Making Ma cuisine your cuisine

Ma Cuisine offers private or corporate parties, long table dinners where everyone shares and eats the same food. Donna Mah / For China Daily

Hong Kong

Ma Cuisine is a jewel in the Chai Wan industrial district on Hong Kong island, although this newly opened French private kitchen is a little hard to find.

This is the kitchen of Monsieur Chatte, the French food store that has two locations in Hong Kong - one in Sheung Wan and the other at Elements mall in Kowloon. Since Monsieur Chatte opened, I have bought some delicious cheeses at the Sheung Wan store, so was excited have a chance to check out the private kitchen.

It was a birthday celebration at Ma Cuisine for one of my friends. His wife was organizing and had sent fairly detailed instructions on how to get to the location but it was still not the easiest place to find.

It is located in one of the many industrial buildings in Chai Wan. Not known yet for fine dining options, Chai Wan is better known for its public housing and industrial estates. However, as rents skyrocket in more central locations, Chai Wan has become a popular choice for small businesses.

Ma Cuisine offers private or corporate parties, long table dinners where everyone shares and eats the same food, and cook-and-dine evenings where the chef de cuisine, Sabine Rasse, helps you to prepare your own food.

According to chef Rasse, "Ma Cuisine is an unpretentious place proposing genuine French food. We do not adapt to please local tastes, so customers can expect a true French experience, similar to what you would get at home in France."

The most popular dishes are the homemade foie gras, which is prepared according to an original recipe developed by Monsieur Chatte's father from 1948, the boeuf bourguignon (beef cooked in red-wine sauce), and farmhouse cheeses from Eric Lefebvre, a champion cheese master from France.

On the evening we ate at Ma Cuisine, I had the South West 2 menu, which includes soup, homemade foie gras, lamb knuckle, salad, a cheese platter, and Landes-style apple pie.

Since I'm currently pregnant, I was unable to sample any of the undeniably tempting unpasteurized cheeses on the platter. I watched as my fellow diners closed their eyes and moaned happily as they ate their way through the forbidden cheese. I was drooling like Pavlov's dog even though I was quite full from all the preceding dishes, but cheese is a weakness of mine and I was definitely envious.

The young Monsieur Chatte who was serving us that evening took pity on me and offered me a pasteurized brie to nibble on, but it wasn't the same experience I sensed that the other diners were having.

The evening was definitely a success. Everyone enjoyed the wine, the food, the company and the adventure of dining at this new private venue.