Diner’s Diary
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Top Hong Kong restaurant Seasons to shut after losing its Michelin star and French chef Olivier Elzer
Causeway Bay fine-dining restaurant, which earned a Michelin star a year after opening, will close next week, 10 months after chef who launched it left; ‘exciting kids-oriented project’ to take its place in upscale mall
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 04 July, 2018, 12:15pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 04 July, 2018, 2:24pm
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How’s this for a comedown? A top Hong Kong restaurant is making way for a children’s attraction, months after losing its Michelin star.
Seasons restaurant in the upmarket Lee Garden Two mall in Causeway Bay will close on July 15, to be replaced with what landlord the Hysan Development Company describes as “an exciting kids-oriented project”.
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The French fine-dining restaurant opened just over four years ago in a partnership between chef Olivier Elzer and the then CEO and deputy chairman of Hysan Development Company, Lau Siu-chuen. Elzer previously worked in Hong Kong for Pierre Gagnaire at Pierre in the Mandarin Oriental, and for Joel Robuchon, running L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, and opened several bakeries and cafes.
In 2015 the restaurant, then called Seasons by Olivier E, was awarded a Michelin star, which it kept until 2017. Elzer left Seasons in September of that year to pursue other projects and was replaced by another Robuchon alumnus, Lorenz Hoja.
Joël Robuchon shuts down two restaurants in Singapore, but city’s fine dining ‘not in danger’
Hoja and the other Seasons staff were given their notice late last month.
Hysan says it is planning a “new gastronomic experience” in its Lee Garden Three retail and office tower, and hints that a “renowned food and beverage group” will be involved, but does not cite a time frame.
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