Interview with Chez Patrick
“My dream and mission is to make good thing!“ - Chez Patrick.
Meeting new friends with passion and high energy level is always a pleasurable and refreshing experience. My interview with Chez Patrick last Saturday should be one of those.
After I have posted my article about the restaurants of Chez Patrick in Hong Kong, the article received good responses and many readers like that post very much. I then have told Patrick about this and he has kindly replied my mail. I then suggested an interview with him in one of his lovely restaurants and he just simply accepted my proposal.
I met with Patrick last Saturday in his Peel Street shop. For I would like to mention a bit more about Peel Street. Peel Street is a small street located in the finance and business centre of Hong Kong, the Central District. But the Peel Street is one of the old streets in the Central District, near the SoHo Area (famous for numerous gorgeous restaurants). There are many local “old” Hong Kong shops along the Peel Street. The combination of Patrick’s fine French restaurant in this small and old Hong Kong street is very extra-ordinary and makes his restaurant outstand in the vicinity.
Our interview took place in last Satruday’s afternoon, where Patrick’s restaurant was quite full. I dated my friends to have lunch there and then Patrick came over to our table to have some chats with us.
Chatting with Patrick was inspiring. He shared his passions towards Hong Kong, his home land Lyon, his restaurants, his family and his believes with us most spontaneously.
Patrick’s dreams and believes
His dream is to make a restaurant, which is relax, homely and comfortable, not a place for showing off, for his clients. Of course, making very good food for the enjoyment of his clients is his most important believe.
He also reminded us that good food should be something like an art and music, the taste and smell and the experiences are all conected to our emotions and memories.
Patrick’s root and the effects on his career
His wish to become a good chef takes its root back in his family in Lyon. For his mother and his grandmother both make very good food, he enjoys cooking since he was small. In his family, dinner is an important function for family members to gather and share. The cooking style of his home land places emphasis on the real favour of the ingredients. He even keeps some recipes from his grand mother. It is this tradition of his family and the authenticity of his cooking style, that forms the building stone of his career as a chef and his restaurants.
Patrick’s keywords
“To make good food and good things” should be the key words of Patrick. For him, the real value of life is to creat good things and good food.
He emphasised to me that: “if you want to make good thing, you should get as close to the origin as possible.” His respect to his root and tradition is very admirable. Family links and supports are very important to him.
Last but not least, “to do the work you like!” For Patrick, his restaurant and his good food are actually his life!
Chez Patrick Peel Street
G/F., 26 Peel Street Central
Hong Kong
Tel) 2541 1401
Chez Patrick Sun Street
G/F., 8-9 Sun Street Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel) 2527 1408
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Related posts:
- Cenacolo Steak & Pasta - So Italian!
- Enoteca on Elgrin - good wine, good food, good time
- Chez Patrick: a night in Paris
- TOTT: a sparkling afternoon
- my beloved southern france cuisine
Stumble it!Cenacolo Steak & Pasta - So Italian!
I can’t resist the drive but to introduce this lovely and tasteful Italian restaurant in Hong Kong to you.
Shortly after it’s opening since a few months ago, I tried this restaurant and fell into it at once. I have brought lots of friends to this restaurant and they all love the food and wine there.
In fact, this restaurant is another shop of a famous restaurant in the SoHo area in Hong Kong, the Al Dente(for information of SoHo, please refer to my earlier post: Enoteca on Elgin). Both restaurants are famous for good quality of food and wine, reasonable prices and very cozy and comfortable dinning environment.
The restaurant has a good collection of Italian wine to match with their dishes. All the wine selections are of high quality and very reasonable prices. I especially love those coming from the Chianti region.
My number 1 favourite dish in the restaurant is their Prosciutto e Brie (Parma Ham & Cheese). The Parma Ham goes prefect with the Brie cheese: salty, creamy and delicious. This appetiser is a perfect match with the Italian red wine. The other appetisers like Antipasto (Parma Ham, smoke salma and grilled vegetable), Carpacciao (Italian raw beef) are very nice choices.
Being an Italian restaurant, their pasta and risotto are the signature dishes. I love their Seafood Cafafu (lobster and seafood risotto) most. Don’t miss this dish when you visit this shop.
Another must try item in the restaurant is their rib-eye steak. The steak is very nicely done, very juicy and tender. I would say that not many restaurants could compare with the quality.
Some other dishes worth recommending to you include their very crispy pizzas, mussels, lamp chop and smoke salmon salad. Their freshly baked onion bread is also delicious.
