Jplus 2016 04 03 lores

Vol. 3 No. 20 I April 3 - 9 , 2016

WANDERLUST FROM TOKYO TO TURKEY NEW ZEALAND MASTERCHEFS HEAT UP THE DHARMAWANGSA A LA MODE COOL SUEDE LOAFERS

COOKING WITH LOVE WORLD-FAMOUS CHEF MASSIMO BOTTURA TALKS ABOUT food, MUSIC AND MEMORY IN JAKARTA

Editor's note

Check List

THE PAST RECAPTURED Sick with bronchitis that I developed when riding one-too-many ojeks during last week’s taxi kerfuffle, I wrote most of this issue's cover story in the style of Marcel Proust, the author of Remembrance of Things Past.

That is to say, I wrote it in bed.

Apparently, the only things the great man and I share are delicate constitutions and a penchant for horizontal composition, he with a fountain pen, me with a laptop.

The author has been on my mind this week as I was reading Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life.

I’ve been thinking about Proust’s famed “madeline moment” in Swann’s Way: When dipping cake in tea can unleash a

mark my words

flood of memories. This is what he wrote: “When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.”

The sentiment is one that Massimo Bottura, the subject of this week’s cover story (p6-10), understands well.

Memory is at the core of everything

cooked by the world-famous chef, who was in Jakarta last month. Take as example the name of just one of his dishes: “Memory of a Mortadella Sandwich.”

“I grew up under the table in the kitchen, looking at my grandma and at my mom, rolling pasta, making tortellini,” Massimo told us. “With the eye of the child, you catch the flash in the dark.”

Writing about the experience of eating is daunting; so instead, we chose to focus on the chef and his wife, Lara. I hope you enjoy the article.

Have a great weekend!

Chris Razukas jplus@thejakartapost.com

OF Carrots and Sticks

PLAYING GAMES WITH RESPONSIBILITY, DISCIPLINE AND CHORES WORDS SONDANG GRACE SIRAIT

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Cover Story Massimo's moveable feast

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Art market New York to Hong Kong

JPlus Team Editor Christian Razukas Art Director Budhi Hartono Graphic Designer Hengky Wijaya Marketing & Advertising Sales & Marketing Director Ady P. Pamungkas

ady.pamungkas@thejakartapost.com

Marketing Executive Faisal Ahmad

Not too long ago my friend posted on Facebook an account of her attempt at getting her two children, aged seven and five, to earn their first income.

It wasn’t child slavery, mind you. What she did was create a table of chores at home, each bearing a certain value. The more points the kids collected, the bigger the chance they had of earning pocket money.

Folding clothes, hanging laundry and tidying up each led to one point, while finishing a book entitled them to three points.

Some parenting experts will tell you children shouldn’t be getting an allowance for completing chores, since the tasks are partly about responsibility and partly about learning how to do simple household tasks.

Some say it’s way too early to introduce the idea of earning money to kids in that age bracket, although others contend that money can be a good motivator for doing extra chores.

While it’s up to every parent out there to decide how they wish to set the rules at home, what I’ve seen resulting from my friend’s idea is how successful her program was in embedding responsibility and discipline among her children.

This whole “carrot-and-stick” approach isn’t exactly new, but it takes innovative parents to make the concept more effective,

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when it comes to balancing the punishment and rewards.

In my case, I thank the teachers at my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter’s school.

When she started last year, it was a struggle getting her to wake up every morning, shower and eat breakfast. She was always complaining, pretending to be sick and coming up with a host of other excuses.

It was a wonder when one day she came home super charged, saying she couldn’t wait to go to school the next day.

“School is the best thing ever!” she said, presenting a “Certificate of Excellence” from her teacher.

Apparently, my daughter had collected enough stamps (“smiley suns”, as they call them) to earn the certificate.

The more stamps they earn, the more certificates they are eligible for.

In the past few months, our walls at home have been adorned with a “Miss Cheerful Certificate, a “Miss Happy Certificate”, a “Miss Busy Certificate”, a “Miss Clever Certificate” and a “Miss Perfect Certificate”.

The encouragement carries on in different ways.

The other week my daughter came home smiling ear to ear, proudly showing off a badge that says “Star Citizen”.

I had to ask the teacher what was happening. “Aiko likes to help out at school, tidying up and even picking up trash in the

playground,” the teacher told me. “So we recommended her to get the Star Citizen badge.”

That badge, by the way, is the ultimate prize at my daughter’s school, earning her instant popularity among her classmates and even the older children.

At home, though, we still had a bit of a discipline issue. So I thought of replicating the concept, modifying it here and there, and came up with a chart.

For every completed table (worth 50 stickers), she earns an ice cream. On a good day, she’ll go around the house picking up her little brother’s toys and stuffing them into the cabinet. For that, I might give her two stickers.

There was also one other occasion when Aiko prepared breakfast on her own. That earned her three more stickers.

There’s no definitive rules, though, and, according to my husband, I tend to show too much leniency at times.

So far, I’ve had to buy her three scoops of ice cream for all three completed charts.

We’re onto our fourth now, with Aiko proposing that the prize should also include a big bag of marshmallows and me scratching my head–thinking perhaps it’s time to look for a different strategy.

faisal@thejakartapost.com

Mark My Words shifts focus between fashion, food, parenting, technology and travel each week.

Massimo Bottura Photographer Arief Suhardiman Location Hotel Mulia Senayan Jakarta

@JPlusSunday

SundayJplus

thejakartapost.com

On the cover

oh, the places you'll go LISTEN

DINE

GROOVE

Giovanni Allevi piano recital

A feast to remember at Monty’s

Food, movies, music

Istituto Italiano di Cultura Jakarta is bringing renowned Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Allevi to Indonesia for an evening of classical and contemporary piano music on April 8 at Pusat Perfilman Haji Usmar Ismail in Kuningan, South Jakarta. Allevi is described as rebel whose contemporary classical music style effortlessly combines Europe’s rhythmic and melodic tradition with contemporary sounds and images. He has performed to audiences of thousands at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Beijing Olympic Games. Admission is free.

When: April 8 Where: Pusat Perfilman Haji Usmar Ismail iicjakarta.esteri.it

Monty’s Restaurant in Senopati, South Jakarta is inviting German chef Lorenz Hoja to cook a special meal for guests together with its own chef Christer Foldnes. As the last event Monty’s did with Hoja was an overwhelming success, this time there will be two seatings, on April 6 and 7. Hoja is chef of L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Singapore. The restaurant is ranked 24th on Star Chefs’ list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Sunday marks the last day of Kinosaurus’ weekend of food, movies and music at the Goethe Haus in Menteng, Central Jakarta. Aside from screening various short films and feature-length art-house movies, the event also includes disco, hip-hop and dangdut performances by MMS. Food highlights include a papaya pudding made by Agung Priambodo, the director of Rocket Rain. Those looking for more cerebral activity can join one of the event’s many film discussions.

