The Food Pornographer

Tetsuya welcomed us to his new master kitchen. He seemed quite shy and confessed he was a little nervous, but once he started cooking and talking to us about his dishes, you could see he was totally in his element and having great fun.

First, a simple but classic dish: scrambled eggs. “I’m sure you all know how to cook scrambled eggs,” Tetsuya said, “But I’ll show you a few little things…” He told us that the best way to beat eggs is to lift the strands high in the air with a fork, rather than beating them within the bowl, which just creates bubbles. He added an ingredient that surprised most of the audience – creamed corn. He told us just a little creamed corn creates a lighter texture and helps prevent the scrambled eggs from getting rubbery – though I must admit as a lover of all things corn my first thought was to dump a whole lot more in there to make super corny scrambled eggs. He seasoned the eggs with white pepper and salt and added a generous amount of parmesan cheese, mixing well before pouring the mixture into the pan. Of course, there was also a generous amount of butter in the scrambled eggs – though Tetsuya told us generally speaking he doesn’t use much butter in his cooking. He cooked the scrambled eggs with a spatula and when they were almost ready, he added another ingredient I’m not used to seeing in scrambled eggs: ricotta cheese.

Throughout the masterclass, each dish that was cooked was whisked away when finished and quickly plated into individual serves for us all. The scrambled eggs were beautifully light and creamy. I’m definitely going to try the corn trick the next time I make scrambled eggs – I can’t believe I never thought of it before! I’m not so keen on the ricotta – in some ways I think the addition of the cheeses takes away some of the natural eggy flavour of the dish. I made a mental note to myself that when I do try the creamed corn trick I must be careful not to overdo it. Although I love corn, I also love the taste of eggs, so I’ll need to strike that delicate balance between corn, egg and of course, butter.

When the scampi were ready, he seasoned them with salt and carefully arranged them, one by one, into a magnificent scampi mountain, then dressed them with more oil and herbs. Watching him work and smelling the oil and herbs made my mouth water.

I wonder how many scampi I could get through, if there had only been me to eat them. :P

When I received my individual serve, I ignored the fork and lifted the meat off the tail shell with my fingers. The scampi meat was sweet, moist and ever so delicate. I don’t think I’ve eaten scampi before, it was delicious!

The next dish also used the food wrap technique – this time, fresh snapper fillets, cooked in oil, seasoned simply with salt and pepper. The fish fillets were placed in the oven to cook skin side-up, which Tetsuya told us protects the flesh from drying out.

The fish looked so moist and soft and I couldn’t wait to try some!

It was beautiful!

You could tell Tetsuya was having fun! We all laughed and cracked jokes throughout the masterclass. As he prepared the next dish, a warm salad of scallops, he grinned as he worked, making me smile too. He placed wakame (seaweed) in the centre of a dish of thinly sliced scallops, then arranged a ring of micro greens and herbs on top.

I love scallops, and this was one of my favourite dishes of the class. Tetsuya instructed the staff member plating up the serves: “Make sure you put plenty of the sauce on the plates!” The hot oil only just cooked the scallops – they were tender and sweet, flavoured by the delicious combination of sesame oil, black bean, orange zest and chilli. Tetsuya told us that orange zest goes very well with seafood, especially scallops and king fish, and you don’t need to do anything special to the orange zest, just use it!

Next, he steamed Alaskan crab legs. He told us you can make your own steamer by placing a metal cake tin upside down in a pan over a few mugs that are the same height. He arranged the crab legs on a bed of bamboo leaves – someone asked about the flavour imparted by the bamboo – he confessed in that this case he was using the leaves more for aesthetics than flavour. I’m not a big fan of crab, but was quite excited thinking that I was about to eat a “Deadliest Catch” crab (have any of you seen that TV show?)

It didn’t take long for the crab shells to turn orange, ready to be served.

Tetsuya did not add anything to the crab legs so we could appreciate its natural flavour. The meat was soft and sweet, more delicate in texture than I had ever imagined the meat from one of those rather menacing looking Alaskan king crabs would be.

In addition to Herbie’s tagine mix, he also added ground long pepper, which most of us had not heard of. Its aroma is reminiscent of star anise and cassia bark. Tetsuya asked one of his chefs to show us what long pepper looks like, and a little dish of the spice was passed around – we peered at it, inhaled its aroma, and of course, photographed it.

To go with the chicken, Tetsuya prepared some cous cous, simply adding hot water. A few of us asked: “What about chicken stock?” Tetsuya assured us that hot water was all that was needed, as the chicken dish would have plenty of flavour. He stirred raisins and shallots through the cous cous. It looked very good.

Before serving up the dish, Tetsuya tasted it and then added more spoonfuls of the ground long pepper and tagine spice mix. He passed on another useful tip: it is always better to under-season your stew or casserole and then adjust the seasoning at the end. Once it’s been over-seasoned, you can’t “take it back”.

The tagine-less chicken tagine was absolutely delicious. It was savoury and spicy yet sweet, with the interesting flavours and textures of the olives, preserved lemon and dates adding saltiness, tang and chewiness. Cliched phrases popped into my head as I ate – it was “an explosion of flavour” and there was definitely “a party in my mouth”! The gravy was rich and plate-licking good (no, I didn’t, though I was tempted!) and the fluffy cous cous soaked it up beautifully. The chicken thighs were succulent and I wanted more, MORE! It was a hearty, comforting dish and tasted like it had been stewing away for hours. I’d have loved to have gone back for seconds, but I knew there was still a degustation dinner to come and I had to be sensible!

The first course was chilled Japanese pumpkin soup, thick yet velvety smooth, with a dollop of white miso cream. It was sweet and refreshing and easily the most delicious pumpkin soup I have ever eaten, by light-years! I’m not usually a fan of pumpkin soup, but if they all tasted like that, I’d have it every day! This ended up being my favourite dish of the entire degustation dinner.

