The Library at The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur’s greatest strength is its seasonal degustation menu (RM300 nett per person; RM450 nett per person with wine pairing), crafted to pay homage to the finest globally-sourced ingredients. This Chef Wai Look Chow-helmed restaurant brings these quality items to life through a blend of Asian and international culinary techniques and styles, creating an ingredient-focused dining experience.
This autumn and winter, Hokkaido scallops and blue lobster, Japanese red seabream, marble goby, Alaskan king crab and New England lobster come into season, becoming the base of many of The Library’s seafood creations. Perfect for dinner is the restaurant’s four-course degustation menu, featuring many of these morsels of the sea.
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The meal begins with poached Japanese nasu (eggplant) served with avruga caviar and verjus jelly. This dish is served cold, playing up the vegetable’s inherent sweetness with bursts of briny caviar which plays out rather elegantly on the palate with a glass of rosé.
Next, diners choose between bonito – lightly seared with soy jelly and fresh wasabi before drilled with tomato and tea oil – or a medley of surf clam, whelk and geoduck – also lightly seared in a crustacean-butter emulsion. The former is cooked in a style reminiscent of tataki, where sashimi is broiled at the top for greater flavour, leaving the inside of the meat still raw and tender but searing its top and bottom to lock in its natural flavours. The dish’s lighter profile matches well with a glass of bianco, chosen for its freshness and palate cleansing qualities. The latter is pure flavour decadence, with sweetness and rich umami of the shellfish enriched by a rich garlic butter sauce that ticks all the right boxes, one complemented by the sweetness of a rosé.
For the main course, there’s a choice of corn-fed chicken, Japanese red snapper or MB9 wagyu. Poached with truffle and a reduction of cooking broth and oriental mushrooms, the chicken breast is superb with a glass of Italian rosso. Japanese red snapper, on the other hand, is steamed and drizzled with crustacean veloute and boiled potatoes, pairing nicely with a glass of bianco. For the wagyu, simplicity is best, cooked pan-roasted and topped with Café de Paris butter, its rich flavours calling for a medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon.
To finish, choose from either mille-feuille d’igname or chocolate torte. The buttery, flaky pasty that is the mille-feuille is filled with yam and topped with Madagascan vanilla cream and homemade ice cream. The chocolate torte however, is made using a blend of Manjari and Jivara chocolate, along with hints of orange and vanilla.
“The latest seasonal menu is an ode to autumn flavours using first-class seasonal ingredients and certain sustainable ones,” says Chef Wai. “It aims to take the palate of diners on a gastronomic journey that transcends borders and delights in the true essence of flavours in natural ingredients.”
