Business Times - 21 Feb 2009
Occasional restaurants
Tired of the usual venues? Try going beyond the boundaries of the restaurant scene, where non-restaurant businesses are creating interesting options. At these places, dining and drinking aren't an everyday affair. By Audrey Phoon
Private Kitchen
at Palate Sensations
(Open one Friday or Sunday a month)
1 Westbourne Road, #03-05
Tel 6479-9025
www.palatesensations.com
AT Private Kitchen, you're encouraged to swap the usual restaurant etiquette for, well, just about anything you want. You can peer into the pots to see what's cooking, for example, help the chef in the kitchen, and take a seat wherever you wish.
It's not normal, but then this fresh dining option isn't your usual F&B establishment. Private Kitchen belongs to - and is housed within - Palate Sensations, a cooking school located on the top floor of a quaint, heritage building in Wessex Estate.
The school is staffed mostly by chefs who work in local restaurants. Recently though, it hired its own full-time resident chef, Dean Fisher (a native of Cornwall in England who has owned two Michelin-Guide-listed seafood restaurants), to dish up sit-down meals on a monthly basis, among other engagements.
Explains Palate Sensations managing director Lynette Foo of her decision to introduce Private Kitchen to the school's repertoire: 'Palate Sensations previously only held hands-on classes but there are unfortunately some lazy buggers out there who are too lazy to cook and only want to eat.
'So after a lot of thought, I decided to succumb and launch Private Kitchen to cater to them. Of course, it's open to everyone else too, not just lazy buggers!'
The idea, she continues, is for those who are interested in food and who want to know how a meal is made, to watch the chef put it all together in front of them at the open kitchen.
'People can then get up close and personal with the chef without the normal demonstration barriers you find in demonstration classes,' she says.
The first Private Kitchen session will kick off next Friday, and for the moment, only one Friday dinner or Sunday roast per month is on the cards. That's because the 20-seater Private Kitchen is modelled after similar concepts in Hong Kong - that is, 'private, intimate and not too frequent, more at the discretion of the chef'.
The planned dinner menu ranges from things like crispy duck parcels with sweet chilli sauce ('Dean has been learning a lot of Asian cuisines since he's been here - Thai, Indonesian and Chinese to name a few - and he's starting to incorporate some of their styles into his menus,' Ms Foo shares) to salmon, cod and Icelandic prawns wrapped in filo pastry and bound with a light wine, cream and parsley sauce. For the Sunday roasts, a range of traditional English roast meats, vegetables and puddings will be on the table.
'Private Kitchen is Dean's chance to get creative because most of the time, when we teach cooking classes, everything has to be done within a three-hour timeframe and the food has to be achievable for everyone,' explains Ms Foo. 'It gives Dean an opportunity to experiment and keep up with his restaurant skills as he will return to the restaurant scene in two years' time.'
Each Private Kitchen session costs $80 per diner and comes with a free flow of iced tea, water, coffee and tea. Beers are $8 a bottle and diners are encouraged to bring their own wines (there's no corkage charge). Be prepared, though, to clear your own plates. 'You can experience lots here that you can't in a normal restaurant - you can be crazy and loud, meet and talk with other diners, get up close with the chef and pick up some cooking tips,' says Ms Foo. 'But, there are no waiters!'
Enso Kitchen
at Goto
(Open for Sunday lunch)
14 Ann Siang Road, #01-01
Tel 6438-1553
www.ensokitchen.com
NUMBER 14 Ann Siang Road already houses a very special restaurant - Goto, a quaint kaiseki joint run by a former private chef to the Japanese ambassador to Singapore - on most days of the week. But on Sunday afternoons, it's home to an eatery that's even more unique.
Enso Kitchen specialises in shojin ryori, or the cuisine of vegetarian monks from Japanese Zen temples. The company is primarily a catering business helmed by private chef Danny Chu, who trained in Japan and who has cooked in the Japanese embassy here. During his time in the embassy, he struck up a friendship with Goto Hisao, the ambassador's chef, which led to Chu 'borrowing' Goto's premises every Sunday lunchtime when chef Goto started his tiny, 22-seater eponymous restaurant last February.
