Joel Robuchon launches Food & Life menu in Singapore

Despite the launch of Joel Robuchon’s heath-themed book on Food & Life with Dr. Nadia Volf late last year, it still came as something of a surprise when I was informed of the French chef’s intention to introduce a Food & Life themed menu at his Restaurant de Joel Robuchon Singapore. After all, the Robuchon brand has grown on the strength of feted chef's French gastronomy and, until the recent book launch, the culinary luminary has never publicly discussed his journey from haute to health. But all this is set to change.

Crowned Chef of the Century by Gault Millau in 1989, Robuchon’s healing encounters with Volf has motivated the world’s most Michelin stars-decorated chef to, in his own words, “reconsider my cooking…even though it meant shaking up my idées recues quite a bit.”

The book, which celebrates the “the art of cuisine at the service of well-being”, advocates a diet rich in certain fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. At the same time, it also expounds on the beauty of seafood, meat broths and foie gras (yes, you heard it right).

Robuchon’s newly launched Food & Life menu, however, takes a slightly different tack.

Given the abundance of meats and seafood in the Le Printemps and Menu Appetit menus, Food & Life proposes a menu that is vegetarian and gluten-free. Robuchon’s vision for this menu is to incorporate locally sourced organic produce whenever possible. For the launch of Food & Life in Singapore, however, the majority of the vegetable produce was flown-in from Southern France.

If vegetarian fare evokes blandness from your databank of out-of-fashion vegetarian cuisine, you cannot be more wrong. Not with Robuchon.

At a recent dinner, Robuchon, who spent as much time greeting the diners as he did supervising the kitchen, dazzled us with a 7-course dinner (technically 10 courses including the amuse bouche, pre-dessert and coffee/tea).

To start, a disc of cubed beet and apple construction arrived topped with a scoop of green mustard sorbet surrounded by a riot of leafy bitter salad. The contrast of sweetness from the beet/apple, mild mustardy sorbet buffered by austere tones from the salad was beyond reproach.

There was also la tomate, gazpacho curiously ensconced in a trio of candied tomatoes flanked by mounds of tomato jelly. In the background, a blanket of clear tomato jelly provided delicious incentives to mop the plate clean. 

And then there were spears of succulent white asparagus, artfully arranged on a canvas of vegetable miso-emulsion dusted with Espelette pepper. Simple but tasty.

Whilst they were all good, the highlight of the meal was the risotto-style Le Riz course. Spanish bomba rice cooked with saffron and pimentos in a savoury reduced-chickpea broth arrived beautifully studded with cous cous and florets of cauliflower and broccoli. It was wholesome and, I dare say, a lighter but more delicious ensemble than the ubiquitous risotto or paella.

The price tag for taking a gamble with Food & Life is S$158++ per head, which includes access to Robuchon’s wickedly decadent bread and dessert trollies.

By Robuchon’s standard, this is a steal. By any other standards, it’s excellent value.

The prerequisite for entertaining Robuchon’s Food & Life menu is that one must love vegetables. By that, I am referring to all manner of fruits and vegetables ranging from tomato, avocado, asparagus, cucumber and petit pois, to fennel and rhubarb.

I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed every single shred, spear, disc, cube and floret of it.