Far and East at The Four Seasons… the best Chinese food I’ve had in years.

 

I went to Far and East at the Four Seasons to celebrate my birthday with some trepidation. I knew they had a new Malay Chinese chef who I had heard good things about. But with the exception of Shang Palace, China House and China Kitchen I’ve never had authentic Chinese food in any Indian hotel and I really can’t stand Indian Chinese food. 

But I know Hardik Shah, the director F and B at the Four Seasons, is a guy who knows his food. He is also a guy who knows how exacting I can be and how integral good food is to any celebration for me. So when he said that he wanted to organise a meal of off menu dishes that were authentically Chinese and see what I thought about it, I was immediately intrigued. 

Well I’m glad I listened to him because I ended up with the best Chinese meal I’ve had since 2018. The meal was created by Chef Sean Wong under the guidance of Chef Dirham Haque and every single dish was spectacular, as well as being a dish I had never had before. It’s so rare to go and eat a meal where every dish feels new and interesting, where the flavours are balanced, the textures are nuanced, the produce and products are world class but also treated respectfully, where you feel that this is a meal that goes far beyond what you would get on a normal evening out even in a good restaurant. 

I’ll get to the whole meal in a moment but before I do, I needed to highlight the tenderloin fried rice with truffle and vegetables. The rice was cooked in tenderloin fat so every grain of rice felt like an indulgence, packed with flavour, a universe in itself. It was cooked with chopped shiitake and onions, with slices of black truffle added in the end, giving it a level of umami that no fried rice I’ve ever had in India has ever come close to. If anything it reminded me of the famous tenderloin fried rice cooked by Zaiyu Hasegawa at Den, and it amazes me that more people aren’t frying their rice in beef fat because it beats the hell out of cooking in meat stock and then frying. 

We ate: 

Appetisers:

• 
  
  Drunken Chicken Roll with mint sauce (like a roulade and a Chinese mint sauce) 
• Pan Seared Scallop with homemade spicy XO shrimp sauce. What I loved here was the use of dry shrimp and dry scallops and dry chilli, something I’ve never had in a Chinese fine dining restaurant in India but which is one of the great treasures of Asian cooking 
• 
  
  First season of mushroom. Fresh Shittake bao in a Sauce made of Cooking Cream, Butter, Truffle Paste, Fresh Mushroom Puree

Mains:

• 
  
  New Zealand lamb chops in a Mongolian style with Milk, Chilly Sauce, Black Pepper, Butter and Seasoning.
• 
  
  First course breaker : Mandarin and rosemary sorbet 
• 
  
  Dried fried butter fish with egg yolk floss, curry leaves and bird eye chilli. Very clever to use the bird eye chilli to cut through the heaviness instead of Sichuan peppercorn so the heat added freshness rather than numbness. 
• Second course breaker: Herb infused compressed watermelon
• 
  
  Stir fried lotus and asparagus 
• 
  
  Cantonese style fresh water king prawn in superior prawn and egg drop broth with crispy noodles
• Tenderloin fried rice with truffle and vegetables 

Dessert:

• 
  
  Jasmine pannacotta, ginger granita, mint caviar