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INDIAN CUISINE BROUGHT ALIVE Guided by Michelin-starred Chef Vineet Bhatia the award-winning Indego by Vineet, the textures, flavours and expressive range of Indian cuisine are sumptuously brought alive...
By Vineet
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL +97143176000 | GROSVENOR HOUSE DUBAI AL SUFOUH ROAD| WWW.INDEGOBYVINEET.COM - WG April 2017
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Contemporary Italian cuisine by
World Renowned Three Michelin Star Chef Heinz Beck
For reservations call +971 4 8182 155 | +971 4 818 2222 | Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah | www.waldorfastoria.com/Dubai
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ELEVATING BRANDS ABOVE THE CROWDS www.tallpr.com
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ARIA is an award winning, two hatted restaurant in Sydney located at Circular Quay, on the very edge of Sydney Harbour. This incredible restaurant provides a dining experience with striking Sydney harbour views, an award winning menu and extensive wine list, all served in an intimate and elegant dining room. ARIA Restaurant 1 Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000 T +61 2 9240 2255 mail@ariarestaurant.com ariarestaurant.com
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Editor Lifestyle Editor Culinary Editor Feature Editor Contributors
Fabian deCastro Doug Singer
Oilda Barreto Michael Hepworth Gigi Martin Costanzo Scala
FJMdesign Photography Consultant Creative Design Studio Publisher
IZZY Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
‘ WOGOA FOUNDATION
Identifying underprivileged children with culinary ambitions...
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Oscar Barrera Marengo Claudia Ferreres
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WG™ New York Doug Singer - Head of Operations, North America 404 East 66 Street, Suite 2E New York, NY 10065 E-mail: doug@wgmagazines.com WG™ International Representative Point Select Leisure Management DMCC P.O.Box 333581, Dubai, U.A.E.
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Cover Image Credit: Michael Wilson Strawberries - PHÉNIX, Shanghai Photo ©PHÉNIX
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MAGAZINES
Eleven Madison Park of New York is named The World’s Best Restaurants, Osteria Francescana was named The Best Restaurant in Europe and claimed the number 2 spot with El Celler de Can Roca being the 2017 recipient of The Ferrari Trento Art of Hospitality Award… Dominique Ansel has shaken up the pastry world claiming the 2017 title of The World Best Pastry Chef and Disfrutar in Barcelona is named this year’s Miele One To Watch by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
BECO is José Avillez’s Gourmet Cabaret, exclusive place where fine dining meets show business, in an immersive and memorable experience. His menu at Hangar7 – Restaurant Ikarus is a story made up of several chapters, arranged in a surprising, enticing and aesthetically stunning sequence during this month of April. While still in Europe, we visit Bine Voof lčič’s Monstera bistro and find out about the zero waste cuisine. We catch up with Aitor Jeronimo Orive, Head Chef of the award winning restaurant – Iggy’s, Singapore. Aiotr’s brings his mastery of modern culinary technique and expertise in combining unconventional flavour pairings. We then head out to meet with Michelin Star Chef Michael Wilson of PHÉNIX eatery & bar and learn more about his culinary philosophy of “life is about the ingredients”. Our final leg of our culinary journey is the Middle East where we meet up with Chris and Jeff Galvin at “Demoiselle by Galvin” their first restaurant outside the UK and later catch up with James KnightPacheco, Executive Chef at Vida Downtown Dubai and finally take a gastronomic tour with Costanzo Scala. Our final stop is the Banyan in Goa. Bon Appétit
FdeCastro
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BREAKFAST Daily 7:00 AM-11:00 AM LUNCH Monday-Friday 12:00 PM-2:30 PM BRUNCH Saturday-Sunday 11:00 AM-2:30 PM DINNER Monday-Sunday 5:30 PM-10:00 PM
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‘ WOGOA FOUNDATION
Identifying underprivileged children with culinary ambitions...
Culinary Arts can give new life to children... we make it our mission to identify talented, underprivileged children with culinary ambitions and provide opportunities that otherwise would have been beyond their reach…
Grant MacPherson
WO’GOA Foundation Ambassador An inspirer, innovator and perfectionist - Grant encompasses all the qualities that deserving children can glean from a role model!
