GEORGE TOWN, Jan 30 — When French restaurant Au Jardin first opened its doors almost two years ago, it already had many fans waiting for its opening.
After all, Chef Proprietor Su Kim Hock and his team are no strangers in Penang as they were the ones behind the wildly successful eatery, Basil Le Bistrot, located along Kek Chuan Road here.
Basil, a cafe that opened back in 2014, was known for its superb French-style cuisine including foie gras and mouthwatering pastries.
The cafe operated along that quiet road in the middle of the city for three years before Su and team decided to close it and focus on their outlet in Taiwan.
“We opened Basil Le Bistrot in Taipei in 2015 and I was spending two weeks here and two weeks there,” Su said.
When there was an issue with staffing, he had to choose between the Penang or Taipei outlets as they could only focus on one.
The whole team shifted to Taiwan after closing the Penang outlet in 2017 and the cafe there was also hugely successful.
Just as the rental contract for the outlet in Taipei was coming to an end in 2018, Su said they had to make another choice.
“We received offers from investors to set up in Taichung, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur but what I wanted was to come back to Penang,” he said.
So the team looked for an investor who was willing to help them set up in Penang.
Basil in Taipei closed on June 1, 2018 and barely a few months later, Au Jardin opened its doors in an old warehouse in Hin Bus Depot.
While Basil was mostly bistro food in a casual setting, Au Jardin is an entirely different concept as Su felt that Penang was ready for this genre of dining.
“Six, seven years ago, the city was not ready for this kind of dining but when we came back, we believe people have more spending power for this kind of dining,” he said.
It was also what Su had always wanted to do; Au Jardin gave him the freedom to express his creativity and to serve dishes that are of the highest quality which look like works of art.
“Back in Basil, we were serving up to 200 people in Penang and 400 people in Taipei daily... the food served had to be fast so it was a different kind of environment,” he said.
Now, Au Jardin can only accept a maximum of 20 patrons at any one time for brunch, lunch or dinner so reservations are strongly encouraged.
Lunch and dinner in Au Jardin are long drawn-out affairs as the chefs led by Su will prepare each dish individually with a focus on fine details to make it a full experience for the senses.
“Our tagline ‘la cuisine naturelle’ means using cooking techniques to enhance and showcase the natural flavours of the ingredients we use,” he said.
He said this was the very essence of French cooking, which was to use the many techniques to bring out the delicate flavours of ingredients that are locally sourced.
He explained that the association of fine dining with truffles and other "exotic" ingredients is incorrect... as in France those are local ingredients but in another country, they are not!
When applied to a Malaysian context, Au Jardin uses Malaysian herbs, spices and ingredients.
Su said they try to source everything locally to maintain the quality of the food.
“We work closely with local farmers and we use ingredients according to the season such as during durian season, we will use durians or rambutans,” he said.
Au Jardin serves brunch on weekends and set lunches and dinners from Thursdays to Sundays.
Their set lunches and dinners are changed each month with special themes such as the Chinese New Year theme for January and a Valentine them in February.
The set lunches are typically three courses while the dinners are either six- or eight-course.
While the cuisine Su created for the restaurant is based on European cooking, hints of local flavours can be found in many of his dishes.
There is the flounder poached in coconut oil in the restaurant’s Nouvel Ans Chinoise dinner set.
Also in the same menus is an abalone dish where the shellfish is charcoal grilled and served on pearl rice with shaved yuzu and shoyu for added umami.
Diners, especially those who have tried Basil Le Bistrot’s food previously, will be pleasantly surprised with an off-menu item — tomato cappuccino.
This is the light tomato soup topped with parmigiano cheese foam, almost like a savoury cappuccino without the coffee, that was a popular item in Basil.
“It is our way of telling our regulars that we are the same team from Basil,” he said.
Au Jardin has a bar upstairs and a supper club for diners who wish to stay on for a couple drinks and relax till late at night.
The bar has a cocktail menu and a scotch menu offering a variety of drinks which can be enjoyed with the supper club’s offerings such as braised Iberico pork rice, tuna tartare don, foie gras salad and fresh Hokkaido uni.
Au Jardin
The Warehouse @ Hin Bus Depot
11am-2am (Thursdays and Fridays)
9am-2am (Saturdays and Sundays)
Reservations can be made at: www.restaurant-aujardin.com
