French Grand Cru Classé Wine Dinner 2013, Panorama Restaurant, Crowne Plaza Bangkok

Delicately designed by the Executive Chef, Mr. Jeremy Lasserre, and the Chef de Cuisine, Mr. Matt Dowdell, the special 14-course French Grand Cru Classé Wine Dinner will be hosted on 25 and 26 October 2013, at 19:00 hours at Panorama Restaurant, Crown Plaza Bangkok. To enhance the whole dining experience, each course will be paired with exquisite French Cruz Classé wines. It was our pleasure to join their press conference and experienced the essence and unique creativity of this special wine dinner.

All scrumptious cuisines comprise three prominent elements – colour, aroma and flavour. The creativity expressed in this special wine dinner shows a shrewd attempt to intermingle these three elements in each course, aiming to bring diners surprising sense of taste. Each dining table was decorated with an eye-catching display of colourful flowers and rocks, stimulating a sense of elegant dining at the table. After the generous serving of the 2010 Domain Michel Thomas, Sancerre, our first course was served.

The first course served was the Hokkaido scallop Carpaccio with passion fruit and kumquat. It was a nice starter by manipulating the aroma and unique flavours of kumquat and passion fruit to bring out the freshness of scallop. Right after this first palatable course, we were then served with Canadian lobster and tofu in dashi.

The next courses – steamed spotted red grouper inspired by Hong Kong and Japanese black cod & caramelized, were marvellously paired with 2011 Domain Blondelet, Pouillu-Fumé. It did go well with these courses. I was impressed by the gimmick of presenting the steamed fish in a traditional Hong Kong-styled dim-sum basket. The Japanese black cod was a good expression of ‘East meets West’, the caramelized pineapple satisfyingly brought out the taste of the cod fish.

After enjoying seafood courses, we were served with 2007 Château Lafleur Laroza, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, which was brilliantly paired with our main courses – hot and cold foie gras served with pistachio and plum. This course was very luscious. The pan-seared foie gras was aromatic while the cold foie gras was so creamy that it smelted in the mouth satisfactorily. The sweetness of the plum was just right to blend with the foie gras. It was yummy.

After finishing this course, we were surprised again by the hot plate of grassy herbs that was brought to our table. What was it? It was brought to us for the sole purpose of stimulating our sense of smell for the next course, the ballotine of goose accompanied by aromas of the north woods. Such attempt of trying to involve all senses in dining was impressive.

This wine dinner gave another surprise when the dessert was served. No one had noticed that the dessert was actually placed on our table since the very beginning. The colourful decoration of flowers and rocks was, in fact, our dessert. The rocks weren’t rocks, every piece of them was the toothsome dessert made with coconut, strawberry and pandan. Such amazement ended our dining experience with joy.

We were impressed by the creativity of the Chefs. Although we experienced half of the full course dinner, it was full of excitement and surprises. Credits should be given to the innovative and talented chefs:

To enjoy the full 14-course wine dinner at Panorama, please call 02-632-9000 or email at info-cpbkk@ihg.com for reservation.

Dinner price is THB 3,999 ++. 20% discount will be given for reservations made before October 15, 2013.

Like Gourmet Bangkok on Facebook: Gourmet Bangkok
Follow us on Twitter: Follow @Gourmet_Bangkok
Follow us on Pinterst: gourmetbangkok
Follow us on Instagram: gourmetbangkok