Test Kitchen - Danish Christmas Menu by Chef Filip Søndergaard (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Test Kitchen has long been on my radar screen ever since they opened doors at a former printing house in Sai Ying Pun more than a year ago. Every month, the pop-up style restaurant welcomes a different chef from somewhere around the world where he or she takes over their kitchen for about a week to showcase the talent that has made them relevant in their respective market.   

This is a fascinating concept but it's hardly something new in the culinary world. In fact, it's been around for decades. The most successful implementation of such concept took place at Restaurant Ikarus at Hangar-7 in Salzburg (starting in 2003) where they welcome the world's most top-notch chefs (Richard Ekkbus of Amber and André Chiang formerly of Restaurant Andre were two of their guest chefs during my visit that year) month after month.

Here's the post on my dining experience at Ikarus in 2014. I like the way they put it, kind of like a mission statement on their website.

At Hangar-7, a project was started which no other restaurant in the world had ever dared to attempt: the guest chef concept. A different top chef each month. It doesn‘t matter which continent or country they come from, whether it‘s the USA, South Africa or Japan. Or whether they serve traditional, fusion or molecular cuisine. What matters most is the variety. And, of course, the high quality of the dishes.

Obviously, there's a lot to like about the guest chef concept. The opportunity to sample creative cuisine from different parts of the world without spending money on plane tickets is too much to turn down. So, we gathered a few friends including Fishie who's been there a few times already before signing up for my very first Test Kitchen experience which was themed as the "Danish Christmas".



This is Danish chef Filip Søndergaard's second go-around with Test Kitchen. Trained in Oslo, chef Søndergaard spent years traveling around the world with stints in London, Australia, Italy and Denmark (no place like home) before making Berlin his permanent home these days. But instead of the modern Nordic cuisine which has helped him make a name for himself, he would be cooking a traditional Danish Christmas dinner for us. 



We enjoyed some bread while we waited for our starters to show up.....



First up were a trio of starters which the chef described as their traditional Danish dishes for Christmas.



The shrimp tartare with pickled cucumber, cucumber oil, cress and black pepper mayo was well-seasoned though we were expecting the shrimp to be raw rather than cooked.



Mackerel (Some said tasted like sardine) with endive, okra, crushed nuts and skyr, an Icelandic yoghurt was another fairly decent dish.



But the star was definitely the beetroot cured salmon served with egg salad. I really like the soft and moist flesh which married well with the sweetness of the beets.



There were two main dishes tonight.



The first was crispy Christmas pork belly which could've been a little more tender. But the crunchy pork crackling was perfect.



Not surprisingly, everyone preferred the second main dish which was a family-style slow-cooked duck with classic sharing plates. This tasted a lot like the roasted duck we had in Prague many years ago. Very similar style of seasoning which wasn't bad at all, but it would be hard pressed to beat our Chinese-style roasted duck in my opinion.



The main courses came with all kinds of side dish including red cabbage with orange, caramelized potato, crispy potato, potato purée and cucumber salad. Yeah, it's Christmas so it's always nice to do some sharing of good food around the table.



We had a quick chat with the Danish chef after enjoying our main dishes. Fishie suddenly popped the question on how he managed to travel around with all these ingredients. Well, guest what. Turned out only the cheese came from his hometown of Denmark while the rest were sourced locally. Could would be a much more delicious meal if he could somehow get his hands on some Danish ingredients that he knew inside out? Just wondering.

So I guess we shouldn't miss the cheese section for the world coz after all, we don't see Danish cheese in Hong Kong very often.



I thought the Vesterhavsost, a semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Northwest Jutland, was pretty nice. Its flavors were not unlike the French Comté cheese which was aromatic with a bit of nutty and creamy notes. The Blaa Kornblomst goat cheese was alright.



I have been looking forward to dessert all night and it was a beauty. Ris a la mande is a traditional Danish rice pudding, which is a very popular dessert in Denmark around Christmas time. It is usually served cold with a warm cherry sauce but the chef thought it's already hot enough here in Hong Kong, so he swapped the cherry sauce with a cherry sorbet instead. 

It was a nice 2-hour crash course on traditional Danish Christmas feast. I thought everyone had a great time tonight and that's really the most important part.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Shop 3, Kwan Yick Building Phase 3, 158A Connaught Road West, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Sai Ying Pun
Website: www.testkitchen.com.hk