When: April 3 Where: Goethe Haus, Central Jakarta filmmusikmakan@gmail.com

When: April 6-7 Where: Monty’s Restaurant, South Jakarta Telp. +02172792323

talk of the town POPMART 2016 AT ARTOTEL Menteng, Central Jakarta

Artotel Thamrin Jakarta is currently hosting an exhibition showcasing the works of some of the country’s most talented young artists.

The event, titled Popmart 2016, brings together a diverse array of makers, including DJs, illustrators, graffiti artists and visual entertainers.

The theme this year is “Mad House.” Featured artists include X-Go, a Surabaya street artist, and Resatio, a collage specialist.

Popmart 2016 runs until April 24.

INAUGURAL GOAT RUN A SUCCESS Mt. Guntur, Garut

The Tourism Ministry and the Garut regional government joined forces with Running Wild to hold the inaugural Goat Run Trail Running Series at Mt. Guntur in Garut, West Java.

The course featured challenging 25-kilometer and 10-kilometer segments at an elevation of 1,700 meters, with beautiful views and breezes. Over 400 runners from throughout Indonesia and six countries participated in the March 27 race.

The winners included Jumardi, a runner in the men’s open category, who broke a course record by finishing under 90 minutes. All three 25-kilometer winners booked sub-four hour runs.

KAMILA LAUNCHES 1ST SINGLE Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta

Vocal-violinist musical trio Kamila recently unveiled its debut single, an Ismail Marzuki composition titled “Kunang-Kunang” (Fireflies), alongside a music video.

"Kunang-Kunang" offers a fresh take on a classic tune, arranged in collaboration with Masyarakat Peduli Indonesia. Together they adapted the song’s beautiful melodies for the violin.

The tune is available for download on iTunes, while the music video can be seen on YouTube.

Despite being a new group, its distinguished members–Ava Victoria, Mia Ismi and Ana Achjuman–have already performed at high-profile events, such as the recent inauguration of 33 ambassadors.

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a la MODE

Slim Briefcases to Make You Look Smart...

SOME MIGHT CALL THEM COMPUTER BAGS, BUT WE JUST CALL THEM SHARP Words Moti Ankari, Bloomberg

“Hey, great suit” is a nice compliment to get.

But having somebody notice your briefcase (or your shoes), now that’s an ego boost–accessories, after all, are the best way to express your Uri Minkoff Fulton Brief

Shinola Slim Briefcase

New York-based Uri Minkoff is known for impeccable bags, from weekenders to folios, with a more minimalist Scandic sensibility. The soft leather is the perfect shade of brown. The bag works year round, and will look especially good right now against lighterhued outerwear. (US$355, uriminkoff.com)

Shinola’s slim briefcase is hand-stitched in its leather studio in Detroit using Americantanned leather and stainless steel hardware. Its looser, laid-back construction reads more “rumpled creative director” than “slicked-back financier” and will break in gorgeously. ($895, shinola. com)

Tom Ford Buckley Leather Briefcase

Photos brands via bloomberg

individual style amid a sea of same-same (if wellcut) woolen uniforms. The latest generation of briefcases are sleek and small (about 15 inches wide) with room enough for your laptop and a

With smooth-texture straps against a tactile grained body, Tom Ford’s slim, gray calf-leather briefcase is an eye-opener. We especially like the gold-tone zipper, a bold departure from your everyday silver. Inside, more zippers (on pockets) and a laptop compartment. ($3,250, mrporter.com)

small sheaf of documents, but not much else.

Remember this is work bag, not a weekender bag. Here are six options with which you can’t go wrong:

Passavant & Lee No. 25 Portfolio Case Passavant & Lee’s slim portfolio case is business– especially if your business is international super spy.

It’s super lightweight (only 3 pounds) and made of a protective outer shell of aircraft-grade aluminum wrapped in pebble-grained Italian leather. Inside, pockets lined in suede and silk are tailored to hold a 13inch laptop, pens, a smartphone, and passport, plus whatever confidential documents need protecting. ($1,450, passavantandlee.com)

Want les Essentiels Haneda 15 Only 2.4-inches thick, Want les Essentiels’ briefcase packs a lot of style into a slim package with enough space for a 15-inch laptop.

Bonus: The rugged, organic canvas is especially great for commuters; whereas leather can scratch, this guy can go straight to the cleaners. ($495, wantlesessentiels.com) Burberry Barrow Slim, sleek, and sophisticated, the three characteristics to expect from Burberry– and this handsome guy.

Made in Italy from textured leather, it has both an internal zip and slip pockets plus detachable web strap. ($1,995, burberry.com)

...And Five Cool Suede Loafers A CHANGE OF WEATHER CALLS FOR A CHANGE IN FOOTWEAr Now that temperatures are getting warmer and the weather less wet, suede should be on your mind. (And on your feet.) Step into spring in one of these five suede loafers:

Gravati Suede Penny Loafer Light colors become more appropriate with warmer weather, and they come as a nice change after one has worn dark dress shoes for so many months. This shade of gray is bright but muted, enhancing the look of the suede and making it appear even softer. The family-owned Italian brand Gravati has been around for over 100 years, and it has mastered the arts of fit and construction. (US$625, neimanmarcus.com)

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Tod’s driver shoes sport a timeless design and are available in wide range of colors and leathers, but we strongly urge you to pick this color because it is neutral and can be worn with many different outfits. And the rubber pebble outsole makes it a comfortable shoe for trekking through the urban jungle. ($475, tods.com)

Ermenegildo Zegna Suede Penny Loafer Penny loafers with a heel are often best paired with a suit or slacks and a blazer, but these Ermenegildo Zegna brown suede loafers look excellent dressed down, as with a pair of tailored jeans and a polo. ($695, barneys.com) O’Keeffe Samuel Suede Penny Loafers

Jack Erwin Ernie Driving Loafer These suede Jack Erwin loafers are handcrafted in Spain, so the quality is top notch, even though the price is low. ($95, jackerwin.com)

Navy penny loafers are an essential for any wardrobe. If you’re a newbie to suede loafers, these lightweight and elegant crafted shoes by O’Keeffe make an excellent first. ($510, mrporter.com) + Moti Ankari, Bloomberg

Photos brands via bloomberg

Tod’s Gommino Driving Shoe

wellbeing

Photos arief suhardiman, courtesy siloam

THERAPY FOR PARKINSON’S SILOAM HOSPITALS KEBON JERUK IS OFFERING PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON’S A ONE-OF-A-KIND TREATMENT TO FIGHT THE CONDITION WORDS PRASIDDHA GUSTANTO

Made Agus M. Inggas

W

hile there is no known cure for Parkinson’s disease, a chronic and degenerative disorder of the nervous system, treatments can help relieve

symptoms.

The Siloam Hospitals Group is offering people with Parkinson’s a unique surgical treatment called “Deep Brain Stimulation” (DBS), which uses electrical impulses to stimulate part of the brain and relieve Parkinson’s symptoms.

