Slow-cooked white asparagus with butter-glazed potatoes and Australian beef. (China Daily/Fan Zhen) |
China is the biggest producer of white asparagus in the world, though it is rarely seen in local restaurants. This could be because it has such a short-lived season, which begins in April, and by the end of June, "it's gone," chef de cuisine Andreas Block of Fairmont Beijing's The Cut explains.
White asparagus is more popular in Europe, and the German chef was delighted to discover it here in Beijing, and decided to design a four-course menu celebrating the precious vegetable.
Block has brought a very ordered cooking process to The Cut, the Fairmont's signature steakhouse.
His four-course white asparagus menu is put together so well, it is almost mathematical the way he has balanced flavors and textures to bring out the best in this "edible ivory".
The stand out was, strangely, the soup course.
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