A Life Worth Eating

Presidente Masaryk 407, México D.F., México, Official Website

Biko is a Mexican-Basque fusion restaurant in Mexico City’s posh Polanco district. Its co-chefs, Bruno Oteiza and Mikel Alonso, have the honor of bringing Biko to the Pellegrino Top 50 Best Restaurants list. Its swanky yet minimalist decor of suede chairs squeeking atop tile flooring is a bit cold and clinical — much like eating in a hallway; but the warm and very professional service compensates to make diners feel at ease and comfortable.

The dishes were purportedly a mixture of Basque and Mexican influence, but it was hard to spot the Basque component. The food seemed more like a random collection of European and pan-Asian concepts with occasional Mexican ingredients. Most of the dishes were presented quite beautifully with clever plating, but at times I got the sense that the dishes were more about style than substance. They were everything expected of a fine dining restaurant, minus the background story, passion, and at times, flavor.

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中央区日本橋室町2-1-1, Tokyo, Japan, Official Website

The 7-seat Tapas Molecular Bar in the sky lobby of the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo is the home of chef Jeff Ramsey, formerly of Minibar in Washington D.C. My first meal in 2008, while delicious, featured many of the same dishes featured at Minibar. I think a lot of this was due to the newness of the restaurant and the difficulty in finding its place. It’s no easy task to integrate new molecular techniques with traditional Japanese cuisine. However now, two years later, this restaurant has really found its niche in its surroundings and thoroughly impressed me with innovative, delicious, and really fun cuisine.

One aspect of the Molecular Bar that makes the experience so fun is its chefs. Instead of creating an environment in which interactivity is passive-aggressively shunned, chef Ramsey and his team explained the back story of each dish and how it related to Japanese culture. This was particularly crucial for the nostaligic dishes as many of the diners did not grow up in Japan. Questions were encouraged, and frankly, this in-depth understanding of the food I was eating really added another dimension to the meal’s enjoyment. Not only did I learn a tremendous amount about the food and its preparation, but I felt like I was eating a story with each course.

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港区南青山5-3-2南青山, Tokyo, Japan, Official Website

My last meal at Pierre Gagnaire, Paris was a roller coaster. Lots of ups and downs and by the end of service I was left holding on to my chair in confusion. Any great restaurant has to take risks in the kitchen to achieve something great. But my original experiences were like a lottery, and after three meals at Gagnaire Paris, I kept losing.

Pierre Gagnaire Tokyo, in some ways, was the complete opposite. There were few risks. Everything was consistent. This is good in the sense that no single course was particularly disappointing; bad, however, that nothing was exceptional. Exceptional cuisine balance risk-taking and spontaneity with consistency, and it’s no easy task. My meal here was an extremely toned-down version of my meal in Paris.

4 rue Beethoven, Paris, France

I’d always considered French cuisine to be stagnant and unchanging: thick mother sauces blanketing filets of meat and fish with fancy adornments. It was when I actually lived here for a few years that I discovered the new wave of French cuisine led by garden fresh vegetables and lighter preparations. Mother sauces were on vacation.

L’Arpège quickly became the restaurant spearheading Paris’s back-to-the-garden movement. L’Astrance peaked my interest when I heard of the restaurant’s compulsiveness for fresh vegetables combined with its ability to integrate elements of molecular gastronomy: spherification, foams, and non-traditional flavor extractions made this menu really exciting. Here was a young and extremely talented chef, Pascal Barbot, who went from one Michelin star to three in just under seven years.

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Cala Montjoi, Roses, Spain, Official Website

It’s an understatement to say that getting a reservation at El Bulli is difficult. During the two and a half years that I lived in Paris, I emailed the restaurant on a nearly weekly basis during season asking for last-minute openings. And everytime I received the same semi-automated reply: No. When I learned of the restaurant’s closing in 2011, I became even more anxious. Unfortunately, all I could do was pray.

Counterintuitively, I decided this year to pick a specific date and time, instead of indicating my open availability for the entire season. Since El Bulli does their scheduling all by hand, this specificity actually may have facilitated my acceptance. Then one early morning in March, I received a pleasant surprise from the dining room manager:

We apologize for being late giving you an answer. The demand has been extraordinary and [it] is difficult to go on with the management. We have found a solution and If you wish we have a reservation option for you.

The date I was assigned would be nearly a year in the future. But the clouds parted, and I was officially etched into the book of heaven. Now I just had to figure out how to get there.