To learn more about DBS therapy, JPlus sat down with neurologist Frandy Susatia and neurosurgery specialist Made Agus M. Inggas from Siloam Hospitals Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta; the only medical institution in the country to offer comprehensive DBS treatment. Here are excerpts of the interview.

What is Parkinson’s disease?

It’s a progressive movement disorder that is caused by the degeneration of brain cells. While genetic factors are found to play a role in around 10 to 15 percent of all cases; in the other 85 to 90 percent, the cause cannot be identified. Exposure to some environmental toxins and head injuries have also been associated with Parkinson’s. The cells involved are mainly found in an area near the center of the brain called substantia nigra, whose cells produce the neurotransmitter dopamine that helps coordinate movement. When a person’s dopamine levels go down by 60 to 80 percent, Parkinson’s symptoms develop.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms usually associated with Parkinson’s affect movement. We call them motor symptoms, such as tremors, body stiffness and slowness of movement.

Loss of balance is another. There are also non-motor symptoms, such as pain and depression, constipation and difficulty sleeping.

Frandy Susatia

Who is at risk?

People over the age of 60 have a 2 to 4 percent risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Some people under the age of 40 are also affected, but that’s mostly genetic.

Men are 1.5 times more likely than women to be affected.

Those exposed to environmental toxins or who have suffered head injuries may also be at higher risk.

While some studies show that having a first-degree relative with Parkinson’s, such as a parent or sibling, can increase a person’s risk of getting the disease; the overall chance of getting Parkinson’s is still very low.

How long does it take for the disease to progress?

The progression will be different for each patient. Some people have mild symptoms for many years; but in others, it can progress much more quickly.

In most cases, Parkinson’s is a slowly progressive disease, meaning it worsens over a period of years, not months.

When should I see a doctor?

When you begin to experience symptoms. A diagnosis has to be done clinically, via a careful history and physical examination by an experienced neurologist, rather than through lab tests. A diagnosis depends upon the presence of one or more of the four main motor symptoms. There is no standard lab test yet.

How do we cure Parkinson’s?

There is no cure yet, but we can treat the symptoms.

Treatments include medication, surgical therapy, exercise or physiotherapy, lifestyle modification and other complementary therapies. Most Parkinson’s medications work by replacing or mimicking dopamine.

However, patients on medications for long periods can suffer side effects, like involuntary movement or periods when the medicine suddenly stops working.

What is Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS)?

It’s an FDA-approved [US Food and Drug Administration] treatment at Siloam Hospitals for people with Parkinson’s disease who are no longer responsive to medication. We surgically insert a stimulating electrode into the brain which we then connect by cable to a small neurostimulator, much like a heart pacemaker, under the skin of your chest.

The neurostimulator sends electrical impulses to the brain to stimulate and modulate the production of dopamine.

DBS will not cure or stop the progression of Parkinson’s, but it will allow the patient to have a better quality of life.

After DBS, the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease will be significantly reduced. Most patients will still need medication even after undergoing DBS, but at much lower doses. This leads to a marked improvement in side effects, such as involuntary movement.

What’s the procedure like?

It takes four to five hours. In the first phase, we use local anesthesia, drill a small hole in the skull and insert a very thin lead or electrode to the area in the brain that is affected by Parkinson’s.

Throughout the first phase, the patient is awake. We work with the patient, asking them to talk or write or move their hands, so that we can determine the proper placement of the electrodes.

In the second phase, we use general anesthesia and connect wires to a neurostimulator placed in the chest.

DBS also includes post-operation services, such as programming and physical therapy. Once a person recovers from surgery, we program the stimulator, reduce their medication dosage and perform physiotherapy.

The good thing about DBS is that unlike other surgeries (e.g., a pallidotomy or a thalamotomy) that damage brain tissue, DBS is reversible and can be turned off or removed if necessary.

This is important: Getting a DBS now will not prevent you from enjoying any new treatments that might be developed in the future.

Since November 2014, we have performed DBS on 12 people with Parkinson’s in Indonesia. The results have been very encouraging. All of the patients have noted significant improvement in motor symptoms and reduced their intake of medication.

Potential side effects?

No surgery is without risks.

There is a 1 to 3 percent chance of bleeding in the brain, seizure or complications from anesthesia.

Our doctors will not only discuss the risks thoroughly with each patient before they decide on surgery, but will during and post-surgery, proceed with meticulous care to ensure negligible to near-zero complication.

This article is part of a series sponsored by Siloam Hospitals Group. For more information, visit siloamhospitals.com.

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ART PASSION & FOOD

MEMORIES

Ask Massimo Bottura about cooking and the famed chef will talk about how he's inspired by Charlie Parker, late 1970s Italian art and the 12,000 albums he has at home in Italy WORDS Christian Razukas PHOTOS Arief Suhardiman

M

assimo Bottura is the patron chef Osteria Francescana, the threeMichelin-star restaurant that’s been named No. 2 on the planet by the most recent S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards.

The 53-year-old, who cooked for two exclusive 100-person seatings at Orient8 Restaurant at the Mulia Hotel Senayan in Jakarta on March 18 and 19, runs the restaurant in his home town of Modena, in EmiliaRomagna, in Italy.

Modena, as Massimo notes, is a place where the slow food movement, which touts local foods and traditional gastronomy, reigns.

It's famous for Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and balsamic vinegar. Massimo has written books about each.

Modena is traditional small town where you’re definitely not supposed to mess around with grandma’s recipes, according to Massimo’s New Yorker wife of 20

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years, Lara Gilmore.

Imagine the surprise, then, when Massimo started to present to local diners dishes with names like “The Crunchy Part of The Lasagne” or “Beautiful Psychedelic Spinpainted Veal, Not Flame Grilled”.

The veal, which was also served at the Mulia, comes with sauces strewn across the plate in what looks to be the style of Britart painter Damien Hurst.

It’s a pleasure to look at; to eat it brings an involuntary smile to your face.

The sauces–chlorophyll, potato puree, red beet emulsion and balsamic vinegar–taste as vibrant as they look, complementing the veal in surprisingly delightful–and of course delicious– ways.

In Italy, however, it took six years for Massimo to get his first Michelin star and five years to get recognized by the press. Eventually, though, diners began to understand the magic that was happening in Modena.

“Emotions. My food is about emotion,” he says of his approach. “What we are doing every day in the kitchen is compressing into every bite our passion. My passions are art, passion, food and memories. Every day in the kitchen we compress this type of passion.”

CRAZY ABOUT A TOMATO The childlike joy a diner experiences when tasting Massimo’s dishes comes from the chef’s obsessions in the kitchen. Japanese cuisine and chefs have certainly been an influence.

Two of his principal sous chefs happen to be Japanese: Kondo Takahiko (Taka) and Tokuyoshi Yoji, who is currently chef patron of the Michelin-star Ristorante Tokuyoshi in Milan.

