CEPE

The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, Financial Street 1

Dear Cherry,

My friends at The Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai told me I should try the great Italian restaurant CEPE, located at The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, Financial Street. It seems that high-end Italian fine dining restaurants are in vogue now in the luxury hotels in China, particularly at Ritz-Carlton. That is fine with me since I have been enjoying learning more and more about fine Italian cooking and wines, and along these lines my experience at CEPE did not disappoint me. My evening began at the Crystal bar as I had a very good martini crafted by the elegant and charming bar supervisor named Hazel. I had a nice conversation with her about the hotel and the wide range of quality services provided by Ritz-Carlton to their guests, as well as the excellent training program provided to Ritz-Carlton employees. She and all the cocktail waitresses are dressed in beautiful yellow Qi Pao. I relaxed while enjoying the conversations and the company of these lovely ladies: Lincy, Linda, Marrilyn, Joanna, Jessica, Vicky, Candy, Flower, Amy, Grace. The lounge is in a well lit open space with a very high ceiling and lots of soft seating areas. There are 8 seats at the bar, which has a Lucite top lit from below. While sitting there, I had the pleasure of meeting the director of banquet and special events, Mr. Lorenzo Maraviglia. From Italy, Lorenzo is a funny guy and really entertaining to talk with. Since his family name means “Marvelous” in English, he told me his mother named him Lorenzo The Marvelous after the famous Lorenzo The Magnificent (1449 – 1492), former ruler of Florence, Italy and art patron. We had a few laughs about that and other things while he told me about the founding of the restaurant CEPE, which is named after a mushroom commonly used in Italian cooking. Only 2 years old, CEPE has already won 13 prestigious awards, and this hotel was designated “Best Designed Hotel in the World” by Travel and Leisure Magazine. With all this fanfare, I was anxious to get started with my CEPE experience.

Whoever wants to be happy, let him be so: about tomorrow there's no knowing.

                                           —Lorenzo The Magnificent

The restaurant is located down a beautifully decorated hallway to the left of the front desk. As I have come to expect from any Ritz-Carlton Hotel, I was greeted cheerfully and professionally by several of the staff as I walked through the lobby and onward to CEPE. I was graciously greeted by the hostess named Jonney Hu who was waiting for me at the podium just outside the restaurant door. Interestingly, we entered the restaurant through the wine cellar, which is a very rich design with dark red Brazilian style Rosewood column and walls around the tall glass wine cases. There is a small private dining area in the wine cellar called “Bottega Wine Lounge” for an intimate dinner for 5. The wine glasses at this special table are all Zwiesel 1872, my new favorite glassware. Above this scene in the wine cellar is a ceiling covered with brushed silver mushrooms that appear to be growing upside down from the ceiling. This provides a truly unique effect I have never seen before. I wondered if they were cepe mushrooms. Walking up the few steps from the wine cellar through rosewood framed glass wine enclosures I entered the restaurant. Immediately on the right and in the middle of the room is a 15 feet long and 3 feet thick bookshelf that extends from the floor to the high ceiling. With open shelves, you can see through to the other side. Various objects d’art are placed on the shelves for casual viewing as you walk past or from your table. Floors are made from a dark brown wood, a subtle contrast to the rosewood used throughout the rest of the room. One big chandelier hangs from the ivory white colored ceiling in the middle of the room. An elongated square shaped silver metal frame surrounds 4 sides and the bottom made from strung crystals. White light in the middle sparkling through the crystals in all directions provides a very nice effect on the room. The balance of lighting comes from multiple spotlights recessed into the ceiling. The longest wall is decorated with 20 vertical panels of different patterned and colored fabric: red with gold Italian writing, yellow, plaid, and taupe. These repeat in the same order along the wall, but are different widths. This is very unique. The other side of the room begins with a red colored window to the cold kitchen, with a large picture of a cepe mushroom that you can see through. Next is a rosewood panel, a doorway to the kitchen, and 2 special semi-private enclaves, each with a table and bench seating for 2. Open gold curtains can be closed for privacy, fostering an atmosphere conducive to intimate conversations. These enclaves are framed from floor to the top of the curtains by 1 foot wide silver Chinese style designs. The rest of the wall is covered with mirrors that extend from the floor, up the sides, and over the top of the enclaves. Out on the floor there are 12 other tables in 2, 4, and one 6 seat arrangements. Hidden behind the mirrored wall next to the enclaves is a large private dining room called “Porcini” for 10 to 12 people. Opening the tall mirrored door reveals a very bright and modern design that includes a long table well lit by modern lights hanging from the ceiling made from many candlelight style glass light bulb casings glued together to make a large ball lit with white light from within. The wall on the right is adorned with white root like structures extending up the wall lit from below with white light. This is also very modern and interesting. Walls are the familiar rosewood as seen in the main restaurant. Back out in the restaurant and along the long wall, upholstered bench seating is provided with chairs on the other side of the tables. All chairs are tan colored leather. The side wall is all window, floor to ceiling, covered in sheer gold curtains that let in the lights of Beijing Financial Street through a golden hue. 3 crystal lights hang along the windows, 3 feet long and 8 inches wide. A light at the top under the brushed stainless steel cone shines through about 25 long strings of crystals. This restaurant design is very pleasing to the senses and evokes a subtle feeling of excitement.

