When you get a chance to dine at the Shangri-La Hotel where the highly acclaimed Culinary Arts Director at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu London cooks you an exclusive a la carte meal... You say "yes chef!"
Chef Emil Minev has 25 years of culinary expertise in fine dining and has worked at some of the most prestigious hotels and restaurants around the world, including the Shangri-La Hotel. He graduated from Cordon Bleu in 2002, and was acknowledged by Cordon Bleu as one of the most successful alumni graduate from the college. So when I was invited by Tiffany (@littleblackpearls) to attend an intimate media event with her where we were able to see Chef Minev behind the scenes in the kitchen, and enjoy a sample of his exclusive dinner menu, I haddd to say yes. (Can you tell how excited we were to eat in the group picture below?)
We were presented with a beautiful set up in the private dining room at Bosk. The table setting was beyond gorgeous, and everyone couldn't help but take photos. (I guess that's a given since we were all media though, haha.) Once we all got seated, we were presented with wine, bread, and our first course: Nova Scotia scallops. With squid ink and miso velouté as the 'sauce' for the juicy scallop, I have to say this was absolutely divine. Spoiler alert: this was my favourite dish of the meal. I honestly could have eaten 3 or 4 of these scallops.
Moving on from the scallops though (cause I could probably talk about them for an hour), the second dish that was presented to us was an organic barley risotto with black truffle and parmesan emulsion. Ok, can we just take a moment and talk about how delicious anything truffle is? This creamy, truffle-infused risotto was just so, so good and I think everyone at the table can back me up on this. While we're at it, can I also mention how beautiful each of these dishes are presented? Chef Minev has serious plating skills. I guess he did learn from the best at Le Cordon Bleu... Ha.
Next up was a roasted tenderloin with a leek and pommes fondant, and forest mushrooms and spinach on the side. Cooked to exactly the way I like my red meat (medium rare, more on the rare-ish side), this was just SO good. We were given two pieces, which is honestly more than enough given that we already had 2 other dishes, but I could have had a third. (Haha, I just realized I'm making myself sound like a pig right now. I swear it's only because it was that good!)
And finally, we ended off our meal with a caramelized pineapple, that was paired with yogurt, white chocolate, and an aloe vera/basil sorbet. I love grilled pineapples, so I enjoyed this dessert a lot! Although I am guilty of always ordering something chocolate for dessert, I have to say this was a nice light finish to our meal.
This exclusive a la carte dinner menu created by Chef Emil Minev will be available in Bosk from now until November 5th. You have only FIVE more days to enjoy this menu, and I highly recommend you take the opportunity to visit Bosk and try some of his dishes from this exclusive menu. You can make reservations by emailing boskreservations.slto@shangri-la.com.
