freely given,

 To multiply...

Then

Life itself

Will have the shape of

Bread,

Deep and simple,

Immeasurable and pure. 

Restaurant manager Chaney walks over to my table with the first dish of the 7 course menu - Gillardeau Oyster .An oversized plate containing a single oyster is placed in front of me. There is a visual purity about it, notwithstanding the fact that it shares the plate with several other ingredients. It is important that this visual innocence is maintained to a large extent in flavour. Keeping the integrity of a beautiful gillardeau oyster is not easy because it is so easy to overpower it when getting creative with it. As the dish is introduced, I bear this in mind. The pear, the humble pear, takes center stage with the oyster. Tapioca pearls cooked in pear juice, pear gelee,  fresh pear balls and 3 blue flowers adorn the dish, but that is not all.  A thin slice of William pear catches the eye as it perches on shallot cream. Finally, pear water is poured in the dish, to hold everything together and also serve to remind us of the origins of the oyster - the sea. 

The key for me is the subtlety of that pear water because you would like to have a finer balance between the sea saltiness of the oyster, the sweet-saltiness of the shallots and the sweetness of the pear...it works. Absolutely wonderful. Texturally too it is a marvelous dish, with the voluptuous chewiness of the oyster, crunchiness of the pear balls and almost elastic texture of the tapioca pearls coming together in my mouth. You know, as I write this, I wish I had savored even more every bite I took of this dish! Incidentally, this dish has been on the Mirazur menu for the last 12 years or so. It is not hard to see why. 

The second course is as French as film making -  Duck liver terrine. It is served with date confit, lemon gel and basil brioche. It is the use of dates that catch my eye, serving as a reminder of the influence of the Mediterranean in some dishes. I am indeed intrigued because dates can be very sweet. However, the lemon gel is a perfect foil for the dates and along with the delightful brioche, they cut through the fat of the duck liver. Finally, the choice of dates works so well texturally because they can be chewy and this allows the dish to check the textural box too. 

In anticipation of the next curse, Chany de-crumbs my table. I love it when this is done not just as a routine before dessert but as a need arises. Also, it really creates that feeling of fine ness - after all, you do not drop a considerable amount of money  for a regular dining experience. We live in what I call a microwave culture where everything is quick and easy and we have forgotten what it is like to stop, stare and appreciate certain things. 

My musings are cut short as the third course is served - Poultry veloute. It is a dish that jumps at the senses with its Winter connotations. Crayfish is an exquisite flamed orange color and evokes a fireplace and I am the one sitting around it, gleefully rubbing my hands to get them warm. As the classic French sauce is poured, owing to its buttery colour, the striking contrast with the crayfish is driven home again. Reading the menu, it is easy to assume it is a dish of strong flavours. Onion petals and madras curry feed that sense. However, it is anything but a dish of overpowering tastes. Delicate. Chantilly cream adds smoothness and creaminess texturally, while tapioca features here too to provide texture without interfering in balance of flavours. Madras curry, usually known for its deep spicy element, has been employed rather smartly to bring that rich color to the crayfish without overwhelming it with its essence. Delicate. It is a dish that surprises in that the resulting palate is one of subtlety and surprise - one of my dishes of the day. 

After this dish, I find myself exhausted. I think dishes can have that impact when there is this emotional connection and it becomes more than just eating. Have you had this experience where you know  a meal is anything but functional and with every delightful bite, you get drawn more and more into it? I ask staff if I could have a short break and I make my way over to the restaurant’s bar and continue to sip on a glass of Veuve Clicquot NV Brut, my chosen drink for the day. Although there is a suggested wine pairing on the menu, I feel that champagne with its all round virtues is appropriate for today’s tasting journey. 

If the Chicken veloute was complex on numerous fonts, the Turbot has a simplicity. No, simple is in no way disparaging. I recall my English teacher’s words when I was 14: The essence of beauty is simplicity. The turbot is served with sautéed spinach and celeriac purée in a smoked clam jus. It is a dish that I enjoy even before I start eating it because its welcoming smokiness is immediately arresting. Taste? Oh that clam jus is inescapable and the celeriac is just the ideal accomplice in ensuring a balanced dish without anything causing dissonance. That is also reflected in the colours of this dish, with the spinach not immediately obvious. With temperatures in the mid teens during the day in Beijing right now, this is just what the heart and soul needs. Fantastic! 

As I sip on a glass of red in anticipation of my main course, I study the menu again and reflect on how bold it is to serve Pastrami instead of a strip loin or any  - the restaurant, incidentally, does have some excellent steaks on its regular menu, with a couple of beautifully marbled offerings. Your average guest, when she/he hears ‘pastrami’, thinks sandwich right? So, I am quite enthralled to see why this has made it to the menu. 

