The culinary revolution
Imported porcelain dinnerware, French gastronomy, collaboration with a three-star Michelin chef from Le Pre Catelan in Paris? Who would have thought it of the old Peking? While the China Daily dwells on food safety issues for visitors arriving for the Olympic Games-new tracking systems to monitor food quality from the farm to the table-the Beijing restaurant scene is way ahead and growing by the minute. Chairman Mao once said, “What the West has, China will have”. Well, from where I am seated, China appears to have more. At Beijing’s new French restaurant, Le Pre Lenotre, a full team of waiters steps forward in unison to pluck the silver cover from each diner’s plate and present Le Foie Gras de Canard (duck liver). It’s not that elaborate feasting is unknown to this city. Consider the Empress Dowager Cixi’s 70th birthday banquet at the Summer Palace a century ago. It was a splendid affair, as important as the Games, at least for the Empress Dowager. The Summer Palace made the perfect backdrop, with its Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha, a lake and an ornamental mountain, plus the Garden of Virtue and Harmony with its Great Stage and the Hall of Nourishing Pleasures. Sunday Herald Sun (Australia). February 10.
