2nd Annual Culinary Coin Festival @ the Ritz in Beijing

new pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

What better way to celebrate a full recovery from an ailment than to attend a Culinary festival in which some of the top restaurants in Beijing participated, in addition to 3 top chefs being highlighted. I actually had not had a single glass of wine since I had gotten here on May 8 until the festival at the Ritz. When it hits your lips it just tastes so good!! I had been craving a nice glass of red for the past 2 weeks, but wine is really just not a popular beverage of choice in this city/country. There are a couple of wine bars in Beijing that I have not been to yet, and a few restaurants have some amazing wine lists, but you can't buy any legitimate wine in any liquor stores (Great Wall brand wine does not count).

Volker Drkosch, Claudio Sadler, and Eric Johnson were the 3 chefs being highlighted at this event. Drkosch is a 1 star Michelin chef, Sadler is a 2 star Michelin chef, and Johnson is a former chef/partner from Jean-Georges. Quality pedigrees indeed. After the 3 hour open house and cocktail session each chef retired themselves to a different restaurant within the Ritz and served a set menu. I ended up going to the meal that Sadler prepared, here is the menu (the swordfish was the best item on the menu):

Sadler came over and chatted with our table. He has 2 restaurants in Italy (1 in Milan, and 1 somewhere else). He was a nice guy. He mentioned that he was opening a place called Sadler in the Legation Quarter of Beijing. The Legation Quarter is the area of the city where all the old embassies were located and it is currently being gentrified. Actually, Daniel Boulud is opening his debut restaurant in China there too. It is going to be called Maison Boulud. Sounds like there should be great eating and I would guess quality shopping in that area. I know all the restauranteurs are scrambling to iron out all the kinks of their operations prior to the arrival of the Olympic crowds.

Thanks to Yasmin and her brother I have been in contact with the woman (Jen Yang) who is in charge of opening Maison Boulud and plan on meeting up with her on the evening of Monday June 17. I am sure these places will absolutely pack the tables during the Olympics with all the multi-national tourists who have plenty of money to spend, but I am curious about whether they will be able to sustain their businesses once all the foreigners go home. Sure, there is a decent expat population in Beijing, but I am not sure it is large enough to support the growing number of high end restuarants that seem to be popping up. And in re: to the locals, well, I don't see them frequenting these types of places for 2 primary reasons: 1) the style of the cuisine 2) the price of the food. From my observations the under 40 crowd LOVES KFC, and of course, pre-packaged ice cream bars.

I wish I could buy futures on the Diabetes situation amongst the two youngest generations of the Chinese populations in cities here. They eat like such crap, the number of cases of diabetes just has to increase... it has to. Interesting idea... there is already a weather exchange (called the CCX, for I think, the Chicago Climate Exchange) where you can "invest" in weather situations. Maybe I will start a Disease Exchange.

Claudio Sadler, here's looking at you (or rather, here's to you looking at us I guess), thanks for the great meal.