emmanuel stroobant. one of tv's most famous celebrity chefs. i'm sure most of you recognize his face from his uber cool "chef in black" series, where he takes local cuisine and gives it a fantastic personal, high end twist. from charsiew/roast pork to bak chor mee, this guy knows how to keep his readers glued to the tv (that plus the chicks, including my dinner date l, think he's like mega sexy). i keep saying it's because of his blond hair, just so i can console myself. i think i need to get me some of that. i am never going to bring another chick to this place again. they swoon over the chef more than their dinner date. NOT cool emmanuel. not cool.given that i was already annoyed (as aforementioned), i decided i was going to use it as an excuse to diss his food (insert evil conspiring thoughts here). but honestly, there wasn't really much i could diss about. i enjoyed it, at least definitely much more than jaan. i'd be hard pressed to say it's as good as iggy's, but it's definitely different. it has it's own french flair to it, and a slightly more personal, comforting touch as compared to iggy's. wine and dine 2009 gave it 2 stars (out of a max of 3), which in itself is very prestigious. additionally, they are the only restaurant in singapore to be accepted into the relais & chateaux fold in 2008. st pierre first opened in 2001, and it has seemed to doing just as well. the chef-owner is emmanuel, but the head chef who does the day to day cooking is paul frogatt. apparently emmanuel is there on most days to oversee the cooking, and he was that day. he came out and chatted for awhile with the guests during the course of the dinner.
the cheese tray - for the cheese supplement, you pick 3-4 different cheeses and they'll cut out a portion for your on the spot, served with mixed dried fruit, bread, and biscuits
l and i both got the menu degustation, which is $118 per person (compared to jaan at $240 and iggy's at $195). as usual, if you decide to have the degustation menu, the whole table needs to take it. in addition, we got one order of the foie gras supplement ($14), and one order of the cheese supplement ($15). both were excellent choices. the cheese supplement can definitely be shared by two people, whereas if you're really into foie gras, which l was not, you might want to consider getting one each. because it is really good.
foie gras supplement - served with caramelized green apples and port saucewe started off with a mushroom soup in a tiny tea cup. it was veryy good. the soup was thick and creamy, with the perfectly viscous consistency and very tantilising aromas. the standard amuse bouche of beef carparcio, salmon and ebi tempura. it was pretty good. after that came out the cherry soup with mousse. all were good.
next we had the tuna loin with tomato confit, black olive crumble, fresh green bean salad and tomato jelly. the tuna was soft and tender, but lacked the flair of the blue fin tuna at iggys. still good nonetheless though.
after that came the escargot with soft boiled egg and pea puree. this one was good. i thoroughly enjoyed this dish very much. the egg was cooked soft boiled so that the yolk was runny, and it went will with the foamy pea puree and perfectly cooked escargot. this was probably one of my favourite dishes of the night.
out next was a tiny tart, with foie gras and peach compote, with riesling jelly. l totally loved this, but i thought it was abit to sweet and i could hardly taste any foie gras. and way too small.
the foie gras supplement came next though (as pictured above), and wow was it good. the foie gras supplement that you get is actually the "foie gras classic" that you can order as a starter. the foie gras served with cameralized green apples and port sauce, along with the peach tart thingy at the side went together in perfect harmony. the foie gras is supposed to be their speciality here, and boy was it wonderful. for those foie gras fans out there, you need to get the supplement!
next out came the cod with razor clams. the cod was very soft and tender, and not flaky. very well cooked. the razor clams (like bamboo clams) came with butter and cheese smothered on top of it. delicious.
poached duck breast with marbles of mixed vegetables the mains were next. l had the duck breast, and i had the pork loin. the duck breast was very soft and tender. good restaurants have a way of doing duck breasts that makes it just taste so good. i have no idea how they do it without making it dry. l thought her duck breast was ok but i thought it was really good.
my pork loin was pretty good. not fantastic, but good nonetheless. pretty tender and still juicy, it was served fresh and without the complications of too many sauces or other ingredients.
out next was the cheese platter. probably the most fun dish of the night. he had a whole tray of cheese to choose from, and asked which ones we would like. we could get up to choices. i told him to get us 1 really strong one, which was actually kept in a cover because it smells so pungent, blue cheese (which was my fav) and two others that he recommended. all 4 were soft cheeses as that's what l and i both liked. i liked the blue cheese most. it was really nice, cheesy, pungent and salty. it went really well with the crackers that were provided. it came with a bunch of dried fruit and bread too. the portion was actually quite large for a degustation menu. we both enjoyed this tremendously.
last was the desserts. the first dessert was the meringue with strawberry marmalade and strawberry sorbet. all i can say was that it was insanely sweet. i don't have a huge sweet tooth, so this was way too sweet for me. but l does have a sweet tooth and even she thought it was way too sweet!
the second dessert and last course of the night was the iced cheese cake with tomato jam, white peach sorbet and maple syrup. it wasn't as sweet as the previous. but still really sweet. if you really like sweet stuff, you'll love the desserts here. but make sure you really really like it super sweet, because that's exactly what it was.
overall, i think the food is pretty good. i wouldn't say it's fantastic, but i think it's still very good. what really left an impression was the foie gras and the escargot. i defintely wouldn't mind coming back for the foie gras and some of the regular mains.
overall degustation menu score: 8/10
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