Shanghai Daily news

Sens & Bund chef Jacques Pourcel returns to Shanghai to launch a promotion that matches his innovative southern French cuisine with the wines of the region. Tina Kanagaratnam gets a preview.

The Shanghai Team — Chef Jerome Lagarde (left), Arnaud Tual (center) and Andre Chang (right).

Oxtail Consomme

Jacques and Laurent Pourcel may have lost a Michelin star in their home restaurant (Jardin des Sens) at Montpellier, but you wouldn’t know it at Sens & Bund. Here, in the Ihmaad Rahmouni-designed restaurant at Bund 18, things are full steam ahead.
Par example: later this month, Jacques Pourcel will come to Shanghai to launch the “Fine Wine and Excellent Food from Languedoc, France” promotion. While he is here, he will also unveil – and teach at – the Atelier de Cuisine Sens & Bund, a culinary arts workshop.
“Fine Wine and Excellent Food from Languedoc, France,” is a rather straightforward name for the poetic cuisine the Pourcels have dreamed up for this promotion. A set menu of spring-flavored dishes (“you can feel the sunshine of southern France,” insists Jacques) is created with the imagination and innovation characteristic of the brothers and is paired with wines from Chateau Puech-Haut, a Languedoc wine estate close to Montpellier.
The amuse-bouche, or appetizer, features a trio worthy of a still life: a slim wine glass filled with shrimp tartare in tomato jelly, topped with a froth of arugula pesto; crispy sea scallop wrapped in a roll of ham and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a Granny Smith apple granite, icy cold, topped with sevruga caviar. Yes, eating what is essentially an apple popsicle topped with caviar was a little strange, but the Pourcels are all about pushing the envelope.
The appetizer, and the first few courses, are accompanied by a Chateau Puech-Haute Tate de cuvee Blanc 2003. Although the white wine, a blend of Rousanne, Marsanne and Viognier, had hardly any nose and little complexity, it was nonetheless a pleasant accompaniment, but won’t reach its rich, aromatic potential for a few more years. (Jacques Pourcel raves over the 1999.)
Oxtail consomme follows the appetizer, an almost dizzyingly fragrant soup, with a silver-dollar sized bed of stewed oxtail topped with paper-thin ravioli stuffed with sun-dried tomato confit (the sunshine of Languedoc!) and an unbelievably rich foie gras “tartine” – layers of foie gras between super-thin, crunchy crackers.
Designer Imaan Rahmouni – a Philippe Starck protege and favorite of the Pourcels, for whom he has designed several restaurants – has created a space that is comfortable, relaxed and so plain (even the windows don’t allow for full Bund views) that the focus is what it should be: the cuisine. A big bowl of red roses sits in the middle of the table, and a wall of red glass vases, suspended in the air, are the only color in an otherwise beige and white palette.
Mains include generous slices of lobster, served on a bed of warm “potato marmalade” (mashed potatoes, to you and me) with a Sauternes vinaigrette.
The sweet dessert wine makes an ideal complement to the sweet lobster meat and is a nice alternative to vanilla, which the Pourcels also cook lobster with. There is a grilled sweetbread, so tender and flavorful that it will appeal to even those who normally eschew sweetbread (as I do), and a fleshy, almost muscular roasted turbot filet, served with a saffron emulsion and a compote of zucchini – more sunshine.
The final main dish, a hunk of veal, expertly cooked, is served with a crunchy, paper-thin strips of eggplant, a cumin-based sauce and a pesto of coriander.
The final two dishes are served with a Chateau Puech-Haut Tate de cuvee Rouge 2003, a red with a mix of Syrah, Mouvedre, Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan grapes A fruity wine, without the earthiness that characterizes later vintages, it is still a little young, but manages to stand up to the veal and  the sweetbread nicely.
Dessert, created by Pastry Chef Arnaud Tual, a native of Anjou and veteran of Claridge’s in London, Vong in Hong Kong, Nobu in Japan and the three-star Le Grand Vefour in Paris, features an array of dishes – cold cocoa soup, like drinking melted chocolate; pistachio ice cream (pistachios grow near Montpellier) served with hot cherries, a visual and taste explosion; and an array of petits fours that include pear tart, macaroon and a sliver of raspberry jelly.

"Fine Wine and Excellent Food from Languedoc, France" runs from May 19–22, dinner only, RMB 1,200/person, including one glass of red and one glass of white wine.