Inside SOBEWFF’s $1500-a-Seat Joël Robuchon Dinner Sponsored by Ulysse Nardin

Miami Design District’s Moore Building set the stage for the Cooking Channel and Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s crowning event: a sold-out, $1500-a-ticket dinner with master chef Joël Robuchon.

The room included Design District developer Craig Robins; 1 Hotel & Home’s Richard LeFrak with his wife, Karen; festival creator, Souther Wine & Spirits’ Director of special events, Lee Shrager; Jerry and Victoria Fernas Moore, the family who built the Moore Building; New York restauranteur Sophie NcNally, and many more.

The Moore Building’s atrium was left as a blank slate bathed in pink and blue light. Tho colors set off the red rose arrangements on tables that were named for cities where Chef Robuchon has restaurants including Tokyo, London, Paris, Bangkok, Tapei, Las Vegas, Macao, Bordeaux, Monaco and Hong Kong.

The most Michelin-starred chef in the world, Robuchon, oversaw a five-course menu that lived up to the chef’s reputation. The meal began with a symphony of oscetra caviar with gold leaf and salmon tartare. The dish was served with Veuve Cliquot Rosé 2008 to contrast with the caviar’s salty notes.

The second course served was caramelized black cod in a Malabar pepper sauce along with bok choy. This dish demonstrates the chef’s international leanings with a sauce from India’s Malabar coast paired with Veuve Cliquot Grande Dame 2006.

The third course featured duck confit with black truffle carpaccio, accompanied by Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Rosé, 2004.

Dessert was a two-part affair starting with passion fruit and banana mousse with rum gratiné with coconut creme, followed by tea and coffee with more “seductive sweets.” Guests left with gift bags that included the February-March 2016 Miami edition of Haute Living with chef Joël Robuchon on the cover.

The dinner served as preview of things to come for Robuchon’s L’Atelier restaurant that will be opening in early 2017 in the Design District that will come complete with bakery, bar and café.