2007 Life Celebration

Birthday Eve Dinner - Third Floor, JW Marriott
Winner of Best Local Chef in Malaysia 2001/2002.
First dining outlet to win 10 out of 10 rating for food from Malaysia's Best Restaurants 2001 guide


Entree:

Coriander and Pepper crusted Salmon confit with flying fish roe
- confit: traditionally peasant prepared meat immersed in a substance ie salt for preservation and flavour, cooked in its fat, the salmon retains its raw texture with plenty of subtle mixed flavours

Truffle Linguini
- the French black truffle is considered the fines of the edible fungi, widely considered as the jewel of French cooking for its unique flavour and intoxicating aroma, its capacity to perfume any dish

Lobster salad
- whole de-shelled perfectly grilled assembled lobster with a salad accompaniment - such a happy feast of juicy satisfying crustacean bite

Main:

Roasted Lamb Shortloin
- with mash and veg

Double cooked crispy Duck breast with balsamic and tamarind
- beautifully executed

Dessert:

Poached Cherries in Shiraz with vanilla ice cream

Chocolate Fondant with sabayon and vanilla ice cream

Certainly our most gourmet meal

Birthday Lunch - Lafite, Shangri-la
- Malaysia's No. 2 restaurant
- “World’s Most Outstanding Wine List", 2006
- “Golden Cauldron Award: Best All-Around Restaurant", 2003-2006
- “Best Overall Restaurant", Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards, 2004


The Showcase Luncheon offers appetisers displayed in a futuristic perspex tower and desserts individually portioned in silverware and porcelain. Mains cooked to order.

Appetisers:

Sushi with soy pipette; watermelon mocktail; prawn on avocado; scallop salad; mix salad, Vietnamese paper roll

Smoked salmon with roe; prawn and salads including Caesar salad

Main:

Wagyu beef Shepard's pie

Seared Lamb loin
- with tzatziki

Desserts:

Chocolate Brownie with candied cranberry; Chocolate Tart; Mix Fruit Jelly; Meringue; Pistachio sponge with blueberry

Chocolate Nugget; Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee; Fresh Mangoes in filo pastry; Custard Raspberry Tart

Chocolate bowl

The Breakfast
- Cherkas' signature dessert of an egg on top of hollandaise sauce aka my birthday cake courtesy of head chef Kevin Cherkas at the request of baby sister Jade
Yolk - mango pudding: so alike a yolk that once popped, oozes and once spooned, comes together in a protein-like membrane
White - coconut cream chilled with liquid nitrogen producing the crisp edge resembling a fried egg
Hollandaise - delightful sharp passionfruit mousse Beautiful textures eaten together

Kevin Cherkas

- graduated with top honours in culinary art in Vancouver; worked at some of the world's most outstanding restaurants including 3-Star Michelin Arzak Restaurant in San Sebastian, 2-Star Michelin La Broche in Madrid, and 3-Star El Bulli in Roses, all in Spain.

At Lafite, Cherkas will create his own interpretations of culinary foam to flavour his culinary compositions. Foam is a big feature in many of his dishes. But this foam does not use cream and egg. Rather, it is made with the main ingredient (be it espresso or mushroom) and air in a whipped cream maker equipped with liquid nitrogen cartridges.

Another technique of his is esferificacion, a process by which liquids are trapped in a thin alginate casing, which when crushed in the mouth, bursts open and bathes the tongue with divine flavours, incorporated in the Breakfast. Indeed much skill he has attained under the apprenticeship of Ferran Adria of El Bulli in his meshed kitchen/laboratory to create "molecular gastronomy". It's not just cooking.

Kevin aims to give diners the best meal of their life which I can say, I have experience and am in awe. Unlike the conventional, Kevin enjoys sitting down and chatting with diners to devise a menu for them base on what they love.

My utmost of gratitude to Jade for the experience of the best meal: a combination of fusion appertisers of the freshest produce with gourmet inclusion, the most beautiful lamb and the best selection of fine desserts of decadent chocolate with a balance of fruits along with state-of-the-art food creation and a personal encounter with a renown chef.