FESTIVE FEASTING

There’s no place like home for the holiday seasons, but it’s also a great time to travel with family and friends, or for a romantic getaway. If you’re planning to visit London, New York or Paris for a whiter, more wintery Christmas, here are some exquisite and extravagant holiday dining experiences to add to the festive joy

London
TEXT / DAVEN WU

MANDARIN ORIENTAL HYDE PARK
Live like a royal, even if it’s for only one memorable night. Book the newly renovated three-bedroom Royal Suite at the Mandarin Oriental and throw an intimate Christmas lunch in the private dining room overlooking the frosty winter wonderland of Hyde Park. The menu starts with canapés served with Krug Grand Cuvée before sweeping through Scottish oysters; Beluga; truffled roast black-feathered turkey served with chipolatas, bacon rolls, roasted chestnuts; potatoes roasted in goose fat; and a meltingly good Valrhona chocolate fondant with Glenfiddich ice cream.
Tel: (44 20) 7201 3773
www.mandarinoriental.com

TOM AIKENS
The dashing Tom Aikens has been charming savvy London diners (and the Michelin folk) for nearly two decades now with his French-influenced mod cooking. For this festive season, he’s rolled out several tasting menus, but our attention is held by the New Year’s Eve feast. A roasted scallop and chestnut soup with black truffles kicks off the meal. This is followed by cured foie gras and sauternes jelly, mallard salad, roasted sea bass with smoked paprika, Swaledale lamb loin, cheeses and, if you can still breathe normally, a lovely duo of desserts of chocolate mousse and coffee pannacotta.
Tel: (44 20) 7584 2003
www.tomaikens.co.uk

MARCUS WAREING
Dining at Marcus Wareing even on a normal day is a reminder of how wonderful the good life tastes. But during the Christmas and New Year season, in the claret-coloured room cossetted with immaculate service, it feels particularly special. The Christmas Day menu, in particular, is a grand folly of Severn and Wye smoked salmon, roast Scottish lobster, Norfolk turkey that’s been poached and roasted, and a ballontine of foie gras and Douglas fir served with clementines and warm walnut brioche.
Tel: (44 20) 7235 1200
www.the-berkeley.co.uk

HELENE DARROZE
There’s something to be said for celebrating Christmas in one of London’s grande dame hotels, and they don’t get much grander than the Connaught. Book the Connaught Suite and dine your way from Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day. After a horse-drawn carriage ride through Mayfair on Christmas morning with hot chocolate and marshmallows, get ready for lunch at Helen Darroze’s celebrated restaurant. Expect a feast of oyster tartare, Les Landes duck foie gras and roasted corn-fed capon with Perigord black truffle.
Tel: (44 20) 7499 7070
www.the-connaught.co.uk

NEW YORK
TEXT / JANET FORMAN

FELIDIA
New York’s reigning restaurant matriarch, Lidia Bastianich, rings in the New Year with a menu entitled Bubbles, Pearls and Truffles: wild salmon tartare paired with salmon caviar, burrata cheese and sunny-side-up organic egg with pressed malossol paired with Bastianich Brut MV from the family’s vineyards in Italy, ravioli dusted with white truffle, veal tenderloin layered with black winter truffle and a coconut tapioca pearl dessert imbued with syrup redolent of basil.
Tel: (1 212) 758 1479
www.felidia-nyc.com

GILD HALL
This modern-day gentleman’s club indulges guests as if they were high-flyers of The Gilded Age, serving a private five-course dinner for two from Libertine restaurant in the dining room of the hotel’s 850-sq-ft Penthouse Suite. After dessert and digestives, a butler draws your bubble bath in the claw-foot tub. The VIP Holiday Feast includes wine pairings, after-dinner drinks and a night in the Penthouse Suite.
Tel: (1 212) 232 7700
www.thompsonhotels.com

GILT
Just beyond the wrought-iron courtyard gates of the historic Villard Mansion, now the New York Palace Hotel, two-Michelin-star Chef Justin Bogle puts a New American twist on traditional luxury ingredients such as caviar, truffles and foie gras. For the second seating on New Year’s Eve an intimate group can dance to swing, Sinatra and jazz standards from Hank Lane’s four-piece band under the 19th-century gilded ceiling of the private Madison Room.
Tel: (1 212) 891 8100
www.giltnewyork.com

RUSSIAN TEA ROOM
Founded by members of the Russian Imperial Ballet in 1927, this enduring Gotham icon next door to Carnegie Hall is lavished in crystal, gilt and inlaid wood. A full ounce of American sturgeon caviar with warm buckwheat blini begins the New Year’s Eve celebration, followed by oyster Rockefeller, sturgeon with Siberian osetra caviar, boeuf stroganoff with wild mushrooms and porcini cream, sweet Czar’s gold and caviar parfait with 24k edible gold, and traditional baked Alaska flambéed tableside.
Tel: (1 212) 581 7100
www.russiantearoomnyc.com

PARIS
TEXT / MARGARET KEMP

LA TOUR D’ARGENT
The talented young chef Laurent Delarbre is creating his first Christmas season’s holiday menus. Opened in 1582, the achingly chic restaurant is located high above the Seine and has been owned by the Terrail family for 100 years. The ground floor is a gastronomic museum and the sixth-floor restaurant is reached by a velvet-lined lift which has also been used by the Queen of England and Bill Clinton.

