Chefs with Hair, 2025 edition

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Just five days after seeing Handsome Chef in Seoul, I was invited to join a collaboration with him and Juve Fan at Estro. These two guys have cooked together quite a few times now, and I did have the good fortune of joining them at their event in Hong Kong last year. I wondered what the dishes would be like this time...

This would be the first time I dine inside the Music Room, equipped with KEF speakers, McIntosh amps, and other goodies. Graziano asked those of us who arrived on time - which generally does not include Your Highness - to pick out something we wanted to hear. I jokingly requested AC/DC, and for the next hour or so that was what we got...

2019 Ca' del Bosco Franciacorta Vintage Collection Extra Brut, discorged in 2023 - very lively, toasty and yeasty nose with a little bit of flint.

Gimbap, tuna, smoked caviar, finger lime - the presentation here immediately reminded me of the gimbap (김밥) at Jungsik, because it also featured a hard tube of laver, caviar, and fatty tuna. There was the addition of a seaweed-flavored emulsion on the side.

Thankfully the blue fin tuna was farmed... and came with finger lime pulp to lighten things up a little.

Bugak, ami-ebi, Amalfi lemon - I quickly realized that I'll be seeing dishes that I'd just had a few days ago in Seoul... albeit with some modifications. Here the bugak (부각)) came with an emulsion made with Amalfi lemons.

This was sesame leaves in lieu of perilla leaves, but we still had Alaskan pink shrimp (甘海老) inside.

Arancino, kimchi, tomato concentrate - we've got arancino made with kimchi sitting on some concentrated tomato sauce. There were diced cubes of cuttlefish and wagyu tartare on top, with a thin chip made of kimchi. This was pretty good, but I made a total mess and the ingredients kinda fell apart and stained my shirt...

Eatanic Garden Cloudy (흐림) - the nose was a little medicinal, the palate was slightly bitter and not too sweet.

Bottarga noodles, wild sesame oil, abalone - this looks soooo Korean at first glance, with noodles tossed in pine nut sauce and wild sesame oil, then mixed with strips of abalone and a sprinkle of seaweed powder.

The bottarga di muggine looks like it's been sprinkled on top, but it was also mixed into the dough for the noodles. This gave the noodles a wonderful chewy texture. This was really, really good shit... and probably my favorite dish tonight.

Langoustine, ink gnocchi, fermented pepper sauce - a different version of a dish I had in Seoul, with langoustine instead of hairtail. The fermented pepper sauce was likely the same, but instead of finely-diced squid and barley being covered in squid ink, these were larger balls of gnocchi made with rice flour... which was basically tteok (떡) gnocchi, then... without the stickiness or chewiness of traditional tteok.

The langoustine was executed to deliver a wonderful texture, just a little more cooked than mi-cuit.

Samgyetang, pine mushroom brodo, chicken and mortadella tortellini - pretty much the same signature dish from Eatanic Garden, but now the diced kimchi sits on the bottom, and we've got some very thin wafers of raw matsutake (松茸).

Still got the chestnut, ginkgo nuts, ginseng stuffed inside the glutinous rice, and that skin is still very thin and crispy. Yum.

2019 Manzone Barolo Castelletto - smoky, earthy, minty, forest, with potpourri.

The usual "ginseng chicken tea" became brodo with little tortellini stuffed with mortadella. Very nice.

Lamb galbi, saddle, soy marinated belly, condiments - the lamb from Aveyron has been stuffed with a little bit of Italian sausage and cumin. The condiments included semi-dried cucumbers, fresh kimchi (with mint, perhaps?), wild garlic leaves.

Juve Fan has always served up amazing lamb, and this was no exception.

This lamb saddle, though, was just unbelievable... with fat that was just incredibly gamey and tasty.

Chestnut tatin, Parmigiano ice cream, balsamic vinegar, olive oil - how interesting to pair ice cream made with Parmigiano-Reggiano together with a chestnut tart... and accent it with a drizzle of olive oil and a dot of balsamico. Loved the chestnut purée, too.

This chestnut tart, though, was very, very good. I'd love to have this a lot more often now that it's chestnut season.

Chamwe melon (참외) panna cotta - nice to have finely-diced Oriental melon on top. Very refreshing.

Pistachio gelato - the usual. Soooo good. Never enough.

Jujube tteok (대추떡)

Gaesung yakgwa (개성 약과)

This was a pretty happy meal, and it's good to see Handsome Chef in Hong Kong again, together with his Italian twin. Unfortunately, due to the poor timing of this meal being so close to my return to Eatanic Garden last week, some of the element of surprise was taken away... but it doesn't make the dishes any less delicious. Very grateful to have been invited to see what the Chefs with Hair can come up with.