One of the first things to know about Feuille is that it’s not vegetarian—it’s plant-led.
David Toutain, the mastermind behind the restaurant, is quick to clear up the misconception. “People think [Feuille] is plant-based,” he says when prompted to explain the restaurant’s philosophy of celebrating local seasonality in the form of sustainable, vegetable-driven haute cuisine. “Because of the [plant-forward] menu, the food, everyone thinks we are vegetarian. But ‘local’ doesn’t mean just [plants]—‘local’ means around. It’s about fish, meat, herbs, vegetables; it can be everything. When we say ‘sustainable,’ people think vegetables, [but] you can also be sustainable when it comes to seafood [and] meat.”
It’s a concept that’s still hotly debated, but Toutain hopes to put the theory into practice at Feuille. While it has been a little over a year since the restaurant first welcomed diners into its nature-inspired space designed by Neri & Hu, the education of those who dine there continues as the chef advocates for how sustainable cooking can be applied to ingredients beyond plants.
In Paris, Toutain is well-known for his eponymous, multi-Michelin-starred restaurant, a culinary experimentation inspired by the seasons. At Feuille, his first overseas eatery, he formulates a new approach to vegetables, framing the experience as a dedication to the natural world. In addition to sourcing locally farmed or caught ingredients, Feuille is committed to using all parts of the produce, interpreted in refined flavours and sophisticated presentations.
Feuille takes diners on a journey through the plant, starting from roots and shoots to flowers and fruits. Beginning on the right note is of utmost importance to Toutain, who serves a shiso-leaf tempura with sea grape and mustard seeds as part of the “Grains & Seeds” appetisers. “It’s like a cracker you have to eat with your fingers,” he explains. “It’s part of the identity of the restaurant. Eating with the fingers first is important to me; it’s the basis of everything. Millions of years ago, people and animals ate with their fingers”—and the same respect is paid at Feuille.
“I grew up in Normandy, [in the] northwest of France. My grandparents from both sides are farmers, so I really grew up on the farm, around vegetables, cows, milk, eggs, and chicken,” the chef says. “It’s something that’s very important to me, [that] the menu makes us think about trees; we start with the seed, the root, the trunk, the branches, to the leaf, flower, and fruit.”
From frog legs with Madras curry and rosemary to the chestnut with pimento and chervil, each course is elaborately plated, reminiscent of a stage constructed of nature and foliage on which the small bites can shine—it’s a pleasing visual reminder of the restaurant ethos.
As an interlude, Toutain’s signature cumin and sweet corn egg is a perennial favourite that sparks recognition in diners’ eyes, and unlikely to leave the menu anytime soon. “It’s something I [came up with] in Paris 10 years ago; [it has a] traditional flavour [that’s personal to] me. You can find the chives, cumin, and corn in my grandmother’s style [of cooking]. [We plate it up nicely] but the roots are [inspired by] my grandmother. [While the] shiso-leaf dish is personal to the restaurant, the eggs are personal to me from my grandmother, [because] the flavours come from her.” He is referring to the mouillette, a dish akin to British eggs and soldiers. All that was left to do was reimagine the dish into something befitting the character of the restaurant.
Selecting the right local partners for the job is imperative to success. For one, the driving force behind Toutain’s eastward gaze is ZS Hospitality, no stranger to that persuasive art of luring acclaimed international chefs to Hong Kong to open restaurants. (Its other concepts—Whey by Singaporean chef Barry Quek, Mingoo Kang’s Hansik Goo, and the Trippa Milano-inspired Testina—quickly come to mind.) In the year since opening Feuille, Toutain and his executive chef, Joris Rousseau, have also built up a stable of collaborators to propel their menus in the desired direction: “Conspiracy Chocolate is a brand we love working with, as they oversee every step of the chocolate-making process, from sourcing cacao beans to crafting the final product themselves. Jessica from Common Farms supplies us with an impressive selection of flavourful produce, while Chris from R-Farm cultivates vegetables precisely tailored to our needs.” (Feuille also worked with these producers for a special farm-to-table experience.)