The Pearl Martin Benn - Sepia, Sydney, Australia - WG April 2017
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partnered with SKD ACADEMY the culinary institute in the Philippines
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SINGER
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35 Years of Experience, Integrity and Discretion Serving the International Community Call us today at: +1(917) 546-0804 E-mail: info@singernewyorkrealestate.com www.singernewyorkrealestate.com
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MY SWEET KITCHEN VINEET BHATIA WINNER IN THE NATIONAL CATEGORY AT GOURMAND WORLD COOKBOOK AWARDS 2016
Celebrated Michelin starred chef Vineet Bhatia presents a collection of his treasured and iconic desserts that take readers on a journey from east to west, playing on sharp versus sweet, warm versus cold and soft versus crisp... Bhatia’s creations exhibits a whirl of imagination!
By Vineet
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www.indegobyvineet.com
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
FULL SPEED AHEAD FOR CULINARY DIVERSITY
JOSÉ AVILLEZ TEXT HANGAR-7 PHOTO © HELGE KIRCHBERGER / RED BULL HANGAR-7
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Portugal – an idyllic, sparsely populated country in which individuals can achieve great things. And José Avillez, who grew up in the beautiful seaside town of Cascais near Lisbon, has done exactly that. With his dark beard and striking features, he is reminiscent of a Portuguese sailor, navigating through the waters of Portugal’s rich cuisine. His goal? To bring his fish and meat-based dishes to new shores. His mother soon noticed his passion for food and for cooking: when Avillez was just nine years old, he and his sister regularly baked cakes and sold them at school. But it was only later, when he undertook an internship in the kitchen of Antoine Westermann at the age of 20 that he realized he had found his dream job. And though his parents were anything but enthusiastic at first, his unwavering ambition and strong will ultimately paid off.
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
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Avillez trained in numerous countries, learning how to craft their special cuisines, but it was and always will be his native Portugal that inspires his dishes. He takes inspiration from its diverse regions, the sea and its ever-developing urban culture. “Portugal has its own identity and it is very important to respect and maintain it,” Avillez professes. Avillez is virtually omnipresent in Portugal, thanks largely to his seven restaurants, four cookery books, TV programme and daily cooking tips on the radio. In 2012, he opened Belcanto – Lisbon’s first restaurant to be awarded two Michelin stars and named amongst the 100 best restaurants in the world in 2016. Enormous wood panels, plush leather seats and clean lines provide diners with the setting for a journey through Portuguese cuisine, which simply asks them to sit back and enjoy a culinary experience for all the senses.
PERFECT EGG WITH TRUFFLE AND HAZELNUT
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
considered as one of the great Portuguese chefs José Avillez offers a culinary experience that expresses his enormous passion for cooking...
PERCEBES, CAVIAR AND GREEN STRAWBERRIES
Every menu that José Avillez puts together is a story made up of several chapters, arranged in a surprising, enticing and aesthetically stunning sequence...
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MARTIN KLEIN AND JOSÉ AVILLEZ
JOSÉ AVILLEZ IN THE KITCHEN OF RESTAURANT IKARUS
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
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Cooking expresses different moments of knowledge, learning and reasoning, and communicates not only the evolution of technique, but also its creator’s maturity, personality and soul.
José Avillez
José Avillez and his team at Belcanto see haute cuisine as a special medium for self-expression. Every menu that they put together is a story made up of several chapters, arranged in a surprising, enticing and aesthetically stunning sequence. Each of these chapters is bursting with their love for Portugal and delight in combining classic and modern cuisine. Avillez names one of his dishes ‘Dip in the Sea’ – a mixture of kelp, seaweed and shellfish, cooked at a low temperature, with no added salt or fat. “This dish makes me feel like I have simply dived into the sea itself,” declares Avillez. And every bit as extraordinary is his classic dish ‘The garden of the goose that laid the golden eggs’, which consists of an egg in gold leaf on a bed of toasted breadcrumbs and squid ink served with hazelnuts, mushrooms and truffles. LOUP DE MER, MUSSELS AND ALGAE
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BEST OF JOSÉ AVILLEZ VIENNA
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Knowledge and investigation stimulate creativity and refine intuition. Creativity spurs freedom! The absence of prejudice and the ability to believe while constantly questioning are essential for the development of creative thought.
