Watching masters at work is truly a beautiful thing.
This weekend, Sofitel Saigon Plaza features the Lyons Culinary Festival with three masters at their craft, including Bruno Bluntzer, owner of Sibilia, an artisanal maker of cold cuts, from Lyons, the capital of cold cuts.
Bruno brings with him some of his finest dry cold cuts, including the country sausage with its all around mellow flavor, the slender but tasty rosette, and my favorite, the Jésus de Lyon saucisson that contains the same ingredients as the rosette but the meat is coarser and its size is shorter and fatter. (Named “Jesus” because in the aging process, it’s wrapped in linen and its shape is more oval instead of long, recalling the baby Jesus!)
The festival will offer connoisseurs a stunning a la carte menu at L’Olivier restaurant including a brioche sausage roll with baby leaf salad (VND 250,000), a Lyon style Quenelle (poached fish mousse) with a Supreme (lobster) sauce (VND 390,000) and a classic Coq au vin with straw potato pancake (VND 480,000). Cheese and desserts are also on the classic menu.
Or let the chefs put together a special Menu Magnifique for you, including the quenelle, coq au vin along with a Lyonnaise salad, Meat and potato in pastry crust and finished off with a “Floating Island with Praline” dessert. Delicieux!
Sunday Brunch will also be on offer at Cafe Rivoli.
So for your taste of a traditional Lyonnais menu centering around meat in all its glorious forms, Sofitel Saigon Plaza this weekend only (Friday Sept 20 - Sunday Sept 22) is the place to be!
Elegant “pigs in a blanket” - pork sausage with pistachio with a brioche shell
L’Olivier Restaurant
Sofitel Saigon Plaza
17 Le Duan Boulevard
tel: 3824 1555