Jung Grün & Blau
by James Glazebrook
Don’t call it a supper club: Jung Grün & Blau is something else entirely. The private dining experience is the brainchild of wunderkind chef Dylan Watson-Brown, who began cooking at the age of 14 in a French restaurant in his hometown of Vancouver. Still just 19, Dylan has already gathered experience from some of the world’s best restaurants, including RyuGin – a three-starred Michelin restaurant in Tokyo – Noma in Copenhagen and New York City’s Per Se, Daniel, and Eleven Madison Park. Dylan’s newest endeavour is less grand than those internationally-renowned kitchens, but no less admirable: to showcase the fresh flavours of seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients, selected for taste, rather than to support some on-trend sustainability philosophy.
Dylan treated us to an epic 17 course meal, made up of small servings that combined no more than a handful of ingredients, and focused on bringing out the true taste of each. His dashi soup (the basis for miso) contained not much more than herbs grown in his apartment and carrots that were bursting with character – a shock for someone raised in the English tradition of boiling vegetables until they lose all colour and flavour. Zoë summed up the Jung Grün & Blau experience perfectly, as she whispered between mouthfuls of egg yolks and Japanese rice cracker, “it’s like I never tasted egg before!”
It would be impossible to pick highlights from the carefully-sequenced, meticulously-prepared menu, as each dish was greater than the last, prompting 17 different notes-to-self: “this is the best thing I have ever eaten.” But our taste buds were particularly delighted by kid (baby goat) tartar – which tasted surprisingly similar to the juiciest parts of tuna fish – and the first cherries of the year, salted and sprinkled with a snow of goats cheese – a super-fresh ingredient which was also served separately with a drizzle of olive oil, produced by an ex-punk who raids the abandoned olive farms in southern Spain. Presented in handmade ceramics from Kreuzberg’s Mariannenstrasse and complemented by wines brought back from a recent trip around Germany, the fine food on offer at Jung Grün & Blau makes for an intimate and incredibly satisfying dining experience. Kudos to young Mr Watson-Brown and team!
Photos by Zoë Noble Photography.
