Lumière was a gem waiting to be unearthed in an area better known for its shopping than dining options. After 11 years of dedication and hard work, owner-chef Yasushi Karato (唐渡泰) and his team finally managed to capture their first Michelin star in 2017.
Chef Karato who's also behind Lumière's casual sister Lumière L'esprit K, started cooking at a very young age and after honing his skills in France at renowned restaurants like Le Jean Moulin (Lyon) and Restaurant La Côte d'Or (Saulieu), he moved back to Japan and eventually opened Lumière back in 2006. His brand of contemporary French cuisine has a lot of Japanese inspirations and not surprisingly heavily influenced by local Japanese ingredients.
We went with their tasting menu tonight and things already started fast and furious for us with our first starter - ayu fish prepared in two ways. First, they had the ayu fillet deep-fried with crispy taro and that was accompanied by its bone confit.
This came with a lot of condiments including stuff like liquid nitrogen cucumber snow, pickled cucumber purèe, watermelon and tomato sauce, lemon sauce, ayu liver sauce, green peas and purple onion. Did I miss anything (I hope not)? I didn't get to try all the different combination of flavors together but for the most part, it was an interesting experience and like any avant-garde dish, some hits and misses here and there.
Next we had a hot dish served table-side featuring some local potatoes.
Stuffed inside the slices of potato were duck liver, mushroom and a flavorful vegetable sauce and it was served on a pool of potato purèe and agar agar.
That was quite decent.
It was time for some bread.
Then, it was the dish I have long been waiting for - Lumière's signature "amuse bouche" platter (Are we going back to amuse bouche after a couple of starters now?). These would sure get my appetite going.
On the bottom level, there were veloutè made with sweet corn from Kagoshima, foie gras and fig terrine, Japanese white fish from Hokkaido in eggplant sauce and lastly, shrimp salad with vegetable dressing (I hope I'm getting all these right).
On the top level starting from left to right, we have gazpacho with green tomato, celery, parsley and squid, pâté made with a mix of beef, chicken, pork and foie gras, along with pickled ginger and mustard seed tuile, marinated tuna with vegetable and finally, abalone with green sauce. I think I didn't miss any one.
That was a lot of food even though they all came in a very small package. Interestingly, each level started with a soup as if it's a formal multi-course meal.
Following the parade of amuse bouche, we were finally ready for our fish course. Or was it another starter? I was trying to figure out what this was as it came with a lot of ingredients and colors.
As it turned out, the dish was centered around a round-shaped chicken fillet, slow-cooked and charcoal grilled. You won't notice the grilling part judging by the color of the meat which was still pink in the middle. This was served with two types of sautéed sea whelk, three types of local green beans, chicken broth, clam sauce and butternut squash purée. A very busy dish and one that I didn't get at all.
What I didn't like about this dish, apart from the marriage of partially raw chicken and sea whelks was the thick sauce in the middle, which was way too rich and flavorful for my liking. It's almost like a Chinese oyster sauce, without dilution.
The strange sequence continued as they sandwiched a soup in between the chicken-sea whelk (presumably my fish course) and meat course.
Here we have a crab bisque with crab flavored foam floating on top and hidden underneath were small pieces of shrimp and bell pepper. The soup itself was quite decent but it tasted nothing like crab.
There were a couple of choices when it came to our meat course, in which I've gladly chosen their roasted French pigeon. This was probably the only dish that looked French all night.
I thought the pigeon legs were roasted to perfection and the pumpkin mochi with white and black sesame, smoked pepper and green pepper stuffed with onion were nice additions to offset the richness of the pigeon. Two different sauces came with this dish but I personally like the stronger pigeon liver sauce a little more than the refreshing grape juice sauce.
Jelloman went with the beef tenderloin from Hokkaido, which was accompanied by almost the same supporting cast as my pigeon - pumpkin mochi and green pepper. It was served with a flavorful beef jus which worked almost like a gravy.
If there's a part of the meal that impressed me the most, it's their pre-dessert and desserts.
We were offered a vegetable parfait as a palate cleanser which I thought was really delicious. Apart from the parfait made with what our server claimed to be a kind of Japanese vegetable like spinach, there were different flavors in each of the other layers ranging from coconut milk, milk and celery sorbet to bean curd making this a very special pre-dessert. A homemade burdock and caramel sauce helped to put a nice finishing touch.
Up to this point, I would probably say this was the best dish of the meal so far (Too little too late?)
We had two excellent desserts, with the first one served in an open peach from Wakayama. Inside the peach was peach purée and peach soup topped by a peach sorbet. Very refreshing and very nice dish to finish the night with.
Jelloman had the mango dessert with mango mousse, mint jelly and passion fruit sauce and she thought the sweetness of the mango balls were complemented quite well by the nice burst of acidity from the passion fruit.
A small dessert was served in a glass cup right before our mignardises arrived, which turned out to be a beetroot mochi in a Japanese citrus jelly topped with some popping candy.
Some mignardises including a very nice vanilla and caramel bloop made with spherification ended our night at Lumière that lasted a little over 2 hours.
I thought yesterday's meal at Ad Hoc was funky but tonight's dinner managed to beat it by quite a wide margin. Unfortunately, some of these dishes (chicken and sea whelk one?) were too innovative and avante-garde for me to fully understand and appreciate.
Food Rating: 5.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥￥
Address: 3/F, Unagidani Block Building, 1-19-15 Higashishinsaibashi, Osaka, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Shinsaibashi
Tel: +81 (0)6 6251-4006
Post a Comment
Please tell us what you think