Chef Eiji Okamura initially joined the Palace Hotel Tokyo team in 1995 when he was just 20 years old. After a year, he transferred to a Japanese restaurant in Tokyo, then did a little stint in Frankfurt. It was a decade after when Chef Okamura-san returned to the Palace Hotel Tokyo in 2005 to work at the original Crown Restaurant. When Palace Hotel closed in 2009 for renovations, he stayed with the company and worked for the sister hotel Grand Palace Hotel. Chef Eiji was head of the kitchen team when Palace Hotel Tokyo re-opened their doors after all the renovations were complete.
Chef Eiji shares with us the reason behind his passion in cooking. “My passion and motivation,” Chef Eiji explains, “all comes from our guests’ happy smiles. When I see our guests having a meal with smiles on their faces, I know I need to keep going on, keep preparing the best meals.”
We asked Chef Eiji what his inspiration was in coming up with the recipe he is sharing with us today. “Using the specialties of the season, halibut and mussels,” He explains, “I created this dish thinking of the glittering lights of green and red of Christmas.”
Halibut and Langoustine with Tomato, Mussels, and White Wine Sauce
4 pcs halibut (50g each)
4 pcs langoustine
200 grams mussels
1 pc garlic
1 twig thyme
50 ml white wine
50 ml water
dash of olive oil
380 grams carnaroli rice
150 grams onion
25 grams butter
5 grams salt
360 ml water
30 grams zucchini
30 grams red bell pepper
30 grams yellow bell pepper
30 grams eggplant
20 grams pine nuts
20 grams black olives
1/2 cup of chicken stock
50 grams of mascarpone cheese
50 grams of parmesan cheese
1 tbsp of butter
-Sauce-
100 grams shallots
60 ml white wine vinegar
70 ml white wine
70 ml noilly
50 ml seashell stock
dash of mignonette
320 grams butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of tomato concasse
pinch of chives
Method
1. Clean the halibut and langoustines. Blanch and keep the langoustine claws to use for decoration later.
2. Saute the garlic with olive oil in a heated saucepan. Add the mussels, thyme and same amount of white wine and water, simmer until the mussels open. Take out the mussels and concasse to a size of 3mm. Simmer until soup is reduced to half.
3. Prepare the risotto. Chop up the onions and saute with butter. Cook rice in salt and water. Dice the vegetables in 5mm cubes and blanch. Add vegetables, pine nuts, black olives, chicken sotck, mascarpone to the rice, finish off with parmesan and butter.
4. Cook shallots in white wine vinegar, white wine, Noilly, step 2 soup with the mignonette and simmer to reduce. Add butter and strain. Add the concassed mussels and tomatoes before serving.
5. Grill the halibut and langoustines.
6. Arrange the step 3 risotto in the center of plate and palce the halibut and langoustines on top. Hold in place with a skewer if needed.
7. Pour the step 4 sauce around the halibut, sprinkle with minced chives on top.
8. Decorate with langoustine claws and balsamic syrup and gold dust. Enjoy!
The Grand Kitchen Restaurant in the Palace Hotel Tokyo is located at 1-1-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005 Japan.
[mappress mapid=”115″]Hours of Operation
Grand Kitchen Restaurant
Breakfast 6:00am – 10:30am
Lunch 11:30am – 5:30pm
Dinner 5:30pm – 11:00pm