A contemporary interpretation of French gastronomy

Having grown up with an admiration for food, chef Alex Dilling is probably best known for achieving two Michelin stars at his first solo restaurant, Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal in London, within just six months of opening.
However, behind this quick claim to fame lies a culinary journey which began under the legacy of chef Alain Ducasse at the now-closed Adour in New York. Born in London, chef Dilling spent his childhood between the UK and US.
When he returned to London, he was executive corporate chef for chef Hélène Darroze, overseeing two Michelin-starred kitchens in London and Paris. His eponymous restaurant at the Hotel Café Royal opened in September 2022 and quickly became one of the most sort after tables in the UK.
“My culinary philosophy is quite simple. I start by finding the best ingredients. I love to eat myself and try to preserve the best thing about them. I like to be technical with food and make the food beautiful for diners. But ultimately, it’s about sourcing an incredible ingredient, produced by someone who really cares about what they’re doing, and keeping the food simple, seasoning it properly. That’s what I love when I get my hands on the perfect asparagus or a great quality caviar or an amazing piece of fish. I think when you understand that and spend the time to source great ingredients, you can do less and less to your food,” explains the chef.
Bringing a unique perspective to Le Normandie until Jan 31, one that balances the heritage of French cuisine with modern innovation, chef Dilling’s approach to French gastronomy aligns with the essence of the restaurant.
“I think Bangkok is an amazing place. Thailand is beautiful. The food is incredible. So to have the opportunity to come here again to this amazing hotel was an easy decision,” says the chef.
“I was in Bangkok last month to open the restaurant and I came back again this month. My sous chef from London is here just to do the pop up and he’s been working with me in London, so he knows exactly what I want.
“Le Normandie wanted a French menu with not too many Thai things. I try to use European ingredients and after being here I did want to use more Thai produce, but I did a version of what we do in London, with little influence with ingredients from here. Japan is close and they have incredible ingredients, so I use a few from there too. But I did want to come here and show a little bit of what we do in London. So the base are things and ideas conceived in London, but twisted for Le Normandie. For the most part, it’s an exclusive menu for this residency.
“There’s a chicken dish we do at Hotel Café Royal called The Hunter Chicken, which we’ve been doing for years. We are going to be doing the dish here this month.”
Diners can also look forward to the inclusion of the chef’s gin brand, Five Puffins.
“Though I’ve never tried to use gin in my cooking, it is my favourite spirit. I would love for diners to try some and in London we offer it when they arrive; a gin and tonic, which is my favourite drink,” says the chef.
Having worked for Caviar Russe in New York, chef Dilling discovered a love for caviar, which remains one of his favourite ingredients. The opening dish is Krystal caviar served with Japanese sweet shrimp, crème crue and ginger.
“We don’t really get Japanese ingredients in London, so it was exciting for me to be able to use them here. The jelly for the dish is laced with a dashi stock, but the technique is very French. It’s fun when you travel somewhere like this and you can play around a bit more,” explains chef Dilling.
“Caviar is an ingredient I got to know really well and I use it a lot. I just love it. It’s got a sense of luxury. It’s delicious, it’s elegant, and it adds so much to dishes. I would say with caviar, I am not partial to a certain brand, but definitely how it is processed and the care that’s put into it is more important for me.”
The pre-dessert and dessert do have a bit of a Thai twist. “This was very intentional. The idea is to do a vacherin, which is a very classic French dish, but with Thai flavours. There are such lovely flavours here, even the lemongrass is completely different from what we get abroad.
“Even though they said don’t do too much of a Thai thing, I thought a few things were allowed and everyone appreciates these flavours. The dish is completely new and I’ve never done it before,” says the chef.
Known for his hands-on approach, chef Dilling says he is open to conversations of any type about his food, and will be travelling back and forth during the four-month stint.
“Apart from tasting menus, we are also doing 12 à la carte dishes, a few of which are from the tasting menus. We have a Wagyu beef dish that we serve with sauce vierge and caviar. There’s a kind of bouillabaisse dish with olive oil poached Brittany cod and fregola sarda. So in the same kind of spirit, I would say it’s a tasting menu. The à la carte will be four courses. Not everyone wants to come and commit to the two-and-a-half, three hours to be in a restaurant, so you can come and have four courses, and more offerings on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Also, there’s a three-course for people that just have an hour or two for lunch,” says chef Dilling.
“When you do an event like this, you don’t want to change everything too much. It’s hard. You have a new team. One of the most important things in our business is consistency, right? We want to get everyone trained, get things perfect. We will change dishes. This month we’ll probably change two things, then two more the following month. But we won’t do a huge menu overhaul. I’d rather do things perfectly. There’s enough choice on the menu for people who want to come two times a month. They can try everything and have different dishes.”
“Over the holiday season, we will do a Christmas menu and a unique New Year’s Eve menu, too. We’ll have black and white truffles, and all the fun stuff,” adds the chef.
“One of the early gastronomic experiences I had was working for Alain Ducasse, so French cooking was really ingrained into me. I love the discipline and the rigour of a fine-dining French kitchen. That really is something I appreciate. French cuisine is really built around great products treated properly. I love it.
“For the moment, I just have one restaurant in London. I do want to open other restaurants, but I don’t have the ambition to have 20-30 restaurants. I like to be very involved, so if the right opportunity came up, I would definitely open something in Bangkok. I love casual dining, but everyone’s going to have an anniversary or a birthday, and we all love to go out to eat somewhere special with a nice tablecloth and have a glass of Champagne. That’s why I think there’ll always be a place for fine dining, because people will always love that sense of occasion.
“The older you get, the more you want to cook casual things, the things you like to eat on your day off. So I think casual dining is definitely something I’ll do in the next couple of years.”