Living it up but flat broke at La Verticale

Elegant functionality: To offset the geometric designs and bold art deco colours, the tables are simply adorned with chopsticks and cinnamon sticks. La Verticale Add: 19 Ngo Van So St Tel: 04 39 44 63 17 Hours: 11am-2pm, 6.30pm-10pm (bar terrace open until midnight) Price per person: US$15 set lunch, Average $45 per head in the evening Comments: As La Verticale's website says on its home page, it is "a space where the West meets Asia, where the two come together for a cuisine in a perfect balance of tastes and textures."

Curious to ascend this ladder of flavours, I visited Didier Corlou's Art Deco period restaurant on Ngo Van So Street on a Saturday night. On entering, I could hear the lively sound of casserole dishes clinking and knives chopping.

The front room on the ground floor doubles as a reception area and little shop. Four-dollar pots of ginger, black sesame or Ha Noi five spices are arrayed across wooden furniture, as well as 100 per cent Arabica coffee selected by the chef and Cafes Folliet, forest pollen, forest honey or cooking books signed by the great chef himself. One of the spice mixes is named Maki, after a woman the chef met. "She was intolerant to salt so I created this balance of anise, pepper and salt for her to replace it with," he said.

On the way to the second floor, I passed through the inox kitchen where the chef was dynamically managing his Vietnamese team of cooks. He put the team together himself so that they could do his food, because as he put it, "my very own cuisine I want them to do".

I knew it would be good. But I didn't imagine it would be that good. Firstly, the house offered some amuse-bouche composed, among others, of a small glass of nuoc mam (fish sauce), "to open the appetite" the chef explained to me later, a cold pumpkin soup and of a sorbet "for middle of the meal digestion". Simple things, except the fish sauce was coming out of a bottle with the chef's name on it, the soup was beautifully spiced with Halong Curry and the ice-cream was made with tamarind and served with a mushroom sauce.

Food for thought: The dishes are deceptively simple. Don't be fooled, a great deal of thought has gone on behind the scenes. — VNS Photos Truong Vi

After that, even though I wasn't hungry anymore, there was no way I wouldn't have a dessert. Looking at the menu, I could see nearly all of them were named after fruits. "What is on my menu is what the nature offers me at that precise moment. Everything is of the season. In my opinion, that's being a good chef: cooking and creating with what you can get nearby," says a very friendly Didier Corlou. "I change the menu four to five times a year. I am, as we speak, switching from a spring to a summer menu." Therefore, summer artichokes, avocados, litchis and mackerel are replacing spring's peas, crayfish, swordfish and duck. "To me, true luxury is just this: freshness and simplicity," he says.

Didier Corlou is 55 years old. "No good at school and terrible at spelling," he started working at the age of 14, before leaving for Africa when he was 21. He visited many countries and then came to work in 1991 in Ha Noi as the chef of the five-star Sofitel Metropole Hanoi Hotel, one of the most esteemed (and expensive) hotels in the Vietnamese capital. Four-and-a-half years ago, he opened La Verticale, serving more Vietnamese style cuisine.

La Verticale, also offers a great set lunch. The menu offers a choice of six starters, six mains courses and six desserts. For example, you can pick the Salad Nicoise style with grilled tuna, poached egg and anchovy, followed with the seafood plancha with tomato and olive oil and of the banana compote in spice "creme brule" with "Brittany style" biscuit and passion sorbet. This set lunch costs $15.

As for me on that Saturday night, the bill came to about $45 a person, and this was without ordering wine, even though, coming out of the restaurant, I felt a bit tipsy… A feeling that led to one natural conclusion: Didier Corlou's recipes are exhilaratingly great. — VNS

Living it up but flat broke at La Verticale

Elegant functionality: To offset the geometric designs and bold art deco colours, the tables are simply adorned with chopsticks and cinnamon sticks. La Verticale Add: 19 Ngo Van So St Tel: 04 39 44 63 17 Hours: 11am-2pm, 6.30pm-10pm (bar terrace open until midnight) Price per person: US$15 set lunch, Average $45 per head in the evening Comments: As La Verticale's website says on its home page, it is "a space where the West meets Asia, where the two come together for a cuisine in a perfect balance of tastes and textures."

Curious to ascend this ladder of flavours, I visited Didier Corlou's Art Deco period restaurant on Ngo Van So Street on a Saturday night. On entering, I could hear the lively sound of casserole dishes clinking and knives chopping.

The front room on the ground floor doubles as a reception area and little shop. Four-dollar pots of ginger, black sesame or Ha Noi five spices are arrayed across wooden furniture, as well as 100 per cent Arabica coffee selected by the chef and Cafes Folliet, forest pollen, forest honey or cooking books signed by the great chef himself. One of the spice mixes is named Maki, after a woman the chef met. "She was intolerant to salt so I created this balance of anise, pepper and salt for her to replace it with," he said.

On the way to the second floor, I passed through the inox kitchen where the chef was dynamically managing his Vietnamese team of cooks. He put the team together himself so that they could do his food, because as he put it, "my very own cuisine I want them to do".

I knew it would be good. But I didn't imagine it would be that good. Firstly, the house offered some amuse-bouche composed, among others, of a small glass of nuoc mam (fish sauce), "to open the appetite" the chef explained to me later, a cold pumpkin soup and of a sorbet "for middle of the meal digestion". Simple things, except the fish sauce was coming out of a bottle with the chef's name on it, the soup was beautifully spiced with Halong Curry and the ice-cream was made with tamarind and served with a mushroom sauce.

Food for thought: The dishes are deceptively simple. Don't be fooled, a great deal of thought has gone on behind the scenes. — VNS Photos Truong Vi

After that, even though I wasn't hungry anymore, there was no way I wouldn't have a dessert. Looking at the menu, I could see nearly all of them were named after fruits. "What is on my menu is what the nature offers me at that precise moment. Everything is of the season. In my opinion, that's being a good chef: cooking and creating with what you can get nearby," says a very friendly Didier Corlou. "I change the menu four to five times a year. I am, as we speak, switching from a spring to a summer menu." Therefore, summer artichokes, avocados, litchis and mackerel are replacing spring's peas, crayfish, swordfish and duck. "To me, true luxury is just this: freshness and simplicity," he says.

Didier Corlou is 55 years old. "No good at school and terrible at spelling," he started working at the age of 14, before leaving for Africa when he was 21. He visited many countries and then came to work in 1991 in Ha Noi as the chef of the five-star Sofitel Metropole Hanoi Hotel, one of the most esteemed (and expensive) hotels in the Vietnamese capital. Four-and-a-half years ago, he opened La Verticale, serving more Vietnamese style cuisine.

La Verticale, also offers a great set lunch. The menu offers a choice of six starters, six mains courses and six desserts. For example, you can pick the Salad Nicoise style with grilled tuna, poached egg and anchovy, followed with the seafood plancha with tomato and olive oil and of the banana compote in spice "creme brule" with "Brittany style" biscuit and passion sorbet. This set lunch costs $15.

As for me on that Saturday night, the bill came to about $45 a person, and this was without ordering wine, even though, coming out of the restaurant, I felt a bit tipsy… A feeling that led to one natural conclusion: Didier Corlou's recipes are exhilaratingly great. — VNS