DINING at Chalet in the old Equatorial Hotel Kuala Lumpur was an immersion into Swiss cuisine, with French, Italian and German influences. The Chalet interior was distinctive: with dark timber rafters, an Alpine horn and other Swiss artefacts.

What do I remember about the food at Chalet? Definitely the raclette cheese being melted under the salamander, scraped onto a plate and served with pickles and baby potatoes.   You would get a whiff of the melting cheese as you entered the restaurant, so popular it was then.

Of course, there was sabayon, that classic Italian dessert of egg yolks, sugar and marsala wine whipped in a large bowl by the service staff while doing a lively jig to music. Chalet may be no more but Sabayon is now the name of the restaurant on the 51st floor of EQ Kuala Lumpur.

A Taste of Nostalgia is on Sabayon’s festive menu from now till December 30, with a contemporary twist on the well-loved dishes of Chalet. I’m pleased to see raclette, in the amuse bouche of melting raclette cheese, black truffle, and port wine sabayon in the three, four and five-course festive degustation menus.

The melted raclette with a shower of black truffle shavings tastes amazing; a gherkin gives a tart lift and altogether it’s a heavenly combination. A hot, crusty sourdough with Swedish hard bread (like a thin, spiced cracker) served with yuzu butter, extra virgin olive oil and salted butter is irresistible. You can’t stop till three-quarters of it is gone!

The pace slows down a little with the classic steak tartare with grilled romaine heart and sous vide guinea fowl egg. You would want to savour every bit of the minced raw black Angus tenderloin stirred with chopped cornichon pickle and a slightly poached guinea fowl egg. The egg gave a sweet, tense flavour to the meat that’s a little zingy from hot pepper sauce.

In the four-course menu you could have the lobster bisque in place of steak tartare.  The bisque is slowly poured round a pan-seared Hokkaido scallop topped with tropical caviar in the dish. Aioli and parsley foam complete it. It’s a deliciously light bisque with deep, sweet flavours from lobster shell stock and meat.

I loved the crispy bites of fried scales of the Alfonsino fish, as well as its sweet flesh in the petit bouillabaise. It’s a red bream found in temperate waters.  I tasted lobster in the seafood gyoza bursting with flavour in the classic rouille, a Provencal sauce made with ground red chilli pepper, garlic, breadcrumbs and other ingredients blended with stock.  Salmon roe, heirloom tomato, fennel and fresh herbs brought it all pleasingly together.

We shared two main courses – beef Wellington and ballotine of US turkey. Turkey ballotine hit the spot with us. The turkey meat was rolled up with salted seasonal mushrooms and chicken farce. Rich bites of pan-fried foie gras together with the juicy turkey ballotine drizzled with turkey jus made it a scrumptious choice.

At Sabayon, truffle jus complements the classic beef Wellington, medium rare beef tenderloin rolled in pastry layered with spinach and mushroom duxelles (chopped mushrooms sautéed in butter with shallots, herbs and black pepper), baked and sliced.

A nostalgic note is in the port wine sabayon with stollen ice cream, gingerbread sponge with marinated red currants. The sabayon was heady and exquisite, poured over the aromatic gingerbread sponge. I would have loved more sabayon to “drink” up on its own. The stollen ice cream was nutty and fruity.

Silky smooth local artisanal chocolate, yuzu marshmallow and mixed berries petit fruit are so right with coffee at the end.

The five-course Taste of Nostalgia at Sabayon is now available for lunch (except for and December 25 and 31) and dinner (except December 24), at RM588 per pax or RM888 with wine pairing. It’s three courses at RM388, and four courses at RM488.

There’s also an a la carte menu – crispy scaled Alfonsino (RM198), lamb loin with curry leaf pesto, salted egg (RM188), chicken pot-au-feu with braised mushrooms, foie gras (RM118) and coconut panna cotta, pineapple sorbet, coconut snow (RM58).

Sabayon is on Level 51, Equatorial Plaza, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. Contact 03 2789 7839 or email [email protected]. – December 19, 2020.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.