Their desert, the chocolate pudding, is awesome! This desert is a piece of hot chocolate cake filled with melted hot chocolate cream. Beside the pudding, there is a scone of vanilla ice-cream. The contrasting black and white, hot and cold, chocolate and vanilla, all sum up to a great tasting experience. Other than the chocolate pudding, the Panna Cotta and Cream Brulee are also my favourites.
The prices of the restaurant are very reasonable. For a full course dinner, from appetisers down to deserts, with a bottle of sparkling wine and a bottle of good quality red wine, the total expenditure for 2 persons would be around US$120. This restaurant also serves weekend lunch sets, with 3 courses at USD$16 - 18 per person only.
My favourite: Prosciutto e Brie (Parma Ham & Cheese)
Cenacolo Steak Pasta
No. 45-53 Gramham Street, Soho, Central
tel) 852 25252430
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Related posts:
- Enoteca on Elgrin - good wine, good food, good time
- Chez Patrick: a night in Paris
- TOTT: a sparkling afternoon
- my beloved southern france cuisine
Enoteca on Elgrin - good wine, good food, good time
Enoteca on Elgin, where Enoteca means “the Wine Bar”, is a restaurant located in the famous SoHo area in Hong Kong and is a place I love to spend a whole weekend afternoon in.
Located in the heart of financial and business activities of Hong Kong, i.e. the Central District, the SoHo is well known for its numerous fine dinning restaurants. The SoHo refers to mainly the areas around the Elgin Street and Straunton Street, which are just next to the Lan Kwai Fong, the clubbing paradise.
Unlike the Lan Kwai Fong which is full of bars and clubs, the SoHo is mainly for dinning. Wide ranges of cuisine can be found in the SoHo, like French, Italian, American, Greek, Thailand, Chinese, Japanese and even fusion dishes. There are classic and luxurious restaurants where you can enjoy fine dinning or you could find a casual and cozy restaurant to chat and laugh with your friends loudly. When I have no idea of what to have dinner with my friends, I always go to the SoHo to drop by any one of my favourite restaurants. In SoHo, there are always so many choices to match with the style and taste of each visitor.
The Enoteca on Elgrin is a relaxed and hip mediterranean wine bar and cafe with tapas, salads and rustic pizzas. It has comfortable environment with a lovely outdoor backyard and semi-outdoor shop front. It opens from 12noon to 2am and it serves set lunch and full weekend brunch.
Their salads, tapas and pizzas are delicious. I especially love their weekend brunch where there are lots of choices and the cost is only around US$9.0 to US$12.0 with a glass of fruit juice or tea / coffee. In the night, I usually like ordering their white wine patter or red wine patter to share among with my friends. The patters are the selections of some signature tapas in the restaurant which go well with the wine. One more worth mentioning point is the freshly baked bread of the restaurant (free when ordering dinner dishes), I usually can’t resist the temptation and have to request more.
(the resaurant) (the white wine patter)
(the pizza and full weekend brunch)
Naming as the wine bar, the Enoteca has marked it’s identity by the comprehensive wine list it offers to its visitors. It serves over 20 world class wines by the glass and 60 by the bottle, in very competitive prices. I especially love ordering the Prosecco / Pink Prosecco (a kind of sparkling wine, at only US$5.0) in the afternoon, reading my books, writing my articles and spending a whole weekend afternoon there.
The Enoteca has a sister wine bar named BACAR, located on the Shelley street in (close to the Enoteca). I shall introduce its sister restaurant to you later.
The semi-outdoor shop front of the Enoteca is really enjoyable, not only that we could enjoy some outdoor air, we could also watch many pretty people come and go along the small
SoHo street. Watching over the street and saying “hi” to the passersby are really cheerful and relaxing experiences.
Enoteca on Elgrin
47 Elgrin Street,
Hong Kong
Tel) 852-2525 9944
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Filed under restaurants, chill-out & fever, cuisine, hong kong | Comments (6)Chez Patrick - a night in Paris
“It was always our intention to offer a homely experience to our guest. We very much wanted to create the atmosphere of a typical Parisian apartment in our dinning room which is very recognizable in the wooden flooring and the white walls panels.” - Chez Patrick
Chez Patrick, a luxury and yet cozy France restaurant in Hong Kong, serves not only the finest France cuisine in Hong Kong, but also the elegant Parisian atmosphere and experience. When dining in the restaurant, we would feel that we are enjoying the fine food, tasting the French wine and experiencing the prestige moments with our friends in Paris.