On the table, glassware is by Spiegelau, a member of the Schott Xwiesel family, and flatware is silver plate by Mepra of Italy. Provided by SCHWOB – Textiles of Switzerland, the white table linens are also designed by Mepra and have a very special pattern of circles within circles of different sizes repeating all through the fabric, about 2 inches across with interspersed half inch solid circles. Hardly noticeable, this is a very subtle influence of whimsical cheerfulness put before your unsuspecting eye, adding a little more levity to an already light hearted and happy interior design. It all just makes me feel good, simple as that. Salt and pepper shakers are built together in a modern shape just laying on the table. I can not adequately describe their appearance other than to say that they look like sandblasted metal in 2 halfs held together by magnetic force. Pull them apart and you have your salt and pepper. Different. Ricky, senior waiter, brought me the wine list and menu, and a glass of my old standard, Laurent-Perrier Champagne to enjoy as I perused the lists. Then he brought my sparkling water. I was delighted to see it was by VOSS, artesian water from Norway. It is my favorite sparkling water which I call Viking water because it comes from the land of the Vikings, as did the majority of my family who came to America from Norway in 1902, hence my name Svendsen. The rest of me is 1/8 German and 1/8 Sicilian Italian, quite a blend of European personalities in an American form. Much of my personality and interest in fine dining and wine comes from the last part, the Italian. Lorenzo The Marvelous has designed a new wine list and Chef De Cuisine Eugenio Iraci a new menu. I arrived just in time to experience both new creations, details of which I will describe for you below. Music comes from round speakers recessed into the ceiling, and includes a variety of styles including Frank Sinatra, Nora Jones, Diana Krall, and classic Italian songs. I enjoyed listening to the soothing music while reviewing the wine list and menu.

The Wine List: Covered in stitched dark blue vinyl with a cluster of grapes embossed on top, the wine list is a small multiple ring binder which allows easy replacement of pages resulting from changes in wines offered or vintages available. This wine list was created by Lorenzo and his chef sommelier Jason Yin, and is intended to offer the diner a wide choice of international wines suitable for paring with any of the menu options. In all cases, wine types are classified from least expensive to most expensive. This gives the diner the ability to go immediately to the preferred price range, saving a lot of time in the wine search. The first page of the wine list begins with a quote by Donald Merriam Allen, “A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine”. I’ll drink to that!  Turning the page, the first section is called “bubbles”. 5 Italian prosecco are offered from 328 RMB for a bottle to 988 RMB. This is followed by French choices of 1 cremant from Burgundy and 14 Champagnes from the usual houses priced from 648 RMB to 4,888 RMB for a 1999 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut. The balance of the wine list offers many different styles of wines from China (my favorite Grace Vineyards), Italy, France, USA, Australia, Germany, Spain, Chile, Argentina South Africa, and New Zealand. The next section is “mouth-filling whites”, which includes 48 choices. Next we have 36 “light, crisp & aromatic whites”, followed by 18 “deliciously fruity whites”. We have 3 “pink wines” of which 2 are rose and one is a white zinfandel, and now we get into the “balanced & elegant reds”, and there are 91 to choose from. Following are 122 “bold & juicy” reds, one of my favorite sections. I like a big flavorful red with hearty dishes. The most expensive wines are found in the “dilly & friends” (wise and structured wines, usually the great vintages) pages which include 34 wines from Italy, France, USA, and Australia. Prices range from 858 RMB for a 2001 Baron Phillip Rothschild from the Pauillac region of Bordeaux to 46,888 RMB for a 1988 Chateau Petrus from the Pomerol region of Bordeaux, France. Most are priced toward the middle of those extremes. The “sweets & various” section has an interesting variety of tasty dessert offerings from Italy, France, Australia, Canada, Austria, and Hungary. 12 magnums are offered from Italy and 1 from Australia. For the single diner and light drinkers, there are 11 half bottles offered and 43 wines by the glass. I am very happy to see this wide selection of choices for those not wanting to buy a whole bottle. The final section is “grappa”, highly appropriate for a good Italian restaurant, and there are 10 to choose from. I have to say that pricing of the wines in this list is appropriate to the quality of the wines offered. Some are low priced, most are middle priced, and many are high priced, but I find that with 405 quality wines offered, the prices seem reasonable for what you are buying. As is usual with me recently, I give the sommelier my price ranges and leave the choosing up to him.

The Menu: The menu cover is hard cardboard with a black & white photograph of a cepe mushroom on a white background with the signature of Cepe on the front. This is certainly in tune with the theme of this restaurant. Likewise, inside the menu are several offerings that include mushrooms as one of the ingredients. I think the best way to introduce this menu is to publish it in its entirety.