Young Chef's Pop-up Menu

We recently went back to visit PMQ Taste Kitchen to check out the latest pop-up menu from a local young chef. Biased as I might be, I always love this idea of restaurant incubator concept (managed by our friends J and C) that allows new chefs to test out new recipes and business ideas with full set-up and operational support, and we were always surprised (and impressed) from the few visits we made previously.

This time it’s Chef Louis’ turn, taking over the site during the summer period. He went through formal culinary training and spent time in professional kitchens here and aboard (including Gough’s on Gough just down the road and Gaggan in Bangkok, to name a couple). This is one of his first stint going solo with this new venture named Infinity Kitchen.

There’s a choice of 6-course and 10-course menu for dinner service and we went for the latter. Most of the courses were served in tasting portion so turned out the 10-course was just about the right amount of food for big eaters like us. The menu only listed the main ingredient and simple description, and the details were presented in a piece of pamphlet passed to us when each course was served. We began with a piece of brioche done Japanese Utane style, with a softer texture made using a dough rich in moisture. It’s served with a small piece of butter mixed with wild mushrooms. That’s followed by a corn tartlet, made with corn flour (hence gluten-free) and topped with charred corn kernels (sourced from a local farm) and coconut yogurt – I love the refreshing flavor with a hint of sweetness from that of the corns and of the coconut.


I found the next course interesting – Hokkaido sea urchins were served on top of a small piece of coffee sponge cake with hazelnut spread sandwiched in between. The cake reminded me of those local bakery-style coffee Swiss roll that I grew up having with soft texture. Interesting combination of sea and earth flavor, though I thought the sea urchins probably worked more harmoniously with the corn tartlet served in the previous course instead.


Chef Louis described his next course of French duck as a tribute to the local classic dish Taro Duck, with taro crisp made into a cone and duck confit floss, crispy duck skin and taro mousse as filling. A complex dish but everything worked well together. After that it’s a piece of Chinese dumpling stuffed with minced pork. The presentation was impressive with the wrapper skin mixed with black and white sesame so it looked like yin and yang, and it’s dressed with hawthorn sauce and scallion oil. I like the sharp acidity of the sauce to go with the pork along with the subtle aroma. I would go with something that gave a bit of texture in the dumpling (scallions, maybe?) but other than that, I thought that’s a nice dish.


One could get an idea of how complicated our next course is just by reading the description of its preparation – local mackerel was filleted and turned into mousse (think quenelle but a bit firmer in texture), then coated in a batter mixed with dried fish powder. It’s deep-fried for the second time with the fish bones for the fluffy texture, and then served with a pickled ginger gel and a piece of shiso leaf. So what we got is a bite-ful of fish flavor and the shiso garnish worked wonder to tone down the fatty taste and leave us with a pleasant aroma in the mouth. It’s my favorite dish of the evening.

The presentation of our meat course could easily rival those of high-end fine-dining establishments. On a mini grill was a piece of Miyazaki wagyu beef and “charcoal”, made with cassava and coated with edible “ash” (made with bones, teriyaki sauce and sesame oil). Underneath the grill was the smoking cherry wood chips and spices that gave the dish extra flavor and aroma. Not an easy dish to pull off with a small team in the kitchen but they did well.

The rice served at the end was the only one that I didn’t quite like. It’s inspired by Kaki Kamameshi which is a summer seasonal dish in many parts of Japan, with rice cooked with dashi broth and topped with oysters. Here Hiroshima oyster was used and shiitake mushrooms were mixed in plus deep-fried silverfish and served in a bamboo cylinder. I thought the oyster was a bit too overwhelming and tipped the dish off-balance – perhaps clams would have been a better choice.

Two desserts were served at the end – first the peanut choux with housemade peanut butter puree in the middle, and second, an eggplant icecream. Me and eggplant are not exactly friends (and it didn’t help when the dessert was presented like a piece of eggplant), but I went along and gave it a taste anyway. Interesting vegetal flavor in the icecream coated with a sugar shell – I did finish the whole thing.

Went with a bottle of champagne we brought in, and I thought it worked well with the menu. Dry, slightly floral, more stone-fruit than citrus on the palate and with good acidity in the finish. Delicate enough for the lighter dish and rich enough to stand up against the meat dish.

Thanks for the delightful dinner, chef, and keep it up for the rest of the pop-up.

(The meal was by invitation and based on a menu available only for a limited time)

When? July 4 2019
Where? PMQ Taste Kitchen, H113-114, PMQ, Soho, Hong Kong
Menu Highlights? Local Mackerel – Mousse in Fish Batter
Drink? Champagne Laherte Freres Ultradition Brut NV
Web: http://www.pmq.org.hk/event/infinity-at-pmq-taste-kitchen/