Crowne Plaza gets the Balthazar makeover

The Crowne Plaza on the Gold Coast will be transformed this Friday with the opening of the Balthazar restaurant.

The place is unlike anything you would normally find on the Gold Coast.

People would walk in and find two walls covered with racks of wine bottles floor to ceiling. Add to that the two amazing chandeliers made of wine glasses.

It’s basically a space enclosed with floor to ceiling glass.

It has a selection of more than 500 local and global wines. Many of these wines are award-winning and many are rare.

Why the name? Wine lovers would know that a balthazar is a 12 litre bottle of wine.

And the place is not only there for people to sit back and enjoy a fine wine. They can also pop in to buy a bottle to enjoy with family and friends.

And then there is the food.

There are 15 degustation menus created by no less than three chefs, celebrating French, modern Australian or contemporary Chinese.

Executive chef Jean-Marc Heussner

Executive chef Jean-Marc Heussner, who has been at the hotel for a number of years and who has an extensive background in hospitality including cooking at Michelin star restaurants, says he has complete freedom creating the menus which can be ordered as light tapas or for serious degustation.

“My main vision of food is the quality of the product – when you use good-quality product you don’t need to hide anything – the product is there,’’ Jean-Marc told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“It is not a French menu, it’s French method with variance in the product so it could be called modern Australian or modern French.”

As he describes it, it’s a mix of French food with Australian innovation.

“I do some scallop in kataifi pastry, violet puree – the crispiness of kataifi pastry is amazing,” he said.

“That’s the sort of thing that mixes French with basic products; the sauce is a bourrée blanc but you do it differently and the final product is totally different.”

by Leon Gettler, September 29th 2016