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June 20, 2013

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Making 'simple' French food is not simple

By Xiao Gao | June 20, 2013, Thursday | Print Edition

FRENCH food needn't be fancy, complicated and laden with rich sauces; it can be simple and family-style.

"But making simple food isn't easy, it requires strictly following traditional recipes step by step," says Jason Oakley, chef de cuisine at Fifty 8掳 Grill, Mandarin Oriental Pudong, Shanghai.

"I practice my food thinking in 8掳 Grill, a place where customers sit in a contemporary-feeling space but experience the traditional value of French cooking: simple looking, exceptional ingredients, kitchen craftsmanship and shared meals."

Both the food and wine in the restaurant evoke dining in small French towns, he says. The concept of the restaurant is established by Michelin-starred chef Richard Ekkebus, who is the chef consultant of the hotel.

The restaurant is named - Fifty 8掳 Grill - after the perfect core temperature of a medium rare steak grilled over the wood fire, 58 degrees Celsius. The chef sources apple wood locally and says it's a particular fruit wood that gives the food a distinctive smoky aroma.

Most of the beef is imported from Australia, including both grass-fed, cereal-fed and wagyu grain-fed. Various cuts - from sirloin, flank, tenderloin, prime rib - satisfy customers' tastes for different textures and degrees of marbling. Most steaks are wet aged, some are dry aged to bring out the concentrated flavor; it depends on the meat.

Prime rib is the chef's signature beef cut. It's wet aged for 30 days, then dry aged for 28 days until all the moisture is evaporated and the flavor becomes intense. It's grilled slowly and at a low flame for around 45 minutes.

Served with the beef are a French butter sauce, a bearnaise and a fourme d'ambert hollandaise - all made with painstaking effort.

Besides the steak, many other "simple" dishes require considerable craftsmanship.

For example, in the coq au vin, the chicken is marinated in red wine for two days and then stewed very slowly.

Appetizers require plenty of work as well, including country pate, a mixture of minced meat and fat and duck rillettes, in which duck is chopped, salted and slowly cooked in fat.

Classic sourdough bread, with crispy crust and soft interior, is baked fresh twice a day for lunch and dinner.

"Delicious foods take time and that marks a return to traditional French cooking, with respect to kitchen craftsmanship," Oakley says.

All the dishes can be shared so that diners can sample diverse flavors. In the appetizer platters, diners can choose among five salads and select among four prepared meats. Appetizers balance flavor and texture. Sour crispy green apple is paired with soft and sweet red beets; celery is coated with rich remoulade, sour cream is spread over cured salmon.

The restaurant also features an authentic Provencal summer salad, bouillabaisse-style soup that originated in Marseilles, and French A.O.C cheeses.

The chef is inspired by seasonal produce.

"I change the menu seasonally and the new one comes out in June, with more light and refreshing ingredients," Oakley says.



Address: 111 Pudong Rd S., Pudong

Tel: 2082-9938

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