José Avillez
Those who wish to be taken on a culinary adventure by José Avillez are in luck, as they won’t have long to wait: he will be navigating his way to the kitchen of Restaurant Ikarus in Salzburg’s Hangar-7 in April 2017. TANGERINE
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
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PHOTO © BRUNO CALADO
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
This is a special place where haute-cuisine meets show business, in an immersive and memorable experience. In this bohemian and sophisticated restaurant and bar inspired by the 1920’s and 1950’s clubs, there’s a set tasting menu that is always a surprise. In Bairro do Avillez, behind a hidden passageway, there’s a sophisticated restaurant wrapped in mystery and in the feel of the 1920’s and 1950’s clubs. Its doors only open at the end of the day and, for the dinner-and-a-show, only those with a ticket are allowed in. The internationally inspired menu includes 12 different moments and it’s always a surprise. Some of Chef José Avillez’s most unexpected creations are featured in this tasting menu. “In 1908, my great-great-grandfather José Ereira opened Maxim’s at Palácio Foz. I heard that Maxim’s was the most elegant club in Lisbon. In addition to being a restaurant and a bar, it was also an entertainment venue with music, dancing and gambling. BECO is inspired by Maxim’s glamour and its bohemian and sophisticated atmosphere. In a secluded and exclusive place, with a restricted number of seats, BECO offers a unique dinnerand-a-show experience. When you enter Bairro do Avillez, you don’t expect to find a place like this,” explained José Avillez. “There is an aura of fun and elegance about the 1920’s and 1950’s clubs and cabarets. That’s the feel we find here at BECO - Gourmet Cabaret. Combining fine dining with the bar and the show, we want to offer moments of surprise and delight and to create memorable nights,” he adds.
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OLIVE
SPICY TUNA PIZZA
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JOSÉ AVILLEZ
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This is a special place where haute-cuisine meets show business, in an immersive and memorable experience. In this bohemian and sophisticated restaurant and bar inspired by the 1920’s and 1950’s clubs, there’s a set tasting menu that is always a surprise.
After going through a hidden passageway, you’ll find a vibrant room with surprising and eye-catching pieces. BECO’s - Gourmet Cabaret atmosphere is exclusive, bohemian, and sophisticated. The dress code is casual chic, and it agrees with the show’s spirit. One has to be over 18 to enter BECO, and no photography or filming are allowed, so that the experience is kept in the memories of those who will live it. Upon arrival, let the master of ceremonies will guide you… Beco is about attention to detail and to all of the moments of the tasting experience is essential. This place’s indulgent spirit makes Perrier-Jouët the perfect complement to the show, hence the prominent champagne brand’s wish to collaborate as a partner in this project. Once again, José Avillez collaborated with artists who inspire him. Based on a concept defined by the Chef, Ana Anahory and Felipa Almeida developed BECO’s interior design. Joana Astolfi is the hand behind some inspired details that enhance the visit to the new venue. Henriette Arcelin is the creative mind who designed the mural (painted by Patrícia Braga) that is the face of BECO Gourmet Cabaret. WG April 2017 -
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CHRIS AND JEFF GALVIN
Originally inspired by the cooking of his grandmother, UK-born Chris Galvin’s career is one of almost forty years as a chef working in some of the finest restaurants and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic. His talent, enthusiasm and dedication for the profession that he loves, and his commitment to training and giving back to the industry - being recognized in his capacity as former Fellow at West London University, Chairman of the Craft Guild of Chefs Graduate Awards, and Ambassador to National Chef of the Year – all contribute to Chris’ sterling reputation in the industry. Chris started in a small neighbourhood, knocking on restaurant doors and landed a job as a pot washer for Antony Worrall-Thompson, before joining the brigade at The Ritz hotel in London as a young Commis under the direction of Michael Quinn. His talent, enthusiasm and dedication was soon spotted by acclaimed Chef Paul Gayler, who first brought him into his kitchen at Inigo Jones before recruiting him again several years later as Executive Sous Chef at The Lanesborough Hotel. Chris later teamed up with Worrall-Thompson in New York as Head Chef at Ménage à Trois.
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In 1997, Chris joined Conran Restaurants where he worked directly with Sir Terence Conran for 10 years; opening Mezzo, Bluebird, and co-founder of Almeida. The launch of Orrery, where he worked for many years, saw him achieve a coveted Michelin star in 2000. In 2003, Chris was appointed by Jeremy King and Chris Corbin to open the much acclaimed Wolseley restaurant where he established, amongst other things, the now famous Wolseley breakfast. The restaurant went on to earn numerous accolades, including Time Out Restaurant of the Year, AA London Restaurant of the Year and inclusion in Restaurant Magazine’s ‘50 Best Restaurants in the World’ for two consecutive years.
