The Perfect Celebration

We rarely contacted chefs specifically before any visit to their restaurants, not wanting to give them a wrong impression that we were expecting special treatments, but this time I did tell Chef Fabrice a month ago about our plan to eat at his restaurant in Macau, and made a special request to eat inside the kitchen. Blame that on the missus who asked for the "Chef’s Table" to celebrate her birthday.

Sneak Preview from the Kitchen

As our friend Fabrice is ready for his new post heading The Tasting Room in Macau after moving on from Caprice, we want to pay him a visit just to catch up, and CYY’s birthday in mid-May gave us the perfect excuse to spend a weekend in town as part of the celebration. So I let him know of our plan in advance and check whether the restaurant would be open then after being closed for the past few months for a makeover.

"Open The New Year" Meal

On the last day of our Chinese New Year long weekend, we had another stellar lunch at Caprice. We did something similar at around the same time last year with my brother, sis-in-law and our nephew, taking a recess from the traditional new year festivities with a leisurely lunch at a much slower pace. So we decided to do a repeat this year - this time with just us two.

Nin Chor Saam (年初三), or the third day of Chinese New Year was traditionally known as "Chek Hau" (赤口 which literally meant Red Mouth Day), during which many people often refrained from meeting friends and relatives as the day was thought to be prone to arguments. So it made perfect sense that we saved this day for a little "us" time at our favorite restaurant. And it was a particularly gorgeous day to be sitting by the window at this stunning dining room enjoying our long lunch with the clear skyline view across the harbor.

Weekend Lunch and Pommes Souffle

I was not sure what Chef Fabrice thought when I actually took up his offer to teach me to cook in his kitchen, but I was pretty excited. A few months ago I was at his restaurant Caprice at the Four Seasons Hong Kong when a bowl of Pommes Souffle appeared as the side dish to our main course, and I was fascinated by the taste and texture.

Another Saturday afternoon at Caprice

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of eating at Caprice again on a Saturday afternoon with just the two of us this time (as opposed to a bigger group that we had a couple months ago). We picked this date out of random when we booked our table a few weeks ago, but timing turned out to be perfect as Chef Fabrice just introduced the new seasonal menu a few days before, coupled with the great weather and clear sky we got to enjoy seeing as we settled at our table by the window overlooking the West Kowloon skyline.

The New Fall Menu at Caprice

"11am? I thought the restaurant won't open until noon, no?" When I received the kind invitation from Four Seasons Hong Kong for a lunch tasting at Caprice, I wrote back just to make sure I didn't read the meeting time wrong. Turned out our afternoon at Caprice didn't begin in the dining room but behind the kitchen counter, where we got the opportunity to spend some time chatting with Chef Fabrice Vulin on some of the new developments of the restaurant, along with a little cooking demonstration he did for us before the regular lunch service began.