Table Talk: Celebrity chef takes taste of France to Beijing

By Belinda Goldsmith

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - At Maison Boulud in the heart of Beijing, renowned French chef Daniel Boulud is praising the quality of local produce in China but lamenting the lack of good frogs' legs.

Boulud, 53, a Michelin two-star chef known for his signature restaurant Daniel in New York, opened the doors of Maison Boulud, his seventh restaurant, in June. The eatery is his first outside the United States.

Maison Boulud is located in one of five buildings in a compound that housed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 1903 to 1949, and which has been converted into an upmarket development called the Legation Quarter, just east of Tiananmen Square.

The history of the building is impressive. The Dalai Lama sought refuge there in the 1950s. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger secretly met Chinese premier Zhou Enlai there in 1971, a year before President Richard Nixon's visit to China.

The location and building was one of attractions for Boulud, but he said none of that mattered if the restaurant did not perform well.

"The food is what matters and the service, of course," Boulud told Reuters in an interview in the bar near the grand foyer, with its sweeping double staircase and chandeliers.

DAIKON SAUERKRAUT AND SUCKLING PIG

Boulud, who was raised on a farm in Lyons but is now based in New York, has become a cult favorite in the United States, grabbing headlines for his $150 ground sirloin burger filled with short ribs braised in red wine.

He has no major plans to change his style in China although he said he has adapted to use local, fresh produce.

He is getting meat from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, fish from the South China Sea and Japan, and using local vegetables such as daikon radish, water spinach and the Chinese coriander or cilantro.

He said local suckling pig, chickens and scallops were good quality.

"We don't have the French frogs but it is a question of time and we will get them," he said with a smile.

"It is not like you can make the menu in New York and come here and try to apply it. You have to develop everything here on what you can find."

The summer menu at Maison Boulud, with 428 yuan ($63) for a fixed price set, features dishes such as roasted beet salad with Chinese black walnut goats' cheese and crispy suckling pig with daikon sauerkraut.

Boulud, whose "After Hours" TV show is also set to come to Asia, said he wanted to keep Maison Boulud casual -- maybe a big ask given the large number of beautifully dressed hostesses opening the door to customers and showing them to their seats.