Celebrating its second anniversary, Restaurant Stage's latest tasting menu, "Stage 6.0", is inspired by modern French cuisine.
Chef-patron Jay Sangsingkeaw reinterprets traditional dishes using Stage's signature playful, modern approach evident in the menu format, which is made up of symbols of what you will be eating, no words. The Stage Experience 10-course tasting menu (B4,500++, six-course tasting menu for B2,900++) begins with Charcoal choux, cream cheese and pickled radish; a trout parfait topped with fried capers and marigold flowers; and Alaskan black cod, mixed with tomato vinaigrette, charred lemon and preserved strawberry.
A crab salad is stuffed with lobster consommé jelly and potato cream, topped with black Ossetra caviar and served with avocado gazpacho and sour cream aioli. Slow-cooked organic egg from Ang Thong, served with shaved black truffle and sliced green asparagus and fried courgettes (zucchini). A most unusual pairing follows next -- wild escargot served with rhubarb, caramelised onion and parsley. Not a dish for all palates, it is two of head chef Patiphan Sookmark's favourite ingredients put together. "I love rhubarb and wanted to use it in a savoury dish." The rhubarb is confit with vodka topped with a parsley tuille and the escargot is cooked classically with garlic and brown butter.
Caviar, Crab, Avocado Gazpacho, Sour Cream
Uni honey toast is served with a Jerusalem artichoke puréed with dry vermouth and sour cream forms a soup, which is poured into brown butter. Fried purple artichokes are sautéed in butter and added to the dish for texture. An immensely rich dish, it is not for the faint-hearted. This is followed with charcoal-grilled blue Brittany lobster, served with prawn crisps, tarragon foam and a mille-feuille made from carrot and potato. A dish that takes you to the sea is the fried sea bass, topped with Hokkaido scallop all covered in foam, dusted with espelette powder and bai chakram or seablite. Duck comes in the form of agnolotti stuffed with housemade smoked duck ham, cheese and foie gras, topped with the duck prosciutto and Parmesan crisps.
For mains, the choice is between quail and beef, and I chose beef. Steak au poivre is served medium rare, in the classic French style using wagyu from Akita, Japan. It is accompanied by leeks stuffed with polenta, pommes soufflées and a peppercorn brandy sauce. Yum!
However, the highlights of the dinner were the desserts from pastry chef Rekha "Ja" Limpichart, and I am not even a dessert person! Chef Ja whips up classic French desserts with her own touch, including an amazing modern version of a crêpes Suzette. "A crêpes Suzette is one of my favourite desserts, the other is a rum baba," says chef Ja. The orange ball is made from isomalt, stuffed with milk foam, orange caramel and a yoghurt and yuzu sorbet. The crepe, which is under the isomalt ball, is drizzled with an orange juice sauce. If there was a time to resurrect the now-dead "Boomerang" effect on IG, cracking the ball would be it.
Wagyu au Poivre, Leek polenta, Pomme soufflé
However, that isn't all from the talented chef Ja. Remember her other favourite? A swish desserts trolley is rolled in front of your table with at least eight choices of desserts (you can choose three, if not more), including the rum baba. "All desserts on the trolley are made in miniature sizes so the customers can eat more. I don't like chocolate so I focus on other desserts," adds the pastry chef.
Since there is no cheese platter on offer, chef Ja has created the cheese crepe, which has four cheeses, Cheddar, mascarpone, Parmesan and Emmental. Her rum baba has jam and honey, and you can always add more rum if needed. There is a Paris-Brest; creme brûlée, which uses brown sugar; chef Ja's version of a Ferrero Rocher, made from raspberry and lychee; truffle choux (a crowd favourite); Opera cake and mille-feuille of watermelon and strawberry. The dessert trolley ensures you end the meal on a high note. Visit restaurant-stage.co.
Wild Escargot, Rhubarb, Caramelised Onion, Parsley.