“As Italians, we are crazy about a tomato–a small tomato. Where it comes from. What month? Is it concentrate? What kind of soil is it? Is it volcanic soil?” Massimo says. “The Japanese have the same idea–an obsession with the quality of ingredients, the quality of the ideas and the quality of the technique.”

Massimo recalls with pleasure his experience at Sukiyabashi Jiro, the famed three-Michelinstar sushi restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza district, dining on a meal made by its equally famed 90-year-old owner Jiro Ono, the subject of the acclaimed documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

“He’s [Jiro] still now searching for perfection and so absolutely obsessed about quality–and I’m crazy about those ideas.” Massimo said.

He and Taka sat at the sushi counter and were served by Jiro’s son. There was no one else in the restaurant. “He [Jiro] was so into looking at me and saw how I was eating. When I eat this kind of food I go into this [other] world.”

The master sushi chef and his son spoke with Taka. “’Massimo, in another life–he was Japanese,’” Jiro said, according to the chef.

A SPACE FOR POETRY Maybe it’s best to say that Massimo cultivates the mindfulness of a Zen monk like Basho as he cooks. Just look at another dish served at the Mulia: “Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart”.

The dessert, with layers of lemon zabaglione, “Beautiful Psychedelic Spin-painted Veal, Not Flame Grilled”.

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lemon verbena sorbet and meringue, is surrounded by dollops that look like the smallest of dabs of paint on an artist’s easel: A single caper from Pantelleria, bergamot orange from Calabria, oregano from Puglia.

It had its origins when sous chef Taka dropped a tart during the plating process. “He was ready to kill himself,” Massimo said. “I said ‘No, Taka–it’s a beautiful mistake. Let’s rebuild everything, in a perfect way.

“If you don’t get the idea, it’s just a broken lemon tart. So you don’t serve it,” he adds. “But if you add the idea–and you have poetry in your everyday life, you can build an image of the imperfection as a transference of emotion.”

He returns to the dessert’s locally-sourced caper, orange and oregano. “All these different regions of the south of Italy, which is the most ‘broken’ place in the world, as a lemon tart. But when you taste it, who cares if it is broken? It’s about transferring the emotion of the south and the sun and the figs.”

Picasso was always saying ‘In my job, it’s about 90 percent hard work and about 10 percent talent,” Massimo says. “The talent is creativity,” he adds. “It’s important that you keep a little space in your life open for poetry. If you get lost in everyday life, you get lost in obsession.”

CONTAMINATION Although Massimo speaks–enthusiastically–about classic Italian poets like Alessandro Manzoni, Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and jazz musicians like Miles Davis; it’s clear that his philosophy of fine dining has its origins in fine art.

In the 1990s, chefs cooked too abstractly and diners were confused, Massimo says. So he turned for inspiration to the Transavanguardia movement, spearheaded by artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi and Mimmo Paladino.

Transavanguardia, the most important movement of the 20th century in Italy after Futurism, according to Massimo, was a figurative, back-to-basics response to the conceptual, minimalist art of the 1970s.

“We needed to rebuild the classics–to be inspired by the classics in a contemporary way,” he says.

As examples, Massimo cites Chia, from Tuscany, who took inspiration from early Etruscan graffiti, and Paladino, a Sicilian who let himself get “contaminated” by that island’s early Greek influences.

"Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart"

ON INSTAGRAM

Massimo is no fan of Instagram at the dining table.

“You need to eat. You need to taste. You need to enjoy the experience–and then ask me of you want to take a picture.”

It’s a reflection of Massimo’s obsession with timing, temperature and texture–factors he’s calculated with precision.

“We are crazy about serving the risotto at the right temperature and the right creaminess. As soon as it’s done, it has to go out immediately, he says, before describing preparations for his dinner at the Mulia.

“I was calculating yesterday the steps between where we were plating and where we were serving at the table. These are 30 steps, these are 20, these are 25,” he says. “There was a private room. I said cannot serve that private room from the kitchen. I said I want a room close to that private room, so we can plate and its only 15 steps instead of 100.”

Massimo got his room.

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Lara Gilmore, Massimo's wife of more than 20 years. The couple met at a Soho restaurant where they both walked in looking for work and were hired within hours of each other.

SHORT TAKES

Massimo makes quick work with the standard questions asked of chefs. Comfort food should remind you of childhood, he says: “A piece of Parmesano, a few drops of balsamic vinegar.” His wife will make the meals at home: “Usually Lara cooks. She makes the best minestrone soup.” (Although Lara adds that the family sometimes takes advantage of the mind-bogglingly good staff meals at Osteria Francescana). Favorite ingredients? Humility, passion and a dream.

He was surprised when promoting his book Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef at Google and Apple in Silicon Valley. The dozens of Italians engineers he met said they left home because Italy had no room for them. “It’s very difficult to have a dream, especially for the young generation. They stop dreaming.”

"Lentils Better than Beluga" As the menu states: "Chilled over ice, these minature black lentils take on the shape and flavor of caviar".

It was a critical moment. “You have to learn all the basics, then you can go abstract and avant garde,” he says. “I was following the same mental process."

He continues. “I was creating tagliatelle romanobut thinking about myself and projecting myself into 2020. I was showing everyone in EmiliaRomagna that they didn’t understand anything about contemporary cuisine–that I could make a tagliatelle better than their grandmothers.”

It wasn’t easy. Look at another of Massimo's famous dishes, “Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different temperatures and textures”, which serves the cheese as a souffle, a sauce, a foam, a galette and flavored water.

“Five Ages” was met with confusion when it was introduced in 1993, Massimo said–but 18 years later, it was named dish of the decade by the Italian Gastronomic Conference.

ON INDONESIAN FOOD Massimo supports local food throughout the world. He’s one of the judges for Basque Culinary World Prize, which celebrates chefs who demonstrate how gastronomy can be a force for change outside the kitchen.

It’s no surprise that he, Lara, and three chefs from his Modena kitchen became fans of Indonesian food when dining at the Mulia after their arrival.

The quintet sampled sambal mangga and sambal terasi, sop buntut oxtail soup, tongseng kambing spicy lamb stew and Padang-style rendang beef braised in coconut.

The favorite, however, was ayam panggang grilled chicken with sambal Kalamata, Massimo said. “That would be so successful around the world.”

“In a food truck!” Lara adds.

“In a food truck, because it is so simple, in a way.

It is a kind of cooking that’s slow and roasted with spices, but also with sweetness and also acidic,” Massimo said.

He notes that Italians favor a very light cuisine that’s intense in spices, sweetness and acidity, and that the secret of Indonesian cuisine is the balance it strikes between sweet and savory.

“I know and I feel immediately how to do it,” Massimo says of the tongseng kambing. “I know

exactly how to make it at a different level, a gourmet level.”

We were so excited. We were asking for doubles,” he says. “We need people teaching us [about Indonesian cuisine], we need people importing these ingredients.”

Massimo advises local chefs to start simple, citing a week he spent in Seoul cooking with traditional Korean ingredients, such as kimchi, chunjang and ginseng.

