With its subtle integration of French culinary tradition and refined Japanese flair, Elements at the Okura Prestige Bangkok has successfully retained its Michelin star for a second year.
The cuisine here is inspired by its sister restaurant, the two Michelin-starred Ciel Bleu at the Hotel Okura Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Ciel Bleu and its executive chef/manager Onno Kokmeijer, who was recently awarded Chef of the Year in the 2019 Gault Millau Dutch restaurant guide, have held Michelin stars since 2005.
Despite the distance between them, the two kitchens have been working closely to perfect the menu for Bangkok. This includes a new selection of dégustation dinners launched just last month.
Diners at Elements can now choose from three options on the multi-course tasting menu, ranging from five to seven courses. During my recent visit, I chose the six-course "Ta Ke" menu (4,000 baht), which turned out to be seven dishes, both savoury and sweet. And that's not including the complimentary basket of bread and series of ingeniously crafted amuse-bouche to enliven your palate before the meal officially starts.
Taraba crab with Japanese rice, sea urchin butter and seaweed.
The house-made bread selection consisted of an exceptionally light and spongy buckwheat baguette, fine flaky and buttery oyster croissant, and a mildly sweet soft roll. They were served with smoked miso-seaweed butter, which proved a glorious complement to the bread. The amuse-bouche featured a set of four bite-sized snacks, representing the four elements (fire, earth, air and water).
The delicacies, all deliciously addictive, included a thin cracker sandwich filled with a fine layer of artisan goat's cheese, to be dipped in a heavenly smoked eggplant cream; sakura shrimp and daikon radish on crispy chicken skin; a soft and mildly sweet macaron with tuna tartare and pickled ginger filling; and a warm potato croquette stuffed with a creamy unification of parsnip, shiso leaf, seaweed and Japanese karashi mustard.
The snacks were given a bubbly refreshing match with the house-brewed kombucha of Japanese green tea, lemon and honey.
The delightful first course came in the form of David Herve oysters blanketed by an expansive fillet of fresh tuna, pickled vegetables, pickled seaweed, rice vinegar and dashi beurr blanc. This was followed by Fruit de Mer, a multi-textured exhibition of scallop, octopus, hamachi (yellowtail), clam foam, seaweed and anchovy custard.
The dish that I was most looking forward to was the taraba crab with Japanese rice, sea urchin butter and seaweed. This arrived as a risotto-like combination of Japanese rice, crabmeat and egg white cooked in dashi (dry fish stock) and seethed with mascarpone cheese. The seaweed tuile and a generous helping of sea urchin butter added a 5-star finish. The overall taste was divine, if a bit oily.
The next dish, local organic garden greens with daidai vinegar, helped cleanse the palate with fresh tomatoes and crunchy vegetables drenched in Japanese bitter orange vinegar accompanied by dollops of Hollandaise cream.
From the current menu, organic local duck was chosen as the poultry option. A neat pinkish fillet of duck breast was prepared French confit style but with Asian marination. The succulent meat came dressed with sweet miso sauce and accompanied by smoked eggplant, ginkgo nut, edamame green peas and pickled onion.
As an additional frill to the meal, beef-lovers can add a 75g portion of Japanese A4 wagyu beef sirloin to their course for an extra 1,300 baht. This I did and was most satisfied with the highly marbled, melt-in-the mouth offering.
The sweet finale came in two parts, starting with a playful DIY pre-dessert called Flavours of Nougat de Montélimar, which was followed by a chocolate mousse made with 70% Mekonga cacao served with banana ice cream, yuzu jelly and black sesame sauce.
Reservations are highly recommended.
