Lure of the island

Ceviche Classico at PICA

Penelope Williams

Nasi Campur a la Bali Asli Maurizio Bombini

Parmigiano Ravioli a la MAURI

Cristina Encina

Eve Tedja talks to three chefs and restaurant owners who found their way to Bali and decided to make it their home.

What is it about Bali that attracts international chefs from far and wide to set up their own restaurants on what is fondly dubbed as the Island of the Gods? It’s hard to think of another near-perfect destination that boasts friendly people, sun-kissed beaches, incredible surfing opportunities, and of course, an abundance of fresh and exotic produce all year round. Bali’s dining landscape has evolved significantly over the last decade to embrace various types of cuisine. Be it rustic Indonesian fare, Italian cuisine, a healthy spa menu or cutting-edge cocktails, Bali is in a class of its own when it comes to culinary excellence.

As these three chefs can testify, their arduous journeys in climbing the culinary ladder involve training under seasoned chefs, working gruelling hours, and living in several different countries. These experiences have all paved the way for their new chapters in Bali. Read on for their stories.

Sinking her roots in Karangasem

Mount Agung is an inseparable part of Bali Asli. It looms majestically amongst the green rice field and forest surrounding the compound. Since opening its carved wooden doors almost eight years ago, the restaurant-cum-cooking school is constantly proving what others say is impossible – that Bali Asli can thrive in an off-the-beaten-path location, far from major tourist spots. It’s all thanks to owner Penelope Williams.

English by birth but raised in Australia, Williams knew nothing about Bali when she moved to the island as Alila Manggis’s executive chef in 2007. By then, she had worked for Gordon Ramsay, tenured at London’s The Savoy and completed stints at Sydney’s Restaurant 41, The Bather’s Pavilion and Danks Street Depot. The long hours of kitchen work started to wear her out, “I felt the need to reassess where I am going in my career. Chefs tend to drift from one place to the other. As you get older, you can’t keep doing that. You need to settle down, put your roots down and get established,” says Williams on her life changing decision to move to Bali.

“Bali was completely different than any place I have encountered before. I fell in love with amazing ingredients like torch ginger flower and fern tips, trying to figure out the different ways I could use them for our menu. I had to relearn how to manage my staff. I discovered that I wouldn’t get anything done if I yelled at them. They will just look at you like you are crazy and walk away,” says Williams, who considers her staff as cultural advisors and as part of her Balinese family.

Her deep love for Balinese cuisine propelled her to start Bali Asli. All of her 12 staffs are locals from Karangasem. Cooking classes and cheerful megibung lunches are conducted for international foodies at its open wooden deck. Williams can often be found leading a curious group of tourists to the traditional wet market, night street food jaunts, rice fields, or riding vintage Vespa on the street of Amlapura.

“I never do anything in the conventional way and here, as a foreign woman, I find the doors are always open. People accept me as I am and are generally quite understanding of my crazy EnglishIndonesian-Balinese pidgin language,” says Williams with a laugh. She has also found love. Williams recently married her significant other in the fashion of Eat, Pray, Love, right under the watchful gaze of the volcano.

The view of Mount Agung from Bali Asli

Mixing all the spices and ingredients to make Balinese lawar

Fresh seafood delivery at PICA

A passion for Peruvian cuisine

When Cristian Encina opened PICA South American Kitchen in Ubud four years ago, ceviche and empanada had just started to enter the public’s culinary consciousness in Bali. Yet, Encina trusted his instinct, and together with his wife Monica Fernandez, decided to invest in a small shop on Jalan Dewi Sita. “I have been working all my life in the kitchen, but I rarely cooked Peruvian or Chilean food. So, I went back home, ate a lot of ceviche, trained my palate, and relearned everything that I thought I knew about the food that I grew up with,” says Encina. It didn’t take long for the Santiago native to get reacquainted with his heritage. He found out that Chile and Bali have one thing in common: fresh seafood. The rest is all about seasoning, as he cheerfully pointed out.