Rousseau explains that the restaurant’s partnership with the Aberdeen Fish Market allows them to source local seafood and “showcase the vibrant flavours of the region,” guiding the “Roots, Stems, & Leaves” portion of the menu. A delicate poached sea bass with carrot and nasturtium, skewers of succulent morsels of smoked spiny lobster with pumpkin and saffron, tiger prawn tartare with tomatoes dressed in coriander oil and a garlic-infused almond milk, and geoduck with French bean and lovage celebrate the flavours of the ocean.
Another thing to know about Feuille is that its “use everything and waste nothing” philosophy takes shape in the subtlest of ways. Whatever can be used will be used. Cut-offs are collected for pickling and fermentation or boiled down into stock. Consider the pumpkin-and-sunflower-seeded bread, made in-house and served with a dill-flavoured pil-pil sauce. Not a stomach filler, and not served at the beginning of the meal, because the carb and its neon-green friend are main characters of their own story. Collagen, made from cooking down the bones from the fish course, is whipped into a creamy spread and blended with dill oil to create a lip-smacking sauce—just remember to budget out the bread to mop up every last dollop of pil-pil.
Despite his minimal-waste policy, Toutain is not afraid of quantity, packing a remarkable 16 courses into a well-balanced dinner menu that gracefully walks the Goldilocks tightrope of “just right” when it comes to portioning—no excess here. A tender pigeon with beetroot and bok choy entrée, showcasing local fowl and the bright red vegetable in different textural expressions, segues into “Flowers & Fruits” for a tomato and marigold dessert in a lemon-balm cream and a chocolate and hazelnut mousse accompanied by herbs, followed by a quiet finale of three creative mignardises: a coconut meringue with a passion-fruit centre, a fir-bud macaron, and a cauliflower-vanilla foam with white chocolate ganache. It’s a remarkable haute cuisine showcase of diversity and depth from start to finish, in hopes of leaving diners with a renewed appreciation for and fresh perspective on vegetable-driven cooking.
“I certainly have witnessed a noticeable change in the attitude of diners towards plant-led cuisine; they have been impressed by the fact that they can enjoy a diverse range of flavours and textures by incorporating various plant-based ingredients into their meals, going beyond the notion of simple vegetables,” says Rousseau, reflecting upon one year of helming Feuille and how guests have embraced the restaurant concept. He believes that this “positive shift in attitude is evident as guests continue to return, share their positive experiences, and appreciate the depth and complexity of flavours offered by Feuille.”
Toutain regularly makes the trip from Paris to Hong Kong to further develop the menus with Rousseau, but one of his most recent journeys to the city was spurred by a grander occasion: Feuille’s first birthday. Not only did this visit mark an anniversary celebration, but it’s also one of immense achievement. Within its first year, Feuille has cinched not only one Michelin star, but also a Michelin Green Star for its sustainability-led efforts in transforming the dining scene.
“I am very proud and grateful for the team. [A Michelin star] was not something that we speak about every day, it is not our first motivation, [we’re not thinking to ourselves that] we need to have a star,” the chef says in conversation with Robb Report Hong Kong during one of his visits. “We just believed in what we’re doing and focused on the plan. I arrived [in Hong Kong] two years ago to see the project, to work with the local producers, local ingredients, and find the story of the menu. Everything is working pretty well, actually, step by step, and the priority was to make a good team, like a family—that’s very important, that’s the foundation.”
“Every time I come back here, I think the food tastes better, because we’re more familiar,” Toutain concludes with a smile. “Everyone’s found their position, everyone’s started to really know their [role] in this restaurant. Feuille is still a baby, just one year old, so what I want for this birthday is, first, to say thank you to the guest. We had a very good opening. We have good people, good reviews, good feedback. We’ll continue to do a good job. […] I believe in human beings. If you have a good spirit [and a] good mentality, I think the food can just be good.”
5/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 2881 1848
All images courtesy of Feuille.