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CHRIS AND JEFF GALVIN
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JEFF GALVIN WALKS IN HIS BROTHERS FOOTSTEPS
Inspired by his older brother Chris, UK native Jeff started his career at the same small neighborhood restaurant where Chris once washed the pots for Anthony Worrall-Thompson. After completing catering college, Jeff joined The Savoy as a young Commis under the direction of Anton Edelman, before progressing to the role of Junior Sous Chef at David Levin’s Michelin-starred Capital Hotel working for renowned Chef, Philip Britten. In 1994, Jeff was appointed by Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico at 90 Park Lane as Sous Chef and was part of the kitchen brigade that achieved the elusive third Michelin star. Jeff joined Chris for the opening of Orrery in Marylebone in 1997 before being reunited with David Levin as Head Chef at The Greenhouse restaurant in Mayfair. His Michelin-starred experience led to his appointment at Marco Pierre White’s three Michelin-starred Oak Room, where he was Head Chef under the direction of Robert Reid, and in May 2000, Marco appointed him as Executive Chef at L’Escargot, which held a Michelin star for five years. Jeff teamed up with his brother Chris in 2005 to open their first solo venture, the eponymous Galvin Bistrot de Luxe in Baker Street, to much critical acclaim. Amongst its many awards, Galvin Bistrot de Luxe won AA London Restaurant of the Year in 2006 and currently holds two AA Rosettes. WG April 2017 -
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CHRIS AND JEFF GALVIN
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from knocking on restaurant doors to a culinary empire… the partnership Long before 2006, Marco Pierre White said “there should be a Galvin Restaurant” and in May 2006, Chris and Jeff launched Galvin at Windows, on the 28th floor of the London Hilton on Park Lane, with André Garrett as their Head Chef. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2010. Together with Fred Sirieix, GM at Galvin at Windows, Chris set up the Galvin’s Chance charity which helps disadvantaged youngsters gain training and employment in leading hotels and restaurants. “We think one wrong thing can effect a hundred of people among us, so if we can get one person through, and change their lives. We started this nine years ago and 130 youngsters have gone through two weeks of work experience and a job offer for one year but at the same time they have to go to college and get their certificates. We realized that we can never give up, once you start something, it’s got to be there forever” says Chris. The acclaimed three rosette Galvin La Chapelle opened in 2009 and has had praise heaped upon it from the very beginning, winning no less than eight top restaurant awards in its first year, including AA London Restaurant of the Year, and gaining a Michelin star for Chef Patron Jeff Galvin only one year after it opened. Situated next-door to Galvin La Chapelle, Galvin Café a Vin is a smart but friendly and relaxed two Rosette restaurant which was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2011.
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CHRIS AND JEFF GALVIN
“Chris and Jeff Galvin spearheaded the revival of high quality French bistro cuisine, offering affordable luxury, family hospitality and ingredient-led, seasonal menus across their restaurant empire.”
