It is a weekday lunchtime and I am sitting in a restaurant over a plate of pasta. It is not just any old pasta. There is a smooth layer of tiny, curling macaroni, resting within the golden sheen of a meaty reduced jus, and laid across the top are various plush accessories. This is the “coquillette cooked like risotto” with “bone marrow and Prunier Oscietra caviar”, served to me at Pavyllon, inside London’s Four Seasons hotel by Hyde Park Corner. It belongs to uber chef Yannick Alléno who has 17 Michelin stars worldwide, one of which is held here. The price: £49, for what turns out to be just a single layer of macaroni in the flat plate’s circular well. It is, to be fair, utterly delicious. Every tiny spoonful is rich and sticky and salty, the soft bone marrow lubricating the tiny al dente tubes, the caviar bringing bursts of brine and surf. But however fabulous it might be, and however luxurious, it really isn’t much pasta.
工作日的午餐時分，我坐在餐廳裏，面前是一盤意大利麪，但這可並非尋常麪食：細膩捲曲的小通心粉鋪成薄薄一層，安臥在金黃油亮、以肉汁熬濃的醬底中，頂上則點綴著多款華麗配料。這道「像燴飯般烹煮的 coquillette」配「骨髓與 Prunier Oscietra 魚子醬」，出自倫敦海德公園角四季酒店 Pavyllon餐廳，背後主理的是手握全球17顆米其林星的大廚 雅尼克•阿萊諾 (Yannick Alléno)，其中一顆星就授予了此地。售價 49 英鎊，端上桌卻只是扁平餐盤中央淺坑裏的薄薄一層通心粉。必須承認，它味道美妙：每一小勺都濃醇、黏稠而帶鹹鮮，柔滑骨髓爲筋道的小通心粉添上潤澤，魚子醬迸發出海水般的鮮鹹。但再怎麼精緻奢華，說到底，通心粉的分量確實寥寥。