Green haven where Beijing meets the Mediterranean

One drawback in the lineup is the Spanish seafood paella (108 yuan), which I found light on the palette. I would have expected something saltier and full of umami flavors.

The most surprising dish appeared at the end of the meal. I have seen the inside of quite a few gourmet establishments in Beijing, but little has impressed me in any of theme as much as The Roots' classic British dessert banoffee pie (38 yuan).

This fabulous dish consists of five simple layers: coffee beans, whipped cream, biscuit, fresh banana and dulce de leche. When you eat it make sure you get a little bit of each layer when you dig your spoon in. Sheer satisfaction comes with each mouthful of the at once soft, crunchy, creamy, gooey, sweet and fruity concoction. The scraps of coffee beans help to bring out the bitterness to balance the sweetness and add an extra dimension of crunch with the biscuit.

The five ingredients work so well together that they need no others. It justifies Mansuy's statement about how timing is crucial to develop a proper taste. For the banoffee, the flavors of each ingredient work together on time, he says.

Mansuy met his wife, a Beijinger, in London, where he worked up from being a waiter to being both chef and holding managerial positions in distinguished restaurants. The couple returned to Beijing in 2012, and spent 18 months doing market research before opening The Roots in 2014, and a second branch in 2016.

Mansuy says running a restaurant in Beijing is a lot different to running one in France, where the business is very fragmented.

"In France, apart from the likes of Subway and McDonald's, there are barely any restaurant chains. No one tries that hard to expand their own restaurant. They're not that business savvy, even if they make enough money to get by."

As for his own expanding interests, that seem to be land-bound at present.

"In 2019 my aim is to work with the local authorities to get to use more land for gardening, and to organize events relating to nature and insects for young people.

"The more they know about this, the more chance we will have for a brighter, blue sky."

If you go

The Roots

Monday to Sunday, 10 am to 9.30 pm

3rd Floor, Yizhuang Creative Life Plaza, 6 Wenhuayuan Donglu, Daxing district

010-6785-9300