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CURE SMOKED SALMON, EGGS, CAPERS, CRÈME FRAÎCHE & RYE BREAD
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March 2012 brought yet another restaurant opening, this time in the world famous food halls of Harrods; Galvin Demoiselle, the fifth London offering from Galvin Restaurants, saw for the first time, Sara Galvin, wife to Chris, become Patron, having spearheaded the concept and design for the new bistro-style restaurant. True to the tradition of Galvin Restaurants, Demoiselle offers high quality French cuisine combined with the Galvin’s family hospitality and exceptional service. Autumn 2012 marked the first ever venture outside of London for the Galvin family, opening two new restaurants in Edinburgh; The Pompadour by Galvin and Galvin Brasserie de Luxe in The Caledonian, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The two distinct restaurants continue the successful partnership between Hilton Worldwide and the Galvin brothers, which began in 2006 with the Michelin-starred Galvin at Windows. The Galvin Pub Company was set up in 2014, with the brothers buying their first pub, The Green Man in Chelmsford. In early 2016 Galvin Café a Vin was relaunched as Galvin HOP, the first ‘pub deluxe’ from the Galvin brothers and the original site for The Galvin Pub Company. WG April 2017 -
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CHRIS AND JEFF GALVIN
BAKED LOBSTER FISHCAKE, TOMATOES VINAIGRETTE, CHILI & CORIANDER
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HOT CROQUETTES OF COMTÉ CHEESE WITH PICKLED WALNUT DRESSING
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2017 marks the expansion of Galvin Restaurants outside the UK, with both Demoiselle by Galvin and regional flagship Galvin Dubai opening in the CITY WALK II district, in collaboration with Meraas. After consistently delighting the palates of Harrods’ clientele since 2012, the fashionable Demoiselle brand expands its locale from Knightsbridge to Dubai. Situated at the heart of Meraas’ flagship community, Demoiselle by Galvin is a ‘place for everyone’ - a vibrant, cosmopolitan setting for leisurely family breakfasts, prompt business lunches and intimate dinners alike. Coupling Galvin’s luxurious simplicity with bread and viennoiserie handmade on-site, Demoiselle by Galvin creates an unforgettable, home-away-from-home experience for UAE’s diners. The restaurant is set across two floors with more than half of the restaurant set in an intimate terrace overlooking the urban life of CITY WALK. With warm colours and groupings of bespoke furnishings made for conversation, each element of Demoiselle by Galvin’s interior has been personalised down to the finest detail. Combining a modern, fashionable aesthetic with a delightfully warm and airy ambiance, Demoiselle by Galvin exudes understated elegance at each turn.
DEMOISELLE BY GALVIN - DUBAI
Demoiselle by Galvin’s menu has been personally designed by Chris and Jeff Galvin, and led by their protégé, Executive Chef Luigi Vespero. Working under their wings for three years in London, Chef Luigi played an integral role in the Galvin restaurants’ culinary team, opening Galvin la Chapelle and contributing significantly to the success of Galvin Bistrot de Luxe. WG April 2017 -
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CHRIS AND JEFF GALVIN
The menu is complemented with signature touches, starting with breakfast options enhanced by handmade, artisanal bread and an enviable selection of fresh-from-the-oven viennoiserie, which can be enjoyed over a cup of coffee. An extensive lunch and dinner menu featuring a range of light to heartier dishes to suit the most discerning of palates. Ascending up the stairs of the spacious restaurant, guests reach the salon de thé - a luxuriouslyappointed yet relaxed modern-day parlor for Demoiselle by Galvin’s famous afternoon tea. Complemented by genuine, family values instilled into each facet of service. “We are tremendously excited with the launch of Demoiselle by Galvin in Dubai - our very first venture outside the UK. We have been exploring our expansion to the UAE for more than seven years and all of the elements are in place – location, team, partner, menu, and interiors – to create a timeless experience in a very modern city,” says Jeff Galvin, co-founder of Galvin Restaurants.
DEMOISELLE BY GALVIN - DUBAI
“With a love of shopping and celebrating over good food with family and friends, Dubai is the ideal market for Demoiselle by Galvin, and our first international opportunity to share our passion for classic cuisine, service, and customer focus,” said Chris Galvin, who founded Galvin Restaurants with his younger brother in 2005. Demoiselle by Galvin is the Galvin brothers’ 11th venture, adding a global element to the familyrun collection of French restaurants created by Michelin-starred chef brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin. Each Galvin destination is unique but they share a common theme; a family-centric approach that delivers high quality cuisine, served in luxurious surroundings by warm, hospitable and professional front of house.
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FLATBREAD, MERGUEZ SAUSAGE, SCRAMBLED EGGS & FUL MEDAMES
TRADITIONAL AFTERNOON TEA
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AITOR JERONIMO ORIVE
Aitor Jeronimo Orive A SPANISH TOUCH IN SINGAPORE...
