SPOTLIGHT RESTAURANT REVIEW
“We were perfectly happy with our chef,” says CEO Yann Bailey. Still, the executive listened to the unsolicited plea. After all, Imbert had recently set Paris abuzz after supplanting Alain Ducasse as the marquee chef at Plaza Athénée. “The more he talked, the more it sounded like he might be onto something,” Bailey says. The chef wiggled into Bailey’s head. “We decided maybe it was time for a change.” The Brando announced Imbert’s appointment in early 2023, and nine months later, following a gutting and redesign of the restaurant — which looks vaguely like the capsized hull of the wooden Bounty — Imbert was finally able to cook the recipes that had been tormenting his dreams for years. It’s a set menu, six courses, prepared for no more than 20 guests per night. A chandelier in the shape of a masted ship (the size of a Volkswagen) now glitters overhead. Vintage MGM movie posters gleam beneath spotlights in the entry. Almost everything on the menu is sourced from local fishermen, the resort’s organic gardens or ranches on neighboring islands. The menu, printed on parchment, is a treasure map that plots the journey of the movie’s mutineers — a crew of villains and heroes who set sail from Britain for Tahiti on a months-long mission that’s doomed from the start. The first course is inspired by their home port. It’s called “fish & chips,” except it’s not quite that. It’s an array of diminutive hors d’oeuvre: line-caught tuna encased in a crisp potato shell, die-sized potato mille feuille and a few sips of soup. The adventure begins. While attempting to sail west around Cape Horn, the ship veers off course and is forced to turn back, an episode that inspires Imbert’s second course: spicy, chili-laced ceviche. (Chile, get it?) When the fish arrives — hidden beneath a jet-black tuile — my eyes immediately focus on the bowl, a fascinating piece of pottery that glimmers like snow. I grab the vessel to pull it closer — yikes! It’s not pottery. It’s ice. The entire bowl is made of ice. I lift the tuile to reveal lumps of fish cloaked in a fragrant, curry-like cream. I’m suddenly famished, and the fish disappears in seconds. Embarrassed by my haste, I glance up to see if anyone was watching, and I’m relieved to discover that I’m not the fastest eater in the crowd. Far from it. Sniff, sniff. I sense smoldering charcoal. And here comes my server with a personal hibachi. Smoke swirls from the grill placed in front of me, perfuming a miniature lobster tail, which, I learn, was chopped from a tiny creature caught earlier in the day in knee-deep water just offshore. My server gracefully transfers the crustacean (three, four bites at most) onto a mosaic of shaved pineapple, melon, citrus and banana — a beautiful contrast of savory and sweet, hot and cold. It’s the sort of dish that makes an old curmudgeon (not me; some dude across the room) groan thunderously with delight. If I’m reading the map correctly, “lobster on the coals” represents the HMS Bounty’s perilous drift through Antarctica. I think? I’ve always been lousy at reading maps.
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OLTRE VOLUME 4
Action Hero: (From top) Chef Jean Imbert and the interior of Les Mutinés.