Next, sashimi of kingfish with black bean and orange. Regular readers will know I am not a fan of raw fish. But before going to this special dinner, I’d made a solemn vow: “I will try everything that is placed before me”. And I was surprised and pleased as I did enjoy this dish – the flavours of black bean, orange zest and sesame were so good I didn’t mind the texture of the raw fish as much as I normally do. The fine threads of roasted chilli and the micro greens added subtle texture and flavour to the dish. I ate it all and wished I could lift the dish to my lips and drink the rest of the oil and juices down. Orange with scallops, orange with kingfish, I’m your newest disciple!

Having tasted the scampi during the masterclass and fallen utterly head over heels in love with it, I was thrilled when the next course was served: soft roast scampi tails with herb and citrus oil. The New Zealand scampi was draped over witlof that had been confit cooked in orange and then charred. The oil had been infused with the flavours of lemon, lime and tarragon – it was a citrus lover’s dream dish, sweet and tangy, balanced beautifully with the slightly bitter flavour of the witlof.

Next: Tetsuya’s signature dish – salad of confit ocean trout with zucchini and non-pasteurised roe. The trout had been cooked in oil at a very low temperature and was soft and smooth, with a jelly-like texture that was almost not like fish at all, topped with finely diced roasted zucchini and eggplant and served on a circular bed of ocean trout roe on a thin layer of goat’s cheese, garnished with drizzles of parsley oil. I think I’m just not a fan of the soft texture of confit fish; while I appreciated the quality and the flavours of this dish, it was not one of my favourites of the evening. But it’s just my personal taste (nothing wrong with the dish!).

Bowls of green salad were served with the trout dish.

I wasn’t so fond of the next dish either – again, a matter of personal taste – raviolo of octopus with oregano and black olives. The oregano, black olives and, diced tomato and basil leaves gave this dish an Italian touch, with the surprise of sushi rice in the raviolo filling, as well as chunks of octopus. The basil was fresh and fragrant and the cubes of tomato were sweet and juicy. This was the only dish of the night I did not finish because I really dislike octopus – obviously, I dislike octopus more than raw or confit fish, because I finished both the kingfish and trout dishes.

The sixth course was breast of chicken with corn and foie gras. I couldn’t believe how moist and juicy this poached breast of baby chicken was – almost as succulent as a piece of chicken thigh! Hidden in the bed of creamed corn mash was a small portion of foie gras. I chuckled to myself as I thought of the hidden foie gras as “ninja foie gras”. I really enjoyed the simplicity and fresh flavour of the delicately poached juicy chicken with the corn; I thought the richness added by the foie gras was quite unnecessary.

I don’t usually eat very rare beef, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the sirloin of wagyu with braised leeks, sansho and soy. The waiter informed us that the thin slices of beef had been cooked shabu-shabu style. They were so soft they practically melted in my mouth. The chunky-cut caramelised braised baby leeks were sweet and fun to eat – I love separating the layers of leek and eating them one by one (I eat whole roasted onions in a similar way, I press them with my fork to separate the layers/rings and then eat them one by one). This was the final savoury course.

This was my favourite of the desserts: pione grape sorbet with sauternes jelly. It was cool and refreshing and a perfect palate cleanser following the savoury courses. In the bottom of our cocktail glasses were three perfectly peeled grapes. The grape skins were used to make the sorbet and the delicious grape “soup”. I loved this and wished we’d been served great big bowls of it instead of cocktail glasses!

The second dessert course was cannellini beans with marscapone and soy caramel. Cooked beans are often featured in Asian desserts – beans in ice kacang, bean soups served hot or cold, and so on – so I am no stranger to desserts featuring beans! Having said this, I would’ve been perfectly content if the dessert had not featured any beans. The marscapone mousse was light and creamy. The soy caramel, our waiter informed us, is made by adding soy sauce to caramel. The marscapone sat in a pool of blue cheese anglaise, which added even more richness to the dish.

The last dessert was the floating island with a double anglaise of vanilla bean and praline. The floating island is a soft and fluffy meringue, airy and light, served “floating” on the anglaise. One of the waiters told us the secret to getting rid of the “eggy” smell in the meringue – finely ground fresh rosemary, whipped into the egg whites.

Sinking my spoon into the soft, yielding meringue was such a pleasure, then tasting the meringue as it melted on my tongue and greedily drinking down my first spoonful of vanilla bean and praline anglaise – I was in heaven! The first mouthful of meringue had revealed a white interior to the island, but with my next mouthfuls, not one, but two surprises – an ooze of raspberry and another of dark chocolate which, once released, flowed freely into the anglaise to make a pretty and appealing swirl of colours. I don’t mind telling you I would’ve lifted the dish to my mouth and drunk the double anglaise down if I could. Instead, I had to be content scraping the dish with my spoon (as quietly as possible!) and subtly tilting the dish to get every drop of anglaise possible into my spoon.

To conclude this spectacular meal: coffee or tea, served with petit fours. My English breakfast tea was served in a Japanese teapot with a lovely handmade cup which had perfectly positioned indentations for my thumb and forefinger, so much more comfortable and pleasurable to pick up and hold than a standard cup with a handle.

The petit fours were: green tea marshmallows, coffee and date friands and chocolate macarons with lemon curd and pink peppercorn filling. The sticky gooey square of marshmallow had a slightly bitter flavour. The coffee and date friands were a perfect, moist mouthful. The chocolate macarons were my favourite, with a tangy lemon curd filling with surprise specks of pink peppercorn adding a burst of unexpected heat. There’s something about eating little sweet things that is so enjoyable and delightful!