Dining at 
One&Only Le Touessrok
Mauritius

Buxom vegetables, exotic labels of the virgin olive oils, subtle back-lighting—it could be art—but it’s the salad bar at Le Touessrok’s 398. Baby lettuces, curls of romaine and sprigs of watercress rest on ice. Artichokes to zucchinis, designer olive oils, aged vinegars and no less than five salts inspire my inner chef. The real salad chef stands at his post tossing tonight’s à la minute salad —mixed julienne vegetables on avocado with extra virgin Terre Bormano olive oil.

This salad scene is just one of the eight mini-kitchens that make up Le Touessrok’s main restaurant 398, where three levels and nine themes complete its number-name. Numbers that represent birth, growth and prosperity in Chinese feng shui. Grilled lamb kebabs with a Mauritius curry dip? Hong Kong dim sum with a ginger dip? Italian prosciutto with fresh mozzarella and voluptuous tomatoes? That’s for starters.
           

The Hong Kong dim sum/noodle shop is on the main level around the corner from the rotisserie and grills, and they are right in front of the vegetable kitchen. The salad scene is not far from the fresh bread and pastry place and that is near the desserts’ dolly and the coffee-and-tea-from-round-the-world-anyway-you-want-it cart.

The maitre d’ leads couples toward the seaside, candle-lit balconies and families toward the larger, brighter tables near the Italian kitchen with its pasta and pizza oven. Waiters aplenty carry plates to tables and fetch diners’ whims.

Executive Chef B. Nalam Nastili’s engaging eyes light up his face, darker than his own divine dark-chocolate mousse, as we tour the kitchens. Back at the salad scene, I pump Nastili for his favorites. For salt, he likes the sel marin de Guérande from the salt marshes of Brittany, France—the gros gris (big grind) evoking the flavor of ocean he particularly likes on fish.

His favorite olive oil? Frantoio di Sommaia extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany. "Gorgeous, archetypal deep green color, remarkably clear, big olive aroma with artichoke highlights. Rustic and complex, a pungent oil with personality. Rich and buttery mouth feel," is how one critic describes it. Not quite how I might put it, but it was good on the salad I concoct—a simple mixture of mild and spicy greens. Then, along with the oil, I sprinkle it with balsamic vinegar Cremonin’s Aceto Balsamico, Guérande’s fin gris (fine grind) and a few grinds of mixed peppercorns. "Sometimes more is more," declares my inner chef.

At the soup stop, the chef will make you a soup from the different stocks, noodles and morsels available or you can opt for the evening’s à la minute creation like the tomato-based, intensely lobster cream served with an egg foam for contrast.

Chef Nastili recommends hot-off-the-grill prawns for my main course. They’re big and sweet on a bed of julienne eggplant and zucchini spiked by a warm tomato, garlic and basil salsa.

For a sweet finale, the dessert chef whips up a coca soufflé with house-made vanilla ice cream. The soufflé, hot out of the dessert demo oven, is light with crunchy crinkles of sugar on top. Causing my inner chef to exclaim, "So this is what a great soufflé is supposed to taste like."

After a couple of nights working along side 398’s chefs who man the mini-kitchens, I give my inner chef a night off. I skip the romantic boat dinner on the bay served by motorboat waiters—a bit much for a solo dinner. The tandoor oven at the intimate Safran was dark for the night, so I head beachside for Barlen’s. Managed by the tall slim and always smiling Le Touessrok institution, Barlen Ramsey, who twenty-five years ago started here as a waiter. He continues to build his worldwide coterie of ‘regulars’ at his own restaurant.

Choices at Barlen’s range from just-off-the-boat sushi and sashimi to cowboy steaks and Japanese grills. After my last lick of Barlen’s passion fruit ice cream, I kick-back at my outside table listening to the surf harmonize with the crickets and watching the candle light reflect in the evening’s beach bonfire.

"Life is good," sighs my inner chef.

 By Kate Crawford  March 2005

LINKS WITH ATTITUDE 

Le Touessrok's  web site.