'Goto is relatively new, and it's not uncommon for new restaurants to operate on a five-day week,' says Chu. 'At the moment, they are closed on Sundays and Mondays, so that's when I take over the place for a small token.'
The chef regards his Sunday lunch sessions at Goto as a kind of showcase for his food - 'I thought it was a good idea because I realised there are quite a number of people who want to try shojin food but can't gather the minimum number of people (eight) needed to start a catering session, or they didn't have the premises', he says.
Thus, at Enso Kitchen at Goto, there is no minimum number of diners required if you want a table, although reservations are recommended because of the size of the restaurant.
Those who do manage to secure seats will be treated to a light, fresh cuisine ($45+ for a meal comprising a starter, main course of about five to six items, dessert and green tea) that focuses on seasonal ingredients and contains no garlic, onion, egg or dairy products. 'Garlic and onion affect one's flow of energy, while egg and dairy products aren't suitable for vegans like the Japanese monks,' explains Chu, who sticks strictly to what shojin ryori calls for.
To palates used to robust flavours, this Zen cuisine may pass right over the tastebuds, although the chef does season his food with miso, sake, mirin, seaweed, tofu and soya sauce, and takes pains to cook the various courses in different ways. But it does promise a certain serenity in terms of both cooking and eating, says Chu. 'Cooking shojin is a meditative process,' he explains. 'Eating it is a meditative process too in the temples, where they chant five Buddhist reflections before the meal.'
Of course, Chu doesn't expect diners to do that at Goto, but he hopes that his cooking - which aims to bring 'very pure, clean and gentle tastes to the palate' - will provide a sort of feel-good factor to diners.
While the chef part of him is keen to bring the cuisine into a restaurant of his own in future, Chu says that the principles of shojin ryori are holding him back. 'It's a natural path for every chef, but I have this struggle,' he shares. 'The philosophy of this type of cuisine makes it challenging to commercialise it. One of the principles is to minimise wastage, for example, and a normal restaurant would result in more wastage. Also if I'm cooking in a big restaurant I don't think I could be very meditative.'
As such, Enso Kitchen's current set-up at Goto suits Chu, for the moment at least. 'Something like this that's not regular means people won't take it for granted, and coming here becomes a special occasion because of the limited timeframe in which you can have it,' he says. 'It's human nature to appreciate things more when we can't have them as much, as in relationships too.
'So this works well for me right now, but I'm always open to ideas.'
Speakeasy
at The Hidden Host
(Open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays)
54 Blair Road
Tel 6410-9026
www.speakeasy.com.sg
IT'S nearly dusk when the corner unit at the end of the Blair Plain residential neighbourhood opens its doors. Those gathered outside are ushered in quickly and shown upstairs, where a range of Deep South-style cocktails is being shaken up - potent mixtures that feature a lot of gin and rye whisky. Later, when it's time to leave, the crowd slips out by the back door, past rows of storage shelves and down a narrow staircase that opens out into a back alley.
America's Prohibition era of the 1930s, it seems, has been put in a time capsule and transported to 21st century Singapore - and the woman who's behind it is Joyce Odom, founder of events management company The Hidden Host.
Speakeasy - named after the illegal drinking joints of that era - is a bar, not a restaurant, but if you intend to hold an event there, The Hidden Host can arrange anything from full meals to finger food for you. It was set up last November by Ms Odom, a native of South Carolina, within the premises of The Hidden Host, which is the only shophouse in the Blair Plain row that can be used for both commercial and residential purposes. The bar is open from 6pm until midnight on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and until later on Fridays.
'The theme of the bar fitted the building, and the Prohibition era has particular fascination for me because of the illicit nature of everything,' Ms Odom explains.
'That's when cocktails really came about - because alcohol was banned, people started making their own spirits, bathtub gin ... and they had to add juices and stuff to these concoctions because they were obviously not fit for drinking!'
