巴黎美食界兩大明星聯手入駐香港

Two stars of the Paris dining scene now have a pied-à-terre in Hong Kong. Last August, Fred Peneau, formerly the business partner of I?aki Aizpitarte at Le Chateaubriand, and the chef Christophe Pelé joined with the interior designer Charles Pelletier to open Serge et le Phoque, a contemporary French restaurant in the heart of the Wan Chai district. (The restaurant was named both after and by Mr. Peneau's young son, Serge, who thought that le Phoque, French for "the seal," would be a good companion to Le Dauphin, or "the dolphin," another of Mr. Peneau's ventures.)

巴黎美食界的兩大明星現在已進駐香港。去年8月，巴黎小酒館(Le Chateaubriand)伊納基·艾茲皮塔特(I?aki Aizpitarte)的前商業夥伴弗雷德·佩諾(Fred Peneau)和主廚克里斯托弗·珀萊(Christophe Pelé)，與室內設計師夏爾·佩爾蒂埃(Charles Pelletier)聯手在灣仔中心地帶開了一家現代風格的法式餐廳——塞爾日與海豹(Serge et le Phoque)。（佩諾年幼的兒子塞爾日[Serge]以自己的名字爲餐廳命名。在法語中，le Phoque是海豹的意思。Le Dauphin是海豚的意思，也是佩諾另一家餐廳的名字。塞爾日覺得“海豹”會是“海豚”的好夥伴。）

With its product-focused cooking, natural wines and artfully unkempt waiters, this restaurant would easily feel at home in eastern Paris. The service is eager to please, if occasionally distracted. "I have to keep telling them to stop looking in the mirror," said Mr. Pelletier, who runs the floor.

這家餐廳注重在烹調時突出食物自身的美味和天然葡萄酒，服務生刻意顯得不修邊幅。這一切讓人覺得這彷彿就是巴黎東部的一家餐廳。服務員極力想讓顧客滿意，即便他們偶爾會分心。負責管理餐廳的佩爾蒂埃說，“我得不停地告訴他們不要照鏡子。”

He also designed the room. That irresistible mirror covers the back wall, reflecting a whitewashed space furnished with pale plywood tables and mint green banquettes. Plate-glass windows bring a lively street scene indoors. (One oddity: A trip to the bathroom means visiting the parking garage next door.)

房間也是由他設計的。令人無法抗拒的鏡子遮住了後牆，反射出一個刷成白色的房間，裏面擺有白色膠合板餐桌和薄荷綠色的長凳。大玻璃窗映射出熱鬧的街道景象。（奇怪的地方：去洗手間要去旁邊的停車場。）

The menu changes regularly. Many of the ingredients are Japanese or European, including the meat, which comes from the Parisian butcher Hugo Desnoyer.

菜單會定期更換。很多原料都來自日本或歐洲。比如，肉是由巴黎肉商雨果·德努瓦耶(Hugo Desnoyer)提供的。

Like the room, Mr. Pelé's presentations are stark and modern — but that belies their bold flavors. Sauces and starches are rare. Elements are assembled more than combined, but the results are generally cohesive and often delicious. On my last visit, a pure pea gazpacho was enriched by a quivering hen's egg, garnished with paper-thin rice wafers black with squid ink. Raw yellowtail was thickly cut and seasoned by salty bottarga, peppery radish and throat-tickling olive oil. Mackerel was shrouded by lardo di colonnata and crowned with squeaky enoki mushrooms. Rare lamp chops sat atop charred eggplant, a piece of herring perched on the rim. Ruby beet sorbet brought out the bitterness in a thick caramel sauce.

就像房間一樣，珀萊裝盆的方式非常簡約、現代——但這掩蓋了他們大膽的口味。他們很少用調味汁和芡粉。各種原料放在一起，但並不相互融合，但結果卻通常很和諧，而且美味可口。我上一次去這家餐廳時，廚師在一碗純豌豆冷湯中加入了彈性十足的雞蛋，上面配有浸沾了墨魚汁的薄米餅。生黃尾魚被切成厚片，並用鹹魚子、辣蘿蔔和讓人嗓子發癢的橄欖油調製。鯖魚外面裹了醃豬白肉，上面覆蓋着咬起來咯吱作響的金針菇。烤茄子上放了一塊半熟的羊排，旁邊還配有鯡魚片。紅色的甜菜冰糕上淋了厚厚一層焦糖醬，吃起來有點苦。

With all this mixing-and-matching, a board of ripe cheeses from Alléosse, a fromager in Paris, settles any doubt as to whether this is a French restaurant, as does the butter on the table, straight from Brittany.

這樣的混合與搭配，再加上來自法國巴黎Alléosse奶酪店的熟乾酪，還有桌上擺的來自布列塔尼的黃油，會打消你有關這是否是一家法國餐廳的任何懷疑。