“To be appreciated in the Western world, in places like London or Paris; you need to slow down a little,” Massimo said he told the Koreans.

“A preparation like kimchi will not be a success, because it’s too aggressive. You need to start with a few things, like Korean barbeque, to attract first the masses, before going to high-end cuisine.

A CONTEMPORARY MIND Lara says that Massimo has no plans to open a branch of Osteria Francescana in a global culinary capital such as New York or Dubai.

Instead, the pair are readying a new book, Bread Is Gold, a cookbook/memoir documenting their experience at the Expo Milan 2015, where Massimo set up a soup kitchen for some of the world’s best chefs to cook the waste from the other pavilions.

“We were feeding poor people at night and kids during lunch,” he says. “It was more of a cultural experiment, as an example for the young chefs not to waste. They saw us as stars, so if we can influence the young generation not to waste food, it would be a very important step.”

It shows that Massimo, one of the world’s most famous chefs, has little concern for being a celebrity chef.

“I never look back. Yes, I know every single prize we’ve won,” he says of when Forbes recently named his restaurant the world’s best. “I know that we’ve got those prizes, but it’s not about the past–it’s about the future. What really inspires me is the future. My mind is a contemporary mind, so it’s always projecting into the future.”

The past doesn’t mean anything to me,” Massimo says. “It’s just a point of starting.”

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wander lust

Up, up & Away Balloon over unique Cappadocia, Turkey WORDS COURTNEY BONNELL, AP

A

few whooshing breaths of fire and up we went, a yellow orb rising in a sea of hot-air balloons like the sun brightening the morning sky.

Others followed close behind, climbing over craggy canyons, pink mountains and mushroom-shaped rock formations called fairy chimneys. Suddenly, our basket, packed with tourists angling for a perfect picture, bounced as it got bumped by an ascending balloon.

“Don’t worry! It’s OK–sometimes,” our young pilot hollered out, smiling behind his Ray-Bans and turning up the flame on the balloon’s burner to climb faster.

We chuckled nervously, but it got our blood pumping in the thinning atmosphere. So did what we saw next.

We slowly spanned up a hillside and hundreds of balloons exploded into view, a colorful melange hovering above the valleys cut like lightning into the Turkish region of Cappadocia.

But before the breathtaking views comes the preparation. Online travel searches are good ways to scope out top-rated balloon companies in a region renowned for the rides. You will pay more for reputable operators and to share the experience with fewer people–something you will value as you try to shoot photos that don’t include an errant hand or head.

Almost all offer a continental breakfast before the ride, transportation to the launch site and a “Champagne toast”–usually sparkling cider–and certificate after landing.

The region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose economy survives on tourists flocking to see the fairy chimneys, cave dwellings, vast underground

cities and ancient Christian churches carved into the mountainsides. Because of its popularity, hundreds of hotels are poised to handle balloon bookings.

The cave hotels, hundreds of which are packed onto a hillside in the small tourist town of Goreme, are a must-do. Pick one with windows to avoid feeling claustrophobic — my large, modern-but-rustic room with a terrace went for about 90 euros (about US$100).

I booked my balloon ride through the hotel, which allowed me to put the ride on my credit card and pay at checkout instead of needing cash.

My hotel contracted with three balloon companies of different price levels. I went with the midrange after looking up the operators on TripAdvisor. I saved 50 euros by skipping the top-rated balloon company, but I still had an unbelievable experience taking in the alienlike landscape from the sky.

The formations and hillsides served as year-round homes, and the caves also provided safety for persecuted Christians of the 10 to 13th centuries. Visitors can climb through some of the houses of worship, decorated inside with elaborate murals, at the famed Goreme Open Air Museum. The museum is walkable from Goreme’s town center.

The Christians also built extensive underground cities where they hid from attackers, sometimes for months at a time. Two are open to visitors.

At Kaymakli Underground City, you duck through narrow entryways into family rooms, living quarters, kitchens and even chambers where

they buried their dead. They also brought down their livestock and made wine in buckets carved into the soft stone walls.

Aboveground, you can hike through valleys with names like Love, Red and Rose; climb up cave castles, which are natural fortresses pitted with tunnels; and scramble through fairy chimneys at Pasabag.

The fairy chimneys have been created over eons by erosion. The soft, white rock at the bottom of the formation erodes more quickly than the sturdier rock at the top, leaving the mushroom shape.

Soaring over this otherworldly landscape is the ride of a lifetime. Getting up at 4 a.m., wrapping up against the chill and cramming into a bucket next to other tourists is not for the unadventurous or those on a tight budget. But as you dip low into the valleys and fly high above the mountains, even those afraid of heights will want to look down.

BALLOON RIDES IN CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY: The area is an hour by car from Kayseri airport and a bit closer to Nevsehir airport. Most visitors arrive the day before and stay overnight in a hotel because the balloons typically take off shortly after dawn.

Multiple flights leave Istanbul daily for Kayseri and Nevsehir.

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Photos VIA AP

If You Go...

Photos courtesy

wander lust

Explore Tokyo AWAY FROM TOURIST CROWDS, AN OLDER SECTION OF TOKYO BECKONS

E

WORDS LINDA LOMBARDI, AP

xplore Tokyo beyond the crowded tourist highlights and you’ll find many older parts of the city with a different look and slower pace. One of these, the area around the Metro station KiyosumiShirakawa, is a convenient side trip if you’re visiting the Tokyo Skytree, which is four stops away.

There’s a charming local history museum, public garden, coffee shops and a contemporary art museum.

The neighborhood may not be picturesque in the conventional sense but there’s a lot to see if you have an eye for detail and an appreciation for the charm of urban and slightly shabby locales.

FUKAGAWA EDO MUSEUM From the Metro station, head south and turn right onto an old shopping street marked by two small decorative towers.

On your right you’ll see an old-fashioned candy shop where the proprietor dresses in garb from the Edo period (including an entirely unconvincing wig of a topknot hairstyle). Farther along on the left is the Fukagawa Edo museum.

Most tourists with any interest in history end up at the Edo Tokyo Museum with its indoor re-creations of historic buildings from the Edo era, which began in the 1600s.

The Fukagawa museum, which predates the Edo Tokyo museum, is much smaller and more charming, with a lifesize Edo-period town re-created on its lower level.

Be prepared to take your shoes off to go inside the little shops and homes, and a guide with adequate or better English will show you how the old-fashioned locks work and how ropes pull a skylight open over a stove. You can even try a rice-pounding device.

The guide will also explain how to tell the difference between a nice but tiny house for someone well-off (note the tatamicovered floor) versus a poor person’s home with a mostly bare wood floor and just a couple of rice straw mats.

Lighting sets the mood through 15-minute day-and-night cycles with recordings of birds, merchants calling and the cry of the animatronic cat on a rooftop.

COFFEE, THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE Walk the small streets and alleys around the museum and you’ll find a mix of residences, shops, small businesses and light industrial spaces.