of curiosity lends his dishes international appeal - with simple dishes like his various iterations of rice paying homage to various cultures around the world. At Iggy’s, he intends to merge his Aitor Jeronimo Orive brings his mastery of modern idiosyncratic Australian and Spanish upbringing culinary technique and expertise in combining with the delicate touches found in Japanese cuisine unconventional flavour pairings to Iggy’s as its and robust flavours of local heritage dishes. Head Chef. Emphasizing the quality and freshness of each ingredient by letting it speak for itself, Aitor WG Magazine speaks with Aitor Jeronimo Orive… navigates Iggy’s highly seasonal menu with great It’s interesting how chefs find their passion for panache and creativity. cooking, Aitor Jeronimo Orive tells us how he Having worked with some of the best and most found his way into the culinary world… boundary-pushing chefs in the culinary world, Aitor’s discipline, combined with progressive and I’ve always liked cooking since I was little. I was precise cooking techniques enables him to pursue never very academically inclined and as my mum excellence in every course. Time spent as Chef was a teacher, she suggested for me to go to de Partie at The Fat Duck has imbued a sense of culinary school instead. I immediately fell in love whimsical precision to his culinary techniques, while with it and the time spent at culinary school in Soria, restaurants like Mugaritz and Nerua Guggenheim, a small town in northern Spain, further deepened where he was also Chef de Partie, has pushed his my passion for cooking. I have never looked back gastronomic innovations to new heights. Prior to since. Iggy’s, Aitor was most recently found in the kitchen of Shanghai’s Barbarossa Paco Roncero - a leading I remember always being fascinated by cooking shows when I was growing up. In my spare time, I avant-garde Spanish restaurant. used to try and emulate what I saw on TV, whether Being able to tell a story through food, while letting it was making simple pizzas or cooking with family, the food tell his own story is an important aspect of like my grandma. I think I’ve always been a handsAitor’s culinary thinking. He believes that it takes on person, maybe it was because my father was a decades to be able to develop a specific cooking carpenter - so being able to do something with my style or philosophy to truly call his own. His sense hands and eat it after was an added bonus!
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AITOR JERONIMO ORIVE
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BONE MARROW, CAULIFLOWER, KRISTAL CAVIAR
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Working alongside Andoni Luis, Heston Blumenthal and Josean Alija, Aitor tells us how it helped him as a chef…
Aitor tells a story through his cuisine, a cuisine inspired from the Basque Country… My cuisine is inspired by all of Spain, not just the Basque Country. However, the Basque region is definitely where I spent the most time, both in terms of growing up and where I spent time working, so there are certainly influences from my time spent there. I think there are plenty of similarities between Basque Country and Japan. Both places produce some of the best ingredients, so it was a natural progression for me to work with Japanese produce in Singapore. They both possess similar attitudes when it comes to respecting their produce and cultivating truly outstanding products. As they are both located in the Northern Hemisphere, there are many similar - if not the same - types of fish found in Japan and Spain, just with different names. At Iggy’s, we seek to redefine the traditional notions of the classification of cuisines. The food we serve is not defined by geographic borders or countries, but by what excites us and what we think will excite our diners. It is simply modern European with Asian overtones. It reflects the techniques and flavours I have learned through the years and also incorporating Ignatius’ expertise on the flavours that work for the Singaporean palate.
Each of these chefs helped me hone my craft in various ways. Andoni at Mugaritz taught me all about the sense of place: where you are, the food and produce you use and the people you are with. The brigade felt like a big family, but he also taught me that you have to respect what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. During my time there, I learned a lot about how to approach and treat products and food. Much like Andoni himself, working at Mugaritz was a mystical and exciting experience. Working with Heston at The Fat Duck was an eyeopening experience. Here, I learned all about persistence and the art of perfection. His ethos was that even though you’ve been working on the same dish over a number of years, there is always room for improvement. At The Fat Duck, it was always about how to make even the simplest of things the most perfect they could possibly be. These years were difficult and intense with long working hours because of the high level of expectations. I consider Josean one of my mentors. At Nerua, I felt like I had to start all over again and learn many things from scratch. Fine dining chefs are a different breed from hotel or casual dining chefs. In our line, we treat food very differently - we need a lot more passion, sacrifice and discipline in order for things to maintain a high level of consistency to ensure that the end product is the best that it can be. Here, I learned that consistency is your best friend and that you need to demand organization and discipline from yourself to achieve greatness as the simplest things still require an immense amount of work. WG April 2017 -
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IGNATIUS CHAN
