When the world’s most Michelin-starred female chef opens a new restaurant, everyone sits up and takes notice. And the opening of Cristal Room, chef Anne-Sophie Pic’s debut in Hong Kong, is certainly turning heads (she also has restaurants from Paris to London, Megève, Dubai and beyond).
Cristal Room by chef Anne-Sophie Pic in Hong Kong
Cristal Room is the fifth restaurant to join Forty-Five, Hong Kong’s newest dining destination within Landmark’s Gloucester Tower. The restaurant, part of the local hospitality group Leading Nation, bears all of Pic’s winning hallmarks, boosted further by its collaboration with the historic French fine crystal maison Baccarat.
Against sweeping 44th-floor views over Victoria Harbour, the interiors by Paris-based Gilles & Boissier are refreshingly feminine, featuring a graceful marble-fluted curvilinear banquette that snakes through the centre of the room, organically shaped furnishings, and plush carpets underfoot in a palette of neutral mushroom tones and dusty pinks.
The decor is embellished with ceiling mirrors and, of course, Baccarat chandeliers, such as Philippe Starck’s ‘Zénith Flou, Je te Vois Flou’ in the private salon. Meanwhile, objects like Baccarat’s signature ‘Octagon’ vases nod to the pendants of the brand’s chandeliers, while glassware includes pieces from the exquisitely bevelled ‘Harcourt 1841’ collection, the oldest in the archive.
The interior sets an elegant tone is set for Pic’s food, an innovative take on French gastronomy, which emerges from a kitchen that sits like a stage within the dining room and from which a brigade of chefs quietly produces expertly executed dishes in a graceful ballet-like performance.
The succinct tasting menus are deeply French in their roots but are flecked with Asian influences and ingredients, reflecting Pic’s love of the region, in particular, Hong Kong, where she studied three decades ago.
Expect innovative dishes – guided by her philosophy of impregnation, where flavours and aromas intertwine through techniques like smoking, steeping, marination and infusion – like her signature Les Berlingots ASP, where sobacha (buckwheat tea) has been used to make pasta in the shape of the classic French hard candy (berlingots), filled with liquid 24-month-aged comté cheese and served with a mushroom consommé infused with tonka beans.
The concept of impregnation is also underscored by the drinks pairings, courtesy of chief executive sommelier Paz Levinson, who has also created an alcohol-free menu that includes concoctions such as the refreshing Clear Tonka, made with milk-washed oolong tea and tonka beans, which pairs excellently with the seabass caviar.
All this comes perfectly together to showcase Pic’s brilliance at a restaurant set to become a star in Hong Kong’s culinary scene.