You’ll find much that is rather old-time Japanese, like

Edo Tokyo Museum

restaurants selling the local specialty of rice with clams.

But the neighborhood is also something of a hot spot for coffee shops.

Don’t think in terms of grabbing a morning cup of joe.

Some of these don’t even open till later in the day, and they’re more about relaxing and making a ritual of it. Some are quite small and the menus may be limited.

The one I visited, aside from coffee and tea, had just had two cakes and two flavors of small cookies, chocolate and sesame, but the cookies were exquisite.

There also an outpost of a US chain, Blue Bottle, that caused something of a stir when it opened, with lines reported to be two hours long.

Its conspicuous modern building with an industrial vibe and huge coffee-roasting machinery was far calmer on a recent weekday, but it’s still not a place to camp out with your laptop, though people did seem to stay to chat.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART TOKYO If you’re willing to walk a bit farther you can also have a completely modern experience in this old neighborhood at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Two exhibits that just opened are running through May 29: “Loose Lips Save Ships,” exploring freedom of expression, and “Pixar: 30 Years of Animation.”

KIYOSUMI GARDENS Kiyosumi Gardens is easy to find on your way to or from the Metro, visible across the main street opposite the entrance to the shopping street near the Fukagawa Edo Museum.

It’s a beautiful typical Japanese garden laid out around a large pond, first opened for company use by the founder of Mitsubishi in 1880 (Mitsubishi was a shipping firm at the time), then donated to the city and opened as a public park in 1932. The garden is nice to stroll around or find a bench to gaze at the pond.

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

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cultureVulture

Highlights from Art Basel Hong Kong Words KELVIN CHAN, AP

Gold-plated metal cubes, tapestries embroidered by unknown North Korean artisans and bales of cardboard waste are among the highlights of the Art Basel Hong Kong fair.

The latest edition of the global art fair threw open its doors to media and VIP collectors recently in the southern Chinese city, which has become Asia’s main art trading hub.

Some 239 galleries from 35 countries and territories are exhibiting works at the show, which opens to the public for three days.

Organizers shrugged off concerns about whether China’s slowdown and a shaky world economy are dampening global art demand.

“Maybe I think collectors will ask a lot more questions before they agree to a sale, but I think generally speaking it just feels like everyone is very excited about the art world,” said Adeline Ooi, Art Basel’s Asia

director. The show is an offshoot of the annual contemporary art fair in Basel, Switzerland. It’s expected to draw tens of thousands.

Chinese artist Zhang Ding attracted curious visitors with his “18 Cubes” installation, which consists of 18 large steel boxes plated with 24-karat gold to give them a mirror-like finish.

In a twist, Zhang invited fairgoers to scratch whatever they wanted onto the surface, using anything they are carrying with them, or black crystal shards provided for the purpose.

South Korean artist Kyungah Ham presented “Chandeliers in Five Cities,” the latest in her series of embroidered works crafted with the help of unidentified North Korean workers. Ham settled on chandeliers as a reference to political power after she noticed one in a picture of world leaders meeting to divide the Korean Peninsula into north and south at

the end of World War II. She said she sends materials and digital images of her designs to the unidentified North Korean artisans through secretive middlemen who travel through China. It can take up to a year before she gets one back.

Ham said she was inspired after she found a North Korea propaganda flyer in front of her parents’ home in 2008. “I wanted to send back these kinds of fliers in a very artistic way,” she said.

Indonesian artist Tintin Wulia’s collection of cardboard bales is the result of her yearlong investigation into a recycling micro-economy involving scrap collectors and Filipino migrant domestic workers who spend their days off in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district.

She said the project examines how the material links seemingly unrelated groups in Hong Kong society and also symbolizes the city’s widening wealth gap.

New York auctions paint somber picture of Chinese art buyers Along with oil, stocks and steel, China’s roiling economic slowdown has deflated the buoyancy of another sector: the Asian Art market.

Wealthy Chinese art collectors had driven art sales skyward in recent years for Chinese and Western art, such as the Modigliani nude that was bought by an anonymous Chinese buyer last year for US$170.4 million, the second highest price ever paid at auction.

But at New York’s Asia Week, 10 days of auctions and gallery tours held in mid-March that are considered a barometer for the Asian art market, Sotheby’s reported that aggregate sales slumped to the lowest since 2013.

Christie’s International reported sales of $37 million, less than a quarter of the $161 million sold during the same week in 2015, and a handful of auctions at both houses failed to sell 30 to 40 percent of pieces, according to press releases.

“Things were in a heated upward spiral for some time and there’s no question it has come off the boil,” said John Berwald, whose London-based gallery, Berwald Oriental Art, sold one of the eight pieces of late 17th century Chinese porcelain it exhibited during Asia Week.

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Photos on thi spage via AP and AFP

Words ELIZABETH DILTS, Reuters

Art Week’s sales last year surged in part because of demand for a rare private collection sold by Christie’s.

However, the dip in this year’s sales mirror a global trend.

The Chinese art market domestically fell 23 percent in 2015 to around $11.8 billion, with art sales falling 7 percent worldwide, according to the 2016 TEFAF Art Market Report, published by the Dublin-based research and consulting firm Arts Economics.

Chinese art collectors command 19 percent of the

art market, and auction sales for perennial favorites like Chinese classical paintings and calligraphy sold well despite the downward trend, said Jonathan Stone, Christie’s chairman and international head of Asian Art. “There isn’t a shortage of buyers” for prized items, Stone said.

Tighter budgets, even for billionaires, made Chinese buyers more selective, said James Lally, whose New York gallery J. J. Lally & Co. exhibited 75 pieces of Chinese jade.

“It’s come back down to Earth,” said Lally. “After two to three decades of euphoria, we have a much more mature market where people are indeed more pricesensitive.”

at your leisure

New Zealand Masterchefs at The Dharmawangsa the bird sisters offer a Taste of new zealand in jakarta Photos courtesy

WORDS Kevindra P. Soemantri

SIDE DISH

K

asey and Karena Bird, the Kiwi sisters who won the Masterchef New Zealand competition in 2014, recently visited Jakarta for a cooking class, sponsored

by The Dharmawangsa hotel and the New Zealand embassy.

Those assembled for the session were excited–and curious. What makes New Zealand’s cuisine different from that of its more faddish neighbor, Australia? How might the Kiwis strike a balance between Polynesian and Western influences?

The sisters–both in their mid-20s, although Karena is about a year older– answered that question with flair.

First up was a dish of mussels cooked in white wine (both from New Zealand) and served with a Sundanese spiciness in the form of chopped chilies–a touch picked up during their week-long excursion to Bandung, West Java.

“This comes thanks to our home, which is near the ocean–where fresh seafood produce is in abundance,” Karena said, stirring the mussels in a pot.

Kasey poured in the white wine, which was followed by a burst of steam and sound. At the end, they added

freshly grated coconut milk–a signature of the cuisine of Polynesia.

The taste was fresh, rich and elegant.

