What was the inspiration behind the dish?
The concept is that in a few small spoons, you have all the different textures and flavours of the sea.
What goes into this dish?
On the bottom of the oyster shell we have a tartare of cooked shellfish, a mix of mussels, razor clams, vernis and cockles, and these are kept together with some puree of lemon zest. The poached oyster sits on top, and then we have sea water jelly and caviar. All the flavours from the sea are represented.
When you first see this dish, it looks very simple, but in fact, there’s so much more to it than what you first see. There are a lot of components to the dish and it is time consuming to put it all together. The difficulty is in showing something that looks so easy and effortless.
I think the metamorphosis of a chef happens every day. There is no one particular turning point, because every day, every year, you are trying to improve and do better than the day before. My metamorphosis has been a gradual shift from when I was young and first starting out, being influenced by chefs I have worked with — I’m evolving every day. When you create a dish, there is an element of metamorphosis, from your initial concept to the finished product. With this dish, the metamorphosis is taking different things from the sea, things we love, and recreating them into a dish that can be enjoyed by our guests.