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“Iggy’s is a restaurant that is full of little surprises. From the minute you step through the discreet door, you’re greeted by our reception, library and dessert bar. Diners get the same experience when they walk down our main hallway, which also houses a gallery of our signature dishes over the years, before it opens up to our intimate dining room and theatre kitchen. We aim to give the same element of surprise when it comes to our food—from the With over three decades of experience, Ignatius (also little snacks before the meal to the unexpected known as Iggy to close friends) is the mastermind combinations of simply delicious flavours in our behind his eponymous modern European fine dining dishes,” says Ignatius. “As I work closely with the restaurant, Iggy’s. The 53-year-old combines his kitchen team to develop each menu, fundamentally, love of high-quality seasonal Japanese ingredients, taste is still key to me. We always try to present his intimate knowledge of the Singaporean diner balanced flavours with a good dose of umami and his passion for uncovering cutting-edge culinary in each dish we present. I also believe in textural trends to create a dining experience that has always contrasts as it provides yet another dimension on been at the forefront of Singapore’s gastronomic the plate that will entice diners - both locally and scene. Reflecting Ignatius’ unique vision of creating internationally.” a distinctly Singaporean fine dining restaurant, he works closely with Head Chef Aitor Jeronimo Through the years, Ignatius has won numerous Orive to present modern European dishes with awards in the F&B industry, including being selected Asian overtones and a focus on seasonal Japanese as the only Asian member of the prestigious Grand Jury Européen - an association aimed at providing produce. alternative classifications of wine; being inducted The award-winning sommelier has also developed as a member of the oldest wine fraternity in the Iggy’s extensive wine program that boasts a cellar world, Jurade des Saint-Emilion; and SOPEXA’s holding over 25,000 bottles of wines. With a list Singapore’s Best Sommelier for French wines that focuses on wines from Burgundy, the menu and spirits. Ignatius also judged at the Decanter consists of bottles from wineries and winemakers World Wine Awards held annually in London from that Ignatius frequently visits and has built intimate 2006-2012, as well as the Decanter Asian Wine relationships with during his travels. He believes Awards held in Hong Kong each year. He was also that a meal at Iggy’s is enhanced when tasted with recently inducted into the Confrérie des Chevalier wine and, thus, works closely with the kitchen to du Tastevin in Burgundy in November 2016—an create and tweak dishes that pair and complement Order that promotes and preserves Burgundy’s wines, cuisine and customs. various wines in the cellar.
IGNATIUS CHAN
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AITOR JERONIMO ORIVE
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CURED EGG, SEA HERBS, ONION AND BROCCOLI
WG MAGAZINE
Aitor’s culinary philosophy, and take us through the process creating a new dish… My culinary philosophy has evolved over the years and at Iggy’s, it is all about modern European cuisine with distinctly Asian overtones. We create dishes around ingredients - whether it’s our Japanese fishmonger at Tsukiji Market telling us there is an amazing fish in season, Iggy recommending that we work with a certain ingredient he is fascinated by, or a vegetable that’s currently in season and at its prime. We often get the main ingredient of the dish first, before then thinking about what would go well with it. Our dishes are never overcomplicated in presentation, but a lot of effort and work goes into it beforehand. I think it is evident when you start to eat the dishes. We want to always respect the ingredients - no matter how humble, we want to be able to showcase them at their best. I’m inspired by a lot of things, whether it is something I’ve done in the past, looking at old recipes, being inspired by other restaurants and chefs or something that my team and I have been working on together. The final step is for Iggy to taste test each dish before it goes on the menu. Being a sommelier, he’s got a great palate and knows what local diners are looking for in each dish. WG April 2017 -
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AITOR JERONIMO ORIVE
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CARABINERIO RISOTTO
WG MAGAZINE
Ingredients that inspire, favorite ingredients and ingredients unable to work with… I’m currently obsessed with abalone. It’s something that the restaurant has worked with for a while, but something that is not very familiar to me as it is not widely used in Mediterranean Europe. I have used it at the Fat Duck, but never got the chance to play around with it as extensively as I do now. My favorite ingredients to work with is any kind of meat or fish. I’m not entirely sure why I’m always so drawn to them, but perhaps it has to do with the fact that I have worked at those stations for most of my culinary career, so my expertise and experience lies there. I particularly love experimenting with off cuts of beef as I don’t believe a lot in the market value of food. Just because something is more expensive, it doesn’t automatically make it better. Cheap and humble ingredients are equally as good as long as you treat it with care and respect. I think I almost gave up on abalone, but I’m still experimenting with it. I love a good challenge and I think that I’m almost at a breakthrough for it. Personally, I don’t think I could ever say that a dish is 100% done, as I believe that there’s always room for change or evolution.
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AITOR JERONIMO ORIVE