Ask for a window table, then put yourself in the hands of the attentive staff and English-born head sommelier David Ridgway, who has perfect wines to match the 10-course menu. Begin with médaillon of spiny lobster Don Carlo, followed by fresh truffles, duck breast and foie gras in puff pastry; consommé Isabelle; pan-sautéed scallops with truffles; warm oysters; chicken with white Alba truffles; soufflé potatoes; and warm foie gras Trois Empereurs. Finish with Mont d’Or cheese and/or the duo of truffled chocolate and hazelnut.
Tel: (33 1) 4354 2331
www.latourdargent.com

LE MEURICE & LE DALI
Yannick Alleno is the three-star Michelin Chef at Le Meurice, and also of Le Dali, the informal brasserie-style restaurant next door. Le Meurice, inspired by Salon de la Paix at the Château de Versailles, was recently transformed by Philippe Starck into an elegant silver-and-white space. Chef Alleno says he has created contemporary seasonal menus, sourcing Île de France products for which he has designed stunning contemporary tableware. Christmas Eve dinner starts with large langoustine in an aromatic Meursault broth, scallop ravioli with caviar and foie gras and truffle macaroni.

The main of guinea fowl is cooked on the bone paired with truffle toasts, meat jus and potato purée; the Saint Nicolas goat cheese comes between two artichoke slices with truffle vinaigrette dressing; and dessert is a chestnut and tangerine yule log with petits fours and chocolates. Head sommelier Estelle Touzet recommends beginning with a Dom Pérignon Oenothèque 1990 and continuing with Château Haut Brion 2003 .
Tel: (33 1) 4458 1055
www.meuricehotel.com

LE JULES VERNE
Celebrate being 125 metres high up on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower with Mailly L’Intemporelle champagne. Le Jules Verne is now under the direction of multi-star superchef Alain Ducasse with Pascal Féraud as executive chef. Soft beige Star Trek decor is by Patrick Jouin who has incorporated many design features such as Pininfarina chairs and a central glass wall. The eight-course tasting menu begins with light chestnut broth, Alba truffles and warm baked breads, followed by French lobster with sabayon sauce and golden caviar, to be enjoyed with a 2005 Meursault from R Monnier.

Then, cocotte-cooked duck foie gras with tangy cooking jus; pan-seared turbot, crayfish and mushrooms à la riche; and spit-roasted Bresse chicken breast, seasonal vegetables and pearl jus that goes perfectly with a Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru. Enjoy truffled farmhouse Brie cheese with baby salad leaves and finish with two desserts: the exotic coconut and wild strawberry delight enhanced with tangy pineapple sorbet and, finally, Jules Verne’s signature: chocolate, caramel/coffee palet paired with tonka-bean ice cream. Superb with the suggested (and included) wine pairing: a 1999 Banyuls dessert wine grand cru.
Tel: (33 1) 4555 6144
www.lejulesverne-paris.com

LA MAISON BLANCHE
Located on the 7th floor above the Art Deco Théatre des Champs Elysées, it’s headed by Michelin-star twins Jacques and Laurent Pourcel. The glassed-in, two-level rooftop restaurant has minimal decor and stunning views of the city; on the the heated terrace sip a flute of champagne and admire the Eiffel Tower twinkling at night. In the kitchens, chef Thierry Vaissière is influenced by Mediterranean perfumes and the Languedoc region.

Under the direction of Bruno Franck, Christmas Eve festivities begin with tapas-style snacks and then five market-fresh courses that include a bright starter of crab and fennel with oyster emulsion and caviar Osciètre Royal. For New Year’s Eve there’s a sparkling eight-course menu celebrating not only the New Year, but also 20 years of La Maison Blanche. To match the occasion, red Chateau Pichon-Longueville or Chassagne Montrachet Premier Crus Clos Saint Jean is served.
Tel: (33 1) 4723 5599
www.maison-blanche.fr

APSLEYS
No city throws a black-tie party with more panache than London, and this New Year’s Eve all the stops are pulled out with a lush gala black-tie dinner dance at Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck’s Apsleys to celebrate both the arrival of 2011 and the Lanesborough hotel’s 20th anniversary. A champagne reception leads into a five-course dinner that includes lobster with avocado, slippery wild mushroom ravioli laced with black truffle and lamb encrusted with green olives. Then, under the glass-domed ceiling, dance in the New Year with bubbly Krug, fireworks and the swinging notes of an eight-piece band.
Tel: (44 20) 7259 5599
www.lanesborough.com

GORDON RAMSAY AT THE LONDON
Cloaked in oak with green lacquered walls, this classic British-style New York restaurant conceived by international celebrity chef Ramsay fetes New Year’s Eve with Hudson Valley foie gras and truffle vinaigrette, Maine diver scallop with saffron vanilla emulsion and imperial caviar, grilled rabbit tagliatelle laced with Alba truffle and Snake River Farm Kobe beef, topped off by Pimm’s No 1 lime sorbet and Périgord truffle ice cream.
Tel: (1 212) 468 8888
www.gordonramsay.com/gratthelondon

ALAIN DUCASSE
Located at The Plaza Athénée, the restaurant boasts stunning new decor by Patrick Jouin. Features include spectacular graphic satin-and-leather screens embroidered with vegetables, which took a year to make. They were commissioned by Ducasse to pay homage to the cuisine and the produce. The massive chandeliers and silver, pink and white colours add to the festive touch; this is a magical setting in the heart of Paris’ Golden Triangle. “A cuisine of fresh products, good for the planet, good for the health and good to taste,” says Ducasse. The menu is a surprise, but could include langoustine with caviar, duckling with turnips, and scallops from the Seine estuary fished by Alain Rigault. Whatever is served, prepare to be amazed.
Tel: (33 1) 5367 6500
www.plaza-athenee-paris.com/alain-ducasse-plaza-athenee