Riviera-Inspired Dining at Côte by Mauro Colagreco

Cosseted inside the Capella Bangkok, Côte by Mauro Colagreco brings hints of fresh Mediterranean air to the meandering Chao Phraya River. One of only nine Capella hotels globally, this property offers expansive riverine vistas. Its natural environs, including trickling sounds of water and flushes of light, recall the large verandas on a sea-front villa.

Quiet simplicity and subdued serenity along this curve of glistening river replace sophisticated Mediterranean coastlines. Warm, welcoming yet elegant interiors with wide windows display sun-soaked or moonlit panoramic views. Côte’s comfortable décor and familiar scenery match the Riviera-inspired dining experience. Radiant shades of blues, from cobalt to ultra-marine, reflect a Côte d’Azur glow on the show plates.   

Côte is Chef Mauro Colagreco’s latest venture after an accomplished list of restaurants in France, China and Argentina. After training with the crème de la crème of Parisian chefs such as Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse, he opened Mirazur in Menton, France in 2006. It has won numerous accolades, including three Michelin Stars in 2019. It ranked No. 1 in San Pellegrino’s 2019 “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.” Gault&Millau named him “Chef of the Year” and Le Chef Compilation named him “Best Chef in the World,” both in 2019.

With his Italian-Argentine cultural heritage, Chef Colagreco has fused his own style. His powerful perception draws on classical recipes and culinary traditions of the French and Italian Riviera, from Nice to Genoa. These vibrant and rich terroirs of excellence are divinely blessed. It’s the home of the best products on earth—where land, water and sun converge. From these local cultural roots on both sides of the border, he creates colourful, generous gourmand cuisine with contemporary, refined simplicity.

His cuisine evolves with the seasons, available produce and his own inspiration. Respectful of nature, his creations are light, honest and ultra-fresh, with herbs, citrus fruits and vegetables. He showcases magnificent ingredients produced by local growers from the Thai countryside and his own greenhouse. Sustainable and light-caught seafood is sourced daily from different regions.

Côte’s culinary and service brigade is integrally helmed by the Franco-Italian trio of Chef Davide Garavaglia from Milan, Chef Marc Vasseur from La Touraine and Thibaud Charlemarty from Bordeaux, all former members of various Michelin-starred restaurants around the world. Their proficient and spirited professionalism complement the immaculate and thoughtful gastronomic experience. Head Sommelier Thanakorn “Jay” Bottorff recommends finely selected Champagne and wines from the hotel’s comprehensive temperature-controlled wine bank. He is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about rare wines from boutique wineries.

Chef Garavaglia and Chef Vasseur bring Chef Colagreco’s philosophy to the fore. After stints at D’O under Chef Davide Oldani in Milan and at Sketch under Chef Pierre Gagnaire in London, Chef Garavaglia joined Mirazur in 2015 where he was instrumental in the restaurant’s recent third Michelin star as well as the ascendance to No. 1 in “The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.”

After two years’ preparations for the Bangkok establishment, Chef Garavaglia says, “Among Chef Mauro’s other restaurants, the style at Côte here is the closest to Mirazur—from our approach, preparation and creation of dishes. We also have freedom to create its modern French cuisine, mainly Mediterranean with a little touch of local materials. However, we keep it as real and as European as possible, without too much Asian influence. I came up with totally new dishes with Mauro’s approval before my arrival here.”

From the Inspiration set lunch of five courses, the delectable amuse-bouches start with seaweed tart, trout egg, and crispy rice, blending savoury flavours with soft and crunchy textures. This refined interpretation of torte verde from the Liguria region is traditionally composed of ricotta cheese, eggs and greens such as spinach, chard or beet greens and baked in a thin olive-oil crust.

Next comes cool and refreshing escabeche mussel with lightly acidic aspic gelée of anchovy, tomato confit and vinegar. Then shitake macaron, black pudding and green apple impeccably combine a mélange of mushroom dashi, boudin noir and apple freshness.

Chef Mauro’s memories of his grandmother’s home cooking arrive in an iconic form of “Sharing Bread” with six large petals, reminiscing a gigantic khanom ghleeb lumduan, a Thai flower-shaped cookie. Made without a mould but by a cutting procedure with a knife, its shape represents the idea of partaking. This bread is made with a special flour from Italy and seven different grains—corn, spelt, rice flour, regular wheat, buckwheat, etc. and served with olive oil infused with ginger and Menton lemon, exclusively produced from Huilerie St. Michel, for a citric trace.

Accompanying the bread is an excerpt from the poem “Ode to Bread” by Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. “And we will also share with one another whatever has the shape and the flavour of bread: the earth itself, beauty and love—all taste like bread and have its shape, the germination of wheat. Everything exists to be shared, to be freely given, to multiply.” Warm whole-wheat focaccia, baguette and sourdough bread from the hotel bakery are also at hand.

The artichoke salad opens with a crispy crunch and a soupçon of kaffir lime in the fresh and slightly tart sauce.

A lush scoop of cauliflower, sea urchin, almond foam packs a voluptuous punch.

Formidably seared foie gras is balanced by pomelo’s tropical sweetness and turnip’s purity.

Handmade trofie, a classic and comforting pasta from Liguria, satisfies the palate with fine basil pesto and shellfish.

Plump and juicy blue lobster, smoked broccoli mousseline, bisque emulsion is worth the supplement. It’s nicely poised with a light whiff of rosemary and yuzu.

John Dory is generously enhanced by Jerusalem artichokes’ or topinambur’s unique taste, black truffle and a sprinkle of persil de mer. However, the heat isn’t high enough. 

Lamb saddle, eggplant, sesame vinaigrette is perfectly prepared with the tangy sauce of kumquat and carrot. Still, its tepid temperature and parsimonious portion mar the experience.

A selection of cheeses from France and Italy evoke trips along the Riviera coastlines.

Parsnips “mille-feuille,” milk skin, banana and rhum brings back childhood memory with its tastes and textures. The milk skin is made in a bain-marie and then crisply baked with icing sugar on baking paper under a salamander.  

Saffron crème brûlée, orange sorbet, cardamom ends this luscious lunch with its excellent fragrances and flavours. Absolutely fabulous!

Delightful petits fours of ginger financier, dark chocolate and earl grey bon bon, white chocolate and roselle infusion, ricotta and chestnut tart provide an ideal imaginary passage to the Riviera. Grand cru teas such as Da Hong Pao Oolong tea to White Dragon Pu Erh tea round off their sumptuousness.

Chef Garavaglia says: “The new spring menu will start around the end of March, after this transitional menu. Our menu is based on European seasons. We import some vegetables, seafood and lamb from France and other European countries. However, to be more sustainable, we also use produce from the Royal Project. I miss the south of France a lot. At Mirazur, it’s very special. We can look out to the sea from the windows every day…”

Escapade, a set lunch of four courses for 1,500 baht, with cheese 1,800 baht.

Inspiration, a set lunch or dinner of five courses for 3,600 baht, with blue lobster supplement 1,000 baht.

Wine pairing: 2 glasses for 700 baht, 3 glasses for 1,150 baht, 4 glasses for 1,700 baht, or 5 glasses for 2,100 baht.

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Côte by Mauro Colagreco                                                                     

Open for lunch from 12pm-2pm and dinner from 6pm-10 pm (Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays) 300/2 Charoenkrung Road, Yannawa, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120
Telephone +662 098 3818
[email protected]