What does a 72-days-old aged meat, served in a fine dining restaurant taste like? Well, it is a magic that I experienced at Radisson Blu's Chophouse restaurant last weekend.
In a dinner organised for high-profile guests, executive chef Wissem Abdellatiff pushed the boundaries of steak by serving the meat, which in the gourmet world of meat, may be considered royalty.
The dinner was part of Chophouse's relaunch, a steakhouse that has been elevated to a fine dining restaurant.
The relaunch brought with it a completely new kitchen design, a dry ager set up right at the restaurant's entrance.
Meats in the process of ageing stand in the dry ager, like art on display. Dark-red pieces of meat are laid in the dry ager and are aged up to 72 days.
At the dinner, all dishes were served in uniquely designed plates. A plate with a head pillow design was the first to arrive. It had tuna tartare, soy and sesame emulsion with a mango and campari sphere, teriyaki reduction and tapioca crackers was served.
What looked like egg yolk turned out to be a mango sphere prepared using molecular gastronomy.
Next, we had a beetroot cured salmon, had the chef not mentioned this was salmon, I would not have known as the taste was masked. It was served in a plate that looked similar to a rock, black in colour.
The show-stopper was the flamed scallops, which were accompanied by flames, served on a glass plate with sprinkled black salt on the side. They were as delicious as they sound, flavourful and soft to the touch. “A lot went into the preparation of the relaunch. The plates were imported from Spain, brass cutlery …” said Vickie Muyanga, the regional sales director Africa at Radisson Hotel Group.
“We're now competing with developed countries when it comes to food. If you look at what we have experienced today, it is something you will also experience in Michelin-Star restaurants. I’ve travelled across Africa and not many countries are as ahead as we are here in Nairobi,” she added.
Fine dining is not just about eating good food; it is about the experience and the presentation as well.
As I sat and marvelled at the beautiful creations that came out of the open kitchen, I had a chance to chat with some diners. Being top executives, travel is part of their jobs.
While the adventurous types make sure that they eat the local food whenever they visit a country, others prefer to stick to what they know.
“I definitely count myself as an adventurous food traveller, having once tasted mopane worms in South Africa, a taste that I still remember to date-it was not delicious,” said Jeremy Awori, CEO, Barclays Bank, Kenya.
Vickie said, when out of the country, she loves going to the street to enjoy street food. “I like to find out what the city is known for and what foods re the most popular,” she said.
On what Kenya is lacking so as to stand out in the fine dining global scene, Vickie said that Kenyan chefs are eager to learn and if they cooked under the apprentice of more talented chefs, they would acquire the finesse needed.
“Hotels also need to give their staff exposure to other countries so as to eventually raise the bar in the food scene in Kenya,” she said.
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