Of course, the difference between the two culinary cultures is not as straightforward as Encina claims, but, he is fortunate to have grown up in a food-oriented family. “In Santiago, we rarely ate out. My father is a terrific chef who even opened his restaurant for three years despite his day job as an engineer. My favourite dish growing up is Machas a la Parmesana, which is baked clams with Parmesan cheese,” says Encina. Eventually, he enrolled in a cooking school and worked in Spain, Brazil and New Zealand, learning everything from English to kitchen organisation. Chef Jacob Brown of The Larder influenced him a great deal. “He called his restaurant a cafe when it is nothing but a cafe. It was intimate, friendly and the food was amazing. It still is,” says Encina. That influence is mirrored at PICA and its neighbouring taqueria, Cantina where Encina makes some of the best tacos in Ubud.

As his business grew to include 17 staff, so did his family – Encina and Fernandez recently welcomed a baby boy. Their elder daughter is almost the same age as PICA. The family is deeply rooted in their home in Tampaksiring, a quiet town just outside Ubud. “Looking back, everything I know now in work and life, I learned in the kitchen. It is my classroom. Every country and every kitchen that I have been, taught me different ideas, techniques, and skills. PICA is all about flavour. We focus on the taste of the dish, as opposed to focusing on how it looks and adding ingredient that doesn’t contribute to the flavour apart from making it look social media friendly,” states Encina.

Indeed, dining at PICA is to experience South American cuisine at its best. From a refreshing Tiradito Peruvian Sashimi to a hearty Cau Cau de Pescado, Encina dedicates his time to ensure that each dish on the menu is rightly seasoned. “A Balinese told me that PICA - which was named after a sweet lemon from Chile – apparently means a blessing from the gods in Balinese. I’d like to think it is a coincidence, but we are here in Bali, so who knew?” says Encina.

Poached Sardines, Tomato Seeds, Garlic Confit at PICA

The Smoke Garden, Bombini’s creation at Mandapa, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve

Italian cooking with a touch of French perfection

There was a lot of buzz surrounding MAURI when it opened its doors in Seminyak last November. One of the reasons is the chef behind the Italian restaurant. With two stints as chef de cuisine at Bvlgari Resort Bali and an executive chef at Mandapa, A RitzCarlton Reserve, Maurizio Bombini is no stranger to Bali.

“I grew up in my parents’ restaurant in Puglia. When the other kids played with their toys, I played with cutlery,” he says. At some point in his life, he was a professional cyclist, but when he decided to become a chef, Monte Carlo became his first destination. For the next eight years, he learned all he could about French cuisine. “French cuisine sets the standard in terms of technique, unlike Italian cuisine, which is still behind in that regard. I often say that the way I cook is to mix Italian emotions with French techniques,” says Bombini.

He met his wife, Stephanie, in Monte Carlo and together they moved to China. There, he got an offer from Bvlgari Resort Bali who was looking for an Italian chef to lead its restaurant, one that came right after he booked a honeymoon trip to Bali at the same resort. The island charmed the couple right away and Bombini spent the next four years leading Il Ristorante to popular acclaim.

“We love Bali for its cosmopolitan quality. We like to think that we fit in with Bali quite well,” says Bombini whose days are now filled with running MAURI which is still, in his words, far from perfect. With white walls, wooden accents and cosy seating, Bombini intends to establish MAURI as a dining destination for contemporary Italian cuisine that goes beyond pasta and pizza. Together with his team, Bombini is taking the best from Italian cuisine and elevating it with French savoir faire, which is evident by his take on dishes like Parmigiano Ravioli with onion consommé.

“I’ve never thought about opening my own restaurant in Bali, but I was up for another challenge and was almost sure that I had to leave the island to find a job. Then, MAURI came to be. My wife and I always joke that whenever we plan something, it never happens. So, now we have stopped planning and are enjoying where we are at the moment,” says Bombini.

MAURI’s cocktail snack, the Orange Campari