It is a pretty looking dish, with the word ‘freshness’ coming to mind again. Chef Mauro’s principle that runs through Mirazur is that of freshness. In Chef Deepak’s Pastrami, you get a dish where the plate supports the notion of freshness. Accompanying an indulgent red cabbage  and blueberry purée,  is a cauliflower and fresh truffle salad. All dishes up to this point, bar the Turbot, have that element of freshness on the plate. 

The pastrami? I can see why Chef has included this on the menu. When a chef serves the strip loin alluded to earlier, it is hard to mess it up, right? For instance, a piece of Miyazaki beef is excellent because of its inherent qualities and does not allow a chef to really show off his skills, with respect. Shoot the cow. Cut it. Wash it. Throw it on the fire. Stick in a thermometer and add some rock salt. Not every complicated, but when you prepare something as time consuming and challenging as pastrami, I believe you really are able to highlight your skills. 

My knife glides through the pastrami - it is unbelievably tender. The M5 wagyu used, I am told, had been slow cooked for 36 hours and this excludes the time used to season and smoke it.  Together with the other ingredients on the plate, this turns out to be a fabulous dish for its depth and variety of flavour. Brillaint!

I am often quite loathe to try dessert after an outstanding dish, simply because I want the taste to linger, linger and linger. The earthiness of the truffle and mild sourness in the red cabbage and blueberry plus the layered flavours of the pastrami have me in a most contented state, but the promise of two very different chocolate based desserts manage to force me to revisit that philosophy. 

I must confess that as the first is brought to the table, I am somewhat underwhelmed. The  Chocolate rosemary is not eye catching at all, although I must say, I cannot wait to explore the rosemary theme of this dessert and that keeps me excited. On the menu, it reads: Chocolate cremoso, olive oil and rosemary ice cream. 

Dried rosemary is sprinkled on a chocolate blanket which in turn covers rosemary ice cream. But that is the half of it. As I break up the dessert, olive oil creates a golden yellow river that gently runs through - sadly not captured on camera as I was too concerned with, well, eating it. The colour contrast is majestic and like a river that has the power to bring together everything it passes through, the olive oil does just that. Textures of chocolate surprise as chocolate biscuit brings a surprising crunch on one of my bites. 

It is a dessert that is perfect for Winter. I kept thinking of myself in a forest as I looked a the rosemary powder on the brown chocolate. Actually, more like Autumn, with the running olive oil recalling Keats in "Ode to Autumn". I am reminded how fraught with trouble the moment is when one judges a dish by what is immediately visible to the naked eye for just like a forest holds a lot of the unknown as one waits to enter it, the Chocolate rosemary is wrapped in its own mystery. I want this again and soon.

Finally, I return to the known ... a final dessert that will always remind me of Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina when she tries but fails to bake the perfect soufflé and we hear the cause of her failure:

A woman happily in love,

She burns the soufflé. 

A woman unhappily in love,

She forgets to turn on the oven.

Today, the pastry chef has not shown where she stands in the realm of love, but her creation turns out to be perfect. Not in love? Be that as it may, it is a fitting way to end the tasting menu, I believe -  A soufflé. It has risen beautifully and hits the right textural and indeed sweet notes. The latter is achieved thanks to 72% Valrhona chocolate. Nice. Served with vanilla ice a cream, what more could I want when a journey that began almost three hours earlier ends not with a whimper, to contradict Eliot, but with a bang. 

On reflection, there is always a bitter sweetness when a journey ends, regardless of the nature of that journey. A painful journey which ends and brings relief will always leave an emotional void afterwards. On the contrary, a joyful journey full of Canon 'kiss' moments will leave an emptiness when it ends because after that high must come a plateau. When my culinary journey ended, I too experienced mixed emotions. Why did it have to end was my main cry! Each dish had a narrative all its own and and trying to decide that narrative made the journey  a noteworthy one. Yes, sometimes we over analyze when we look at a dish, it is true, but this tasting menu allowed me to find a balance between that deconstruction and also simply closing my eyes and doing what children do - eating. 

Finally, Chef Deepak is a fine exponent of what Mauro Colagreco has set out to do in adding his name to this restaurant - returning us to the elements and creating dishes which while visually engaging, layered with texture and flavour, speak to the heart.  

This seasonal tasting menu, a celebration of Winter, will do more than just satisfy at a physical level. It will serve to thaw any spiritual or emotional ice that has formed around your heart for whatever reason and call on you to celebrate being alive in spite of that cold.  I know I am. 

Azur by Mauro Colagreco

Shangri-La Hotel,

Beijing

86 10 8882 6727

Signature Tasting Menu

5 courses 939RMB incl tax

7 courses 1 158RMB incl tax

Brandon Stoltenkamp

I: bmstoltenkamp