At Speakeasy, of course, the cocktails ($15 each but go on Wednesday and they're $8) are far more drinkable. There are currently just seven types that include Sazarac, a 19th century New Orleans recipe that Ms Odom warns is 'quite a commitment', and Empire Glory, a refreshing ginger-lemon-and-rye-whisky concoction. 'We might be the only people serving rye whisky in Singapore - I haven't seen it anywhere else. And it's proved surprisingly popular among the women,' she says.
Everything is expertly prepared fresh by mixologist James Chen, formerly of Saint Julien, and only fresh juices - 'nothing out of the bottle' - are used.
There's also an extensive wine list comprising about 40 labels of predominantly New World wines, though if you're looking for anything run-of-the-mill, you probably won't find it here because Ms Odom is averse to anything mass-produced. Instead, there are boutique wines such as one made from Kyoho grapes, while a couple of American wines - an Oregon pinot noir, for instance - are due to be listed soon. Every brand is available by the glass 'at some point every month' so that people get to try different varietals.
At present, the cocktails are served in ordinary glasses, but in keeping with her Prohibition theme, Ms Odom is busy collecting antique teacups ('I've only got about 14 at the moment; that's not enough to go around,' she declares) in which she will eventually serve the drinks.
There is one aspect, though, which she cannot fully recreate - the shadowy, furtive mood of the Prohibition era. After all, Speakeasy is located in a particularly tranquil neighbourhood that's perched on a rise overlooking the Tanjong Pagar railway station. But it's okay. Says Ms Odom: 'We love our little neighbourhood - it's a slice of serenity in Chinatown.'
Host @ Clarke Quay
by Rubicon Reserve Wines
(No fixed schedule yet)
3E River Valley Road
#02-04 Clarke Quay
Tel 6837-8012
www.rubiconreserve.com.sg
TO educate people about wine, one business is bringing food to the table.
Wine distributor Rubicon figures that by showing people how food and wine 'go together to make a good meal great', appreciation for the beverage will grow. That's one of the reasons why the company built Host @ Clarke Quay, a dining cum entertainment space with its own kitchen, 10 months ago. (It's tucked away behind the multi-storey car park opposite Zirca Mega Club.)
Says director of Rubicon Reserve Wines, David Coleman, of the intimate, 20-seater wood-panelled room whose walls are lined with racks of wine: 'Host is actually a simplification of a service Rubicon has provided for the last six years - that is, organising wine-based events such as dinners for our private and corporate clients.
'Instead of going to new restaurants each time and reinventing the wheel, it enables us to have a dedicated event space that is as flexible as we want it to be. Plus there is nothing in Singapore quite like Host and I wanted something that just screamed 'wine' at you.'
While wine-paired meals at Host were previously only available to Rubicon's clients, the company is planning to extend this service to the public within the next two months or so. It's currently firming up a contract to get a full-time resident chef at the event space - something gourmets should take note of as the new chef will be one of Australia's best.
'Without giving too much away, she has been the executive chef at some of Sydney's biggest names, Tetsuya and Rock Pool being a big hint,' says Mr Coleman.
When this chef comes in, the wine distributor plans to hold three dinners and one lunch a week that will be open to public bookings (take note - Host will not cater to walk-ins), along with other Rubicon events such as wine tastings, at different times.
Meanwhile, a multi-chef programme will run concurrently, says Mr Coleman. He explains: 'Each month for a week Rubicon will have a celebrity chef in Host that will bring his or her own special style and flair to the place.' This promises to be 'a lot of fun', he adds, 'especially with some of the contacts our new resident chef has'.
Menus will be based on the wines being served during the meal, and the cost per head of each meal is based on the wines and where they are from.
One advantage of being in a set-up like this, Mr Coleman feels, is that diners can walk away having learnt something about how to match different foods with the right wines.
But there's an even bigger benefit. Says the director: 'The best thing about Host is the service, service - and did I mention service?' With only 20 seats available in the Clarke Quay space - and 'we don't care if there are only two or 20 of you' - dining in this venue is an event.
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