All-you-can-eat Michelin cuisine at Silks for just NT$1,500? Even show host Jiang Weiwén says it’s worth it

▲ Starting March 1, Silks Hotel has invited French Michelin one-star chef Matthieu Savarin to guest chef at its B-one buffet restaurant, priced at NT$1,100 per person on weekdays (plus 10% service charge).

Reported and photographed by Huang Shiyuan, Taipei

Starting March 1, Silks Hotel has invited French Michelin one-star chef Matthieu Savarin to guest chef at its B-one buffet restaurant — a first not only in Taiwan but also for Savarin himself. Show host and foodie Jiang Weiwén, upon hearing that Michelin one-star cuisine could be enjoyed for under NT$1,500, went to try it himself and later said the value was incredible and the cost-performance ratio extremely high.

Silks Hotel has invited French Michelin one-star chef Matthieu Savarin to guest chef at its B-one buffet restaurant, launching the “Provence Spring Feast” from March 1 to 31. Savarin has created 20 specially designed dishes, four of which are made to order, including pan-seared lobster with minted pea purée and traditional crayfish sauce, served tableside. Savarin said this is his first time presenting dishes in a buffet setting. Because buffets differ from à la carte restaurants, he specially redesigned the menu and adjusted ingredient sizes so that dishes remain delicious even after sitting out a bit longer.

▲ Matthieu Savarin has specially planned a new menu for his guest stint at Silks’ buffet restaurant.

Food show host Jiang Weiwén, who had previously interviewed Chef Savarin, came especially to taste the star-level cuisine. Jiang said that although he had been to France on his honeymoon, budget limitations meant he never got to dine at a French restaurant. So when he heard he could enjoy Michelin one-star French cuisine for less than NT$1,500, he brought his wife along. As for his thoughts on the food, he particularly liked the “absinthe-cured scallops on bread salad with buffalo mozzarella sorbet.” He said the scallops were exceptionally fresh, and the bread salad paired with the creamy, mousse-like mozzarella sorbet — sweet and tangy — was so good even his wife, who normally avoids raw food, loved it.


▲ Food show host Jiang Weiwén also came to Silks specially to try Matthieu Savarin’s dishes.

In addition, the eggplant that came as a side to the “sweet and sour sauce cod” also left a deep impression on Jiang Weiwén. The pan-fried eggplant was not greasy at all, with a refreshing sweet-and-sour flavor that almost stole the spotlight from the “cod,” the main dish. Overall, Jiang felt that the dishes Chef Savarin presented at Silks were all quite excellent.

Chef Matthieu Savarin’s signature dishes:

◎ Duck liver terrine with fig jam and brioche bread:The duck liver is deveined, marinated with thyme, bay leaves, sea salt, and white pepper, then cured with Cognac, and prepared into a terrine using low-temperature cooking. It is served with a specially made fig jam made from onions, dried figs, white wine, and vinegar, paired with 50% heavy cream brioche.

◎ Salt-cured cod dumplings with red bell pepper and saffron seafood:The cod is coated with salt and pepper and cured for a period, then cooked in heated milk with potatoes and thyme, and finally the cured cod is added and cooked. The cooked cod is drained and placed on a bed of red bell pepper.

◎ Marseille mixed seafood fish soup:Made with nearly seven types of fresh fish and seafood, simmered into a fish bone broth and infused with saffron spices.

◎ Pan-seared lobster with minted pea purée and traditional crayfish sauce:The lobster meat is pan-seared with a butter base, and a rich sauce is made from a large quantity of shrimp shells, served with smooth pea purée.

◎ Sweet and sour sauce seafood:Based on a tomato purée simmered with thyme, garlic, onions, and sweet and sour tomatoes, served over grilled thick eggplant slices, topped with sea fish seasoned with sea salt and pepper, and drizzled with a sauce made from white wine, ginger slices, and sour lemon.


▲ Jiang Weiwén praised the “absinthe-cured scallops on bread salad with buffalo mozzarella sorbet.”