Marcel Vigneron & Haru Kishi Team Up for The Coop Brunch Pop-up

 

Chefs Marcel Vigneron and Haru Kishi present a brunch pop-up just in time for Easter. Starting this morning to Easter Sunday, the five courses of eggs, eggs and more eggs brought a lot of smiles and puns. Egg-citing!

We sat around the old sushi counter of the now closed Gonpachi, watching the chefs work. Some plating was done before us and the bar was set up in the still tranquil courtyard. The duo also brought in Devon Espinosa of Pour Vous for cocktails. Not on today’s menu is his newly christened Blood of Christ. It has Sambuca! Cheers! Or the Pimm’s Cup and Resurrection also looked good.

Our first course was the egg and truffle. The truffle espuma was squeezed into the egg shells and presented on a bed of black sesame seeds. It was a warm way to start the day.

 

 

Next was the salmon that had been cooked sous vide. Plated with fried egg sauce, nori sauce, pickled daikon, chive pearls and cilantro flowers, this was my favorite dish of the day. Everything played so well with each other. The nori sauce was amazing.

We were really excited about the tiger shrimp chawan mushi with spring peas. Chawan mushi isn’t traditionally made with cream but as Haru says, he’s French so it made the texture extremely silky. I really liked the shrimp as well.

I remember the nesting egg with bacon from Marcel’s pop-up at Breadbar a few years ago.

 

The surprise was the bacon turned out to be Haru’s special bacon he brined himself. This was pork belly! Yum! It was a very filling dish made richer with the egg yolk.

 

Simply luscious. The dessert with Albion strawberries and sabayon (think rich creamy eggy custard) and bread pudding was served warm and was a delightful dessert. I ignored my 2-3 bite dessert rule and polished this off with no guilt.

 

The liquid nitrogen A Bloody Good Thyme reminded me of something I had at Devon’s pop-up at Chaya Brasserie. Here’s a video I shot of Marcel whipping up the cocktail. A Bloody Good Thyme is vodka, thyme, lavender, blood orange juice and simple syrup. It was definitely had a kick and a great way to end the brunch. Marcel said he created it for an event at Sundance.

If you have a chance, head over to Beverly Hills to check out the egg-cellent brunch.

 

The Coop – Friday April 6 to Sunday April 8 only

134 N La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (old Gonpachi location)

 

Reservations at ReserveTheCoop@gmail.com

 

© The Minty 2012