It was an honor to be invited to a birthday dinner hosted by CC. The beautiful food prepared for 14 of us by Jimmy Chok at the comfort of home, was marvelous!

Jimmy’s food was missed after Salt restaurant (no not the same as Luke Mangan’s Salt Grill) closed in 2005. He then worked at other restaurants like The Academy Bistro and Bistro Soori (yes affiliated to Alila Villas Soori) but we’ve not tried those restaurants. He has been and is now a well known private chef for a number of years.

We started well with some Louis Roederer and Billecart-salmon champagne to go with starters like Canadian oysters and Parma ham wrapped melon.

Next course was the Hokkaido scallop carpaccio, yuzu miso dressing, avruga roe, chives, crispy wakame. Very refreshing as the scallops were so fresh and the yuzu dressing so fragrant. The combination with the crispy wakame was excellent! Pretty plating too!

This was followed by continuous red wines from France and Australia but I did not pay attention to what was served except the Calon Ségur.

And so, the next course was slow cooked salmon fillet, konbu fennel apple salad, trout roe. Very well done salmon which was baked at very low temperature for a almost an hour, crispy refreshing salad, yums!

The final course was the melt in my mouth braised Wagyu beef cheek, mouselline potato, truffle jus, roasted vine tomato. The beef cheek had a fragrance like it was mildly infused with some spice while not overpowering each ingredient. The truffle jus went so well with the dish overall.

For dessert we had cakes from Antionette (Le royale) and The Patissier (double chocolate praline) with Fritz Haag Riesling and coffee. Delish!!