Patrick, the Chef, “comes from a small village near Lyon in France where people are very serious about their food. Patrick first studied in France and worked in France, but then went on to work in London for a while before making his first stay in the Caribbean’s working in one of those high end hotels.” He then went back to France in a restaurant in Provence, before going to Italy in Rome. In 1996, Patrick went to Vietnam where he worked in a fine dinning French restaurant. Then he went back to the Caribbean’s in an up-market fusion cuisine restaurant at Barbuda. Then it was back to France again in Macon in a traditional Burgundy restaurant before finally heading to Hong Kong in 2002 working in a small French restaurant on Arbuthnot road called Chez Moi.
After working some time in the Chez Moi, Partick has opened his own shop in the Soho area (always the hippest dinning place in Hong Kong) and then another shop in the Sun Street.
Signature dishes of Patrick include: foie gras terrine, pan fried lobster and black truffle, crustwarm almonds and apple tart, pan fried veal tenderloin, pan fried duck breast, poach pear in a red wine, caramelized floating island, Crème brûlée, etc. The fresh made bread is also a favorite of all customers.
For lunch, the 2 - 4 courses menus are ranging from US$20 to US$30. For dinner, the 3-5 courses menus are ranging from US$ 60 to US$80.
I have been to this restaurant for wine tasting lunch some time. The dishes are outstanding, especially for the deserts. The environment is superb and it is so “French” in every corner inside the restaurtant.
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Chez Patrick Peel Street
G/F., 26 Peel Street Central
Hong Kong
Tel) 2541 1401
Chez Patrick Sun Street
G/F., 8-9 Sun Street Wanchai
Hong Kong
Tel) 2527 1408
related post: my beloved southern france cuisine
Filed under hip & stylish, cuisine, hong kong | Comments (15)TOTT - a sparkling afternoon
The TOTT’s, “Talk of the Town”, located on the 34/F., the top floor, of the Exclesior Hotel, Hong Kong, is my all time favourite.
With its spectacular view over the most renowned Victoria Harbour of Hong Kong and its location at the most popular shopping and dinning centre in Hong Kong, i.e. the Causeway Bay, the restaurant is a best choice of all time. No matter you are the first time visit, or you are a local “hipper”, I would recommend the TOTT’s to you without hesitation.
Be it day time or night time, one would find the view of the TOTT’s very impressive: blue sea and skyscrapers along the shore in the day, and colourful lighted up buildings in the night. The restaurant serves international cuisine, from Western to Asian, from oyster bar to Japanese Sushi. You could always find the dishes to match your taste and mood.
The restaurant has undergone an overall renovation project since last month, and has just re-opened last Thursday. After the renovation, the tone of the restaurant has changed from the classic and elegant red and black to the stylish brown and blue. The feel of the restaurant has become younger and stylish.
Apart from enjoying the happy hour in the restaurant with the spectecular harbour view of Hong Kong, I like spending a Saturday afternoon in the restaurant too. In weekend’s afternoon, the restaurant serves brunch buffet with unlimited sparkling wine, at a cost of around US$40 per person. The lovely seaview, the sparkling wine, the oysters, the Sushi and the dessert, all contribute to an enjoyable weekend afternoon.
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related link: my beloved southern french cuisine
Filed under restaurants, hip & stylish, cuisine, hong kong | Comments (9)my beloved southern france cuisine
when i first started writing this site, i was thinking of sharing my precious moments with my readers. “good wine, good food and good friends”, should be an universal formular for our “precious moment”.don’t envy me, what i am going to introduce to you, is the only restaurant of a world-wide culture and trendy label, the Agnès b. le pain grillé. 
this is the first and only Agnès b. restaurant all over the world (except that there is another Agnès b. cafe opened in HK as well, shortly after this le pain grillé), serving southern french cuisine. it is located right underneath the Agnès b. Travel Concept Shop. it seems that the restaurant itself is making a declaration on the fushion of fashion, travel and cuisine, i.e. culture and life. during its first opening in Sept 2006, the waiting list was up to 3 months. this restaurant was really the talk of the town at that moment.the food and wine served by this shop are pure southern france traditions, even every decoration inside the restaurant is from the southern france. sitting inside the cozy restaurant, tasting a glass of fine french wine (in a very competitive price) and ordering their tradition french dishes, one would hardly believe they are now in hong kong. among their dishes, i love their freshly baked bread, foiue gras, la omlette, mussels (exactly the same as those i tasted in paris and southern france), crepe & souffle in particular.if you ask me for a recommendation of french cuisine in hong kong, this Agnès b. le pain grillé should be on the top 3 of my list._______________________
Agnès b. le pain grillé - Shop 1, G/F, 111 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
(852) 2577 2718
Filed under cuisine, hong kong | Comments (7)
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