Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
There are very few upscale dining experiences, which promise the kind of intimacy with the chef that comes with a seat at a sushi bar – less than a metre away from the master crafter who prepares your meal with delicate attention-to-detail.
This is how Chef Tetsu Yahagi introduced the GulfWeekly team to the concept of the new Sushi Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay’s newly-renovated and recently-reopened Re/Asian Cuisine.
Along with Chef Hiroyuki ‘Fuji’ Fujino, Chef Tetsu has flown out to the kingdom from the US to craft and curate the perfect Asian fusion culinary experience.
Trusted by celebrated chef Wolfgang Puck as among his ‘sushi experts’, the two make the perfect team – Chef Fuji, 64, brings the discipline of a classically-trained sushi chef, while Chef Tetsu, 44, adds the avant-garde touch that makes a meal at the restaurant so much more than just eating the food.
And the GulfWeekly team got a taste for their creations last weekend during an unforgettable opening-night experience that started with a tour of some of the restaurant’s recent renovations.
Having been closed for renovations for much of the pandemic, the Four Seasons team was excited to show us the changes, the highlight being the sushi bar which greets diners at the entrance to the 50th-floor restaurant.
To say that watching the chefs meticulously put together every dish heightens the experience of an evening out would be an understatement. It gives one a new appreciation of the passion, love and care that goes into crafting something so seemingly simple as sushi.
After all, the ingredients of most nigiri, robata or sashimi are not manifold. In fact, simplicity is often key to the best sushi.
But it’s the skill and experience of the chef, which is much better seen up-close than in a dining room seemingly worlds away from the kitchen.
But this also puts an added onus on the chefs, as it transforms their art into a performative one, where communicating with diners through words is just as important as through your creations.
And getting chefs comfortable with this was just as critical as creating the menu, Chef Tetsu told us, as he prepared the sea bream nigiri, crispy rice roll and spicy tuna roll to kick off our sushi sojourn.
And here is where I must share my biggest strife with eating out at the Four Seasons. Words are absolutely inadequate when trying to describe the velvety freshness of the tuna and toro, the flawless crispiness of the fried rice and the firm-yet-soft texture of the rice.
From our very first to the last, each dish had us saying, “That had to be the best one so far.”
After our hand-cut rolls, we were treated to the Hokkaido scallop ceviche and the gold-digger roll – two of Chef Fuji’s personal favourites which again teleported us to a serene seashore, where wave after wave of picture-and taste-perfect fish cruised through our palates.
We were just enjoying our seaside samplers, when Chef Fuji appeared and gently coaxed us to try the black tiger prawn Robata, which is prepared using a Japanese light-barbecuing technique that seals in the flavour while retaining the freshness of the fish.
My managing editor may just kill me, mostly out of jealousy, if I regale you, dear reader, with how poetically perfect the colourful dumplings and the rainbow roll that followed were.
But suffice it to say, you must try the Szechuan lamb dumplings, cooked in chili oil, with Szechuan peppers and crispy shallots, as well as the rainbow roll – no matter how bizarre the combination of king crab, salmon, tuna, Hamachi, sea bream and shrimp in a single dish may initially sound.
And, to round off the perfect evening, we had the perfect pair of desserts. The Re/Pavlova – with vegan meringue, coconut mousse, citrus cremeux and pineapple sorbet – is sure to delight the fruit and sorbet lovers.
As for me, I have an unhealthy but delicious relationship with chocolate, which reached its crescendo with the chocolate macadamia pie. With chocolate mousse, macadamia praline and hazelnut-almond ice cream, to call a bite of this celestial may not be worthy enough of its chocolaty goodness.
As our evening came to a close and we said our goodbyes to the chefs who had captained our culinary cruise, we were left with a familiar sinking feeling – knowing that no other food would likely taste quite good enough and no dinner out would be quite as exhilarating ...
