ECLECTIC EPICURE
Back in the late 1960s, Michael Chow, then 31, decided to switch professional gears from actor-cum-interior designer-cum-hairstylist to restauranteur.
The son of a former Peking Opera star and brother to actress and James Bond girl Tsai Chin (“You Only Live Twice,” 1967), Chow had always had a flair for the dramatic.
And while he and his family had fled his native Tianjin (a booming metropolis in northern coastal Mainland China) for England when he was just a child in order to escape from the communist regime of Mao Zedong, he never lost his fascination for the Land of the Red Dragon and its rich millennial culture.
Chow had already tried his hand (with varying degrees of success) at the theater and as the owner of a high-end London beauty salon, and he had collected an impressive stockpile of household furnishings and contemporary art (including an array a portraits of himself by famous artists), which somehow did not always appeal to his would-be home décor clientele.
So when he opened his first eatery in London’s upscale Knightsbridge neighborhood on Feb. 14, 1968, he decided to submerse his guests not only in a culinary odyssey of his beloved Chinese gastronomy (appropriately tweaked to accommodate the Western palate and served by white-gloved waiters in tuxedo jackets in stately British fashion), but to also plunge them into a lively sensory multicultural extravaganza of architecture, art and paparazzi glamour that was as flamboyant and ostentatious as the Peking Opera where he cut his acting teeth watching his famous father perform.
The result was Mr Chow, a glitzy, ritzy and exceedingly elitist restaurant where well-heeled luminaries and wannabe celebs flocked by the hundreds to shove out exorbitant amounts of cash in exchange for what many culinary experts ranked as mediocre food at best and pretentiously pompous grub at worst.
(One New York Times reviewers famously gave Mr Chow zero stars, describing one of its hallmark dishes as “a couple of wet pieces of sole sunk in a curious gelatinous substance which had no color and very little taste and looked perilously like pond slime.”)
But while debates about the quality of Mr Chow’s restructured Chinese cuisine raged on between gourmet critics, the swanky little restaurant, with all its star-power allure, proved to be a raging success.
By 1974, a second Mr Chow opened in Beverly Hills and four years after that, a third branch was launched on New York’s 57th Street.
New branches in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, Malibu and Las Vegas would soon follow.
And careful to maintain the snobbish exclusivity that has become the trademark DNA of the Mr Chow brand, his son and heir, Maximillian Chow, who now serves as the chain’s head of culinary operations, has meticulously supervised the décor and menu of each location, ensuring that they comply with every detail of preparation and presentation.
Last October, the Mr Chow label opened its first restaurant in Latin America, a stylishly posh brassiere along Mexico City’s flush Avenida Masaryk in Colonia Polanco.
And just like it had in other locations, the Mr Chow marque became an instant magnet for Mexico’s rich and famous.
The décor at Mr Chow Mexico is anything but understated, with perfectly linened tables graced with vases of white orchids and ice-laden carts of open bottles of seven different types of champagne that can be ordered by the glass.
In the main dining room (which is an extended glass-covered terraza at street level that leads into the interior of an elegantly remodeled Art Deco home), there is a series of five self-portrait photographs of Maximillian Chow that seem to be keeping an eye on every aspect of the new restaurant’s operations.
The waiters are attentive and the service is impeccable.
The haute cuisine menu, which is a replica of the menu at the original Mr Chow in London and all its siblings, is based on northern Chinese cookery, with a strong focus on Beijing classic gastronomy.
Some of the dishes have a Western tinge, but most are as authentically Chinese in flavor as you can find in Mexico.
Not surprisingly, the star of the bill of fare is the Peking duck, and regardless of any questionable reviews Mr Chow may have received for its food in the past, this is where the six Chinese chefs (brought in from Hong Kong to assure authenticity) definitely shine.
Roasted to perfection with a golden crackly crust and carved at the table into succulent morsels to be served in paper-thin rice pancakes with sliced scallions, cucumbers and sweet plum and bean sauce, the duck is Mr Chow’s pièce de résistance, and is hardy enough to constitute a meal in itself.
Presented either as an a la carte dish or as the headliner of a three-course meal for groups of three or more (for a hefty 1,100 pesos per person, but well worth the investment), the deeply aromatic meat literally falls off the bone of the fowl and bursts with sumptuously enticing flavor in your mouth.
If you have never before savored Peking duck — a classic delicacy that dates back to imperial times — this is your chance to discover why it has survived as a Chinese favorite throughout the centuries.
Also not to be missed on the menu are the saffron-basted chicken saté in a thick and creamy peanut sauce, the honey-glazed prawns with caramelized walnuts, and the pork and vegetable dim sum, a traditional Hong Kong dish which the wise chefs of Mr Chow had the good sense not to embellish upon.
The tangy filet mignon with oyster sauce is also a winner, but you might want to steer clear of the white-wined bass fillet (labeled as “drunken fish”) and squid-flavored rice noodles, both of which lean towards the bland side.
There is an impressive array of desserts (try the corn and coconut cream cake) and some innovative house cocktails (I liked the champagne and lychee juice aperitif).
Know from the get-go that a meal at Mr Chow is going to set you back a pretty penny and — with the possible exception of the Peking duck — it isn’t going to compare in taste to a feast at King’s Joy in Beijing.
But then again, you aren’t just going for the cuisine.
From its very conception, Mr Chow has always been about more than gastronomy.
It is a multi-sensory experience, an emersion into Michael Chow’s compulsive fascination with East-meets-West, food-meets-fantasy and Chinese opera-meets-dining.
And after nearly four decades, Mr Chow is now a globally recognized brand of eccentric gourmandize and eclectic stardom which certainly merits exploring, if only as a gastronomic historian.
More information
Mr Chow is located at Presidente Masaryk 294, in Polanco (tel: 5280-0257 and 5280-0583).
It is open Monday through Wednesday from 1:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Thursday through Saturday from 1:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., and Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Valet parking is available.
Reservations are highly advised.
THE NEWS
Thérèse Margolis can be reached at [email protected].
