Luxury lockdown: the Champagne Menu from No Rules restaurant
During the brutally strict lockdown, restaurants and even hotel restaurants are closed, so there’s only one thing to do: play restaurant at home. And we don’t mean cooking yourself. No, simply order from your favorite places and let yourself be thoroughly pampered for once. This way, you help yourself and the hospitality industry through these dark days. Today: Chefs at Home from No Rules – Champagne Menu.
No pizza
No Rules was due to open in March this year as a pizzeria in Amsterdam backed by star chefs. A wonderful story that was brutally blown away by a sneaky virus before the starting signal. But the powerful hospitality team behind this restaurant refused to be defeated and immediately started delivering. No pizza, but beautiful menus. They tasted absolutely delicious, but the restaurant increasingly received requests asking whether they could also provide a chef. And that’s how Chefs at Home came about.
Friend Paco
The doorbell rings. Two people from the restaurant are standing at the door with crates full of tableware, miniature champagne bottles, fragrant components of the menu and an ice machine. “This is my friend Paco; it goes everywhere with me,” says the chef as she sets the machine rumbling on my kitchen counter. While the rest of the items are unpacked, the table is set. “Here’s a glass of champagne and the first amuse-bouches.” Tonight we’re going out to dinner in our own living room, which has been transformed into a top restaurant for the occasion. A tuna cornetto with spicy yogurt and furikake, a prawn cracker with glazed Dutch shrimp. There’s no turning back now. “You may take your seats.”
Showstopper
It’s strange for a moment to have the running of your own home taken over, but there’s nothing better than enjoying eye-catching dishes without having to get up to pour wine or stress about the food yourself. The courses follow one another in rapid succession. Scallop with orange and charred corn—a fantastic combination. Smoked Zeeland mussel with dill and Pernod sauce, North Sea crab with pork belly and pumpkin textures, served under a glass cloche filled with smoky smoke. A showstopper. The smoky-smelling smoke fills the room. The Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial is like a golden thread that effortlessly ties all the richly flavored little dishes together.
Millefeuille with matcha
The incredibly tender glazed Wagyu with shiitake duxelles is finished at the table with a blowtorch. One culinary flourish after another follows—things I only know from the kitchens of fine-dining restaurants, and that my own humble home kitchen would never have dared dream of. After the yuzu and caramel millefeuille, matcha powder (tip: don’t inhale and eat at the same time) and freshly whipped sesame ice cream (from the chef’s steel boyfriend), warm lime madeleines and macarons are served, beautifully complementing the Moët Rosé Impérial.
The end
Suddenly, a voice comes from the kitchen: “We’ll come and collect the last plates sometime. There’s still some champagne in your fridge for later—enjoy!” When I turn around, the counter is gleaming clean and all the kitchen equipment has already been loaded up. As if the culinary invasion had been nothing more than a delicious dream.
Entertainment for the whole evening
For 145 euros per person, you can book this beautiful Champagne Menu from Chefs at Home by No Rules. If you’re not a fan of bubbles (does such a person exist?), you can also choose the Signature Menu or the vegetarian version. If you’ve had enough of lockdown and want to transform your home into a top restaurant for an evening, this comes highly recommended. The dishes are incredibly flavorful and provide entertainment for the entire evening, leaving no opportunity for a family Christmas argument. The No Rules team is so lovely that you’d prefer to invite them to the table, but they don’t have time for that because they’re constantly busy making sure you lack absolutely nothing. There simply isn’t a better way to get through these festive weeks.
And when restaurants are finally allowed to reopen; we ate at No Rules between the lockdowns, and this is what we thought.
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