The dish combined Indonesian spiciness, French sophistication and their Kiwi roots. “New Zealand mussel are bigger than the general mussels we found here,” said Kasey, holding up the first dish.

She began to make a spicy peanut sauce to accompany the second dish, a beef fillet with curry sauce, enriched with crushed peanuts and served on top of raw vegetables. It was a cross between a Thai beef salad and Indonesian beef satay.

The siblings also devised canapés of deep fried mushroom with peanut sauce, as well as kecap manis, spicy curried shrmp and rempeyek crackers, preapred under the supervision of The Dharmawangsa’s executive chef, Felix Budisetiawan.

The demonstration ended with the hotel's sumptuous Jimbaran Barbeque evening buffet–a weekly barbeque party at The Dharmawangsa’s Jakarta Courtyard.

What is unique about the buffet, which runs on Fridays, was the variety of traditional Indonesian dishes on offer, especially the myriad jajanan pasar snacks, from kue corong to pisang ape and more.

The pisang ape, a Makassar-style combination of banana and durian, flavored with red sugar and a salty coconut milk, was delightful, with a soft bite and natural sweetness that was infused by an earthy fragrance from the burning banana leaf holding concoction.

On the savory side, there were sets of nasi Bali, complete with spicy and fresh kangkung belacan made a la minute by the chef; and an Indian counter, complete with a blazing tandoori oven by a Jimbaran Beach-style grill.

I thoroughly enjoyed a Purwakarta-style sate maranggi– with its unique marinade containing kecap manis and ginger, among other ingredients.

The barbeque evening (Rp 395,000 per person) will satisfy your cravings.

Just remember: There’s more than just seafood; sirloin steak and lamb chops are also highly anticipated.

How has appearing on Masterchef New Zealand changed your lives?

Karena: What we were like on TV is exactly what we’re like all the time. The people who know us, really know that’s us-even after the competition. We’re lucky to be able to visit great places–=to stay at one of the best hotels in Jakarta and even to be hosted by His Excellency [New Zealand ambassador to Indonesia Trevor Matheson] himself. It’s such an honor for us.

What keeps you busy outside the kitchen?

Kasey: We’re always busy cooking [laughs].

Karena and I are now also active in food writing. We’re regular contributors for The New Zealand Herald. We also published our first cookbook, “For the Love of…”

Talk to us about the Kiwi culinary world.

Karena: The New Zealand dining scene is amazing. We have great chefs, like Peter Gordon [patron chef of the original Sugar Club in Wellington], for instance. Kasey and I love to spend our money to dine at Wellington’s amazing restaurants.

How did you prepare for today’s demo?

Karena: All of the menu items, including the canapés, that you guys tasted, were a result of our week-long trip to Bandung. It is amazing to know about Indonesia’s vibrant cuisine. It’s endless. We went from one warung to another warung. When we saw something interesting, we would stop the car just to try the food.

Rendang, rempeyek and your peanut sauce are amazing.

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at your leisure

Jet–set–go Lowey, Union make it to Asia’s 50 Best Bars

Proudly Australian, Intensely Indonesian WORDS Sondang Grace Sirait

In the hands of inquisitive Perth-based chef and restaurateur David Wijaya, the brains behind Monggo Restaurant; traditional Indonesian cooking has been elevated to another level. Using premium meat sourced from the Margaret River region in Western Australia, the Australian educated and trained chef churns out modern, if not better, interpretations of the likes of tongseng kambing (Central Javanese lamb stew) and sate and sapi guling (slow-roasted beef ).

There’s also a less-conventional gulai bebek (duck curry)—served on a bed of turmeric rice alongside seasonal vegetables.

So far, customers seem to appreciate the ingenuity of his creations and keep coming back. In 2013, Monggo was named a finalist in the Gold Plate Awards, which celebrate excellence in the hospitality industry in Western Australia. Here are excerpts of our interview.

Photos via MONGGO

What’s on offer at Monggo?

Our menu is an extension of Indonesian culture, cuisine and creativity. The food presented is a fusion of cuisine from the Indonesian region. Indonesia's cuisine is as varied as its many islands. We believe less is more, and thus we ensure our food is simple yet elegant. The menu was designed with a dietary balance in every dish.

How do technique and ingredients come into play?

Indonesia is a country with numerous influences on its cuisine.

Therefore, there is a diverse style for food preparation and cooking techniques. However, most [regional cuisines] share similar ingredients, which are hard to find, such as kencur (sand ginger), daun katuk (sweet leaves) and oncom (fermented soybean waste).

How do you use local ingredients from Western Australia?

We use local ingredients in every dish, mostly on our meat, seafood and our fresh produce. For example, our tongseng kambing uses Margaret River lamb shank. Local ingredients always provide freshness and give a character in a dish.

What’s the toughest part of preserving Indonesian cuisine while improving presentation?

Monggo Restaurant It has been challenging yet exciting.

683 C Beaufort Street Mt. Lawley The challenge is to ensure that we do Western Australia 6050 not lose our authenticity while trying to monggorestaurant.co adjust our food to present-day standards.

Our magic formula for every dish is fresh ingredients plus contemporary plating plus savory texture.

What’s contemporary Indonesian cuisine for you?

We are using a different approach to reach a better texture and experience. The taste is original. To add to the taste of modernity, we always ensure that our food is beautifully presented. For example, our “Jimbaran Fish” is a grilled glazed barramundi served with semur kentang (braised potato) and red cabbage salad.

The combination of colors is aimed to increase appeal in the eyes of customers. We also care about the nutritional intakes of the food. With the fish, for instance, we provide it with potatoes as carbohydrates, finished by red cabbage salad as a refreshing end to the meal.

What’s next?

For the past six years, I have been traveling throughout Indonesia to learn various traditional methods of cooking. These experiences have broadened my knowledge as well as my culinary skills. Now we are experimenting with food from the Padang region and, at the moment, are designing two dishes influenced by a mixture of Padang and Manado. Think lamb ribs bumbu RW (stewed with hot spices), crispy chicken, sayur daun singkong bumbu roa (cassava leaves cooked with ground halfbeak fish).

We’re still cooking in the lab.

THN

Indonesia was among the winners at this year’s recent Asia’s 50 Best Bars Awards 2016, with two of Jakarta’s favorite water holes making the cut.

Loewy placed 32nd while Union Brasserie Bakery & Bar made it to the 35th spot, beating out hundreds of other bars throughout Asia.

The final list was compiled by votes from a jury of over 150 of the most renowned names in Asia’s drinks industry.

Singapore led the list of winners with nine bars in the top 50, with the Lion City’s 28 Hong Kong Street bar coming in at the No. 1 spot.

Other big winners include Hong Kong’s cocktail scene, which booked nine spots on the list, and Tokyo, with eight.

Thousands expected at Halal Tourism Conference Delegates from around the world numbering in the thousands are expected to attend the world’s biggest halal food industry event, the Halal Tourism Conference 2016.

Set to be held from May 3 to 5 in Konya, Turkey, this annual gathering will bring together tourism boards, travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, airlines and more to promote the growth of the US$150 billion halal tourism industry.

Alongside the conference, there will also be a three-day exhibition featuring over 100 businesses from across the world.

Also to look out for are keynote speeches, panel discussions and workshops, as well as the launching of new campaigns and projects.

For more information, visit halaltourismconference.com.

Ticketing Online theresonanz.com/operacarmen

BATAVIA MADRIGAL SINGERS

GEORGES BIZET

16 April 2016

Ciputra Theater

17 April 2016

Ciputra Artpreneur Ciputra World 1, Level 13 Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav. 3-5 Jakarta Selatan

19.30 WIB 16.00 WIB

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JPlus April 3, 2016

CARMEN Libretto karya Henri Meilhac dan Ludovic Halévy

Hotline (Senin-Jumat, 10.00-17.00) 021-21282126 021-21282127

tasteBUD

Apfelstrudel A recipe for the quintessential Viennese treat Words and photos Theodora Hurustiati

W

hen someone mentions Vienna, what comes to mind are the city’s elegant konditorei, or pastry shops, where luscious cakes are showcased in spotless glass displays. Among the delicacies on offer; sachertorte, or chocolate cake with apricot jam, and apfelstrudel, or apple strudel; are most popular throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the northeastern part of Italy where I live.

We call this treat strudel di mele, or strucolo de pomi, in the dialect of Trieste.

These days, apfelstrudel are often made with more convenient flaky puff pastries. Traditionally though, it’s prepared with thinly rolled dough, crafted from flour, butter, water and, sometimes, eggs. I’m currently in Jakarta and have had help from Almond Zucchini Cooking Studio’s staff Eva, Nurman and Chindy in making this one, otherwise I’d have chosen puff pastry myself.

Serves 7-8 Crust 225-250g strong flour 1 teaspoon salt 25g melted butter with extra for brushing 75g tepid water 1 small egg with 1 extra beaten for brushing Icing sugar, to taste, when serving Filling 600 g or 3-4 tart apples (Malang, Fuji or Granny Smith) 25g melted butter 50-60 g sugar ½ lemon 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon 30g raisins 10g pine nuts 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs

• To make crust: Place flour and salt in a bowl. Add melted butter, water and egg. Work dough until combined. Transfer to kitchen counter and knead for five minutes until smooth and soft. Add touch of flour if it seems too sticky or touch of water if too dry.

• Cover with cling film and rest under a warm bowl for 20 to 30 minutes to allow dough to relax.

• Meanwhile, prepare filling. Peel apples, removing fibrous cores and the seeds. Cut into 1.5-cm dice.

Transfer to bowl.

• Peel the lemon rind using potato peeler, making sure not to take the bitter white membrane. Squeeze lemon juice over apples and mix to prevent oxidization.

• Melt butter over medium-low heat with lemon rind.

Add apples, sugar, cinnamon and pine nuts. Saute for a few minutes until apples soften and release juice.

• Insert flour and cook for further couple of minutes until liquid has thickened. Set aside to cool.

• By now, the crust dough should have rested enough.

Spread tea towel on the kitchen counter. Dust surface with flour. Flatten dough with rolling pin into large rectangle, as thin as possible, until you can see cloth pattern underneath or read a newspaper through it.

• Brush surface with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Spread cooled filling in the lower third part of rolled dough.

• Brush borders with beaten egg. Fold bottom edges inwards and trim excess ends so the strudel won’t have too thick a crust.

• Continue to fold using tea towel and transfer to oven tray lined with parchment paper. Make sure folded end stays at bottom so it will not open during baking.

• Prick surface with fork vigorously to allow steam from filling to escape during cooking. Brush with remaining beaten egg and bake at 170°C for 25 to 30 minutes until golden.

• Cool slightly before slicing into portions. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

Jakarta-born chef Theodora Hurustiati, a 13-year resident of Udine, Italy, was the runner-up in the TV cooking program La Scuola – Cucina di Classe (The School: Classy Cooking).

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April 3, 2016 15

trendDIAL NIKE AIR MAX 1 ROYAL

Welcome the latest in Nike’s Royal Line: The Nikelab Air Max 1 Royal. To celebrate the classics, the brand is taking the series to the next level, with shoes crafted from premium material. Available in two colors, black and beige, the series features synthetic suede uppers with a debossed Swoosh, along with bold leather heel wraps. Check out the cool interiors, too, with leather sock liners and memory foam collars to make your walk more pleasant. Released last week, the NikeLab Air Max 1 Royal is available at nike.com or NikeLab stores.

MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH FALL COLLECTION

Check out the offbeat sophistication of Maryam Nassir Zadeh. Inspired by many iconic beauties, Zadeh’s fall line up features pieces inspired by Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Isabelle Adjani or Lauren Hutton. She married the women’s personal styles to touches of the 1970s and 1980s. Outfits come punctuated by luxe flourishes, from metallic leathers to orchid-hued astrakhans. The designer also double downed on her deconstructed denim, which made its debut last season. To complete the collection, Zadeh created patched 501-style jeans that pair equally well with her Victorian-inspired organza tops or tie-neck blouses in acid green.

BVLGARI: OCTO FINISSIMO MINUTE REPEATER

BLACKS & YELLOWS Vampy vibes, offbeat sophistication

BOY CHANEL

Time to embrace the genderbending. Olivier Polge of Chanel has introduced a new unisex fragrance, Boy Chanel, mixing the masculine with the feminine to vanquish traditional gender stereotypes. The perfume is the 17th fragrance in the Les Exclusifs line, offering an intricate blend of lavender, rose geraniums, coumarin, moss, lemon, orange blossom, sandalwood and vanilla. Boy Chanel will soon be available at Chanel’s Paris store in Marais, rolling out to 240 stores by June. Catch the 75ml for US$196 and 200ml for $359.

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TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL’S SPRING COLLECTION

New York-based cosmetics brand Too Cool For School just released its “Glam Rock” spring series. Touting a modern grunge theme, the series features a liquid liner, a brow gel, a lipstick and mascara evoking 1970s glam rock. Vampy vibes are obvious in items such as “Vampire Kiss” lip colors in bright, edgy blood and deep oxblood. More overt is the mascara’s black coffin packaging and a waterproof formula, perfect for creating long, thick eyelashes. Start saving: The Glam Rock collection will be available at sephora.com in April. +Banyubening Prieta

It’s definitely been a recordbreaking 2016 for BVLGARI watches.

BVLGARI continues to focus on extreme slenderness with its latest, the Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater. The new Octo belongs to BVLGARI’s ultra-thin line, which has earned the title of the smallest on the market. The look is strikingly sleek, with an intense, crystalclear chime and regular cadence when the mechanism is activated. This watch aims at achieving the perfect sound within the smallest space. The numbers speak for themselves: The timepiece features BVL Calibre 362 measurements, just 3.12mm thick, while the overall case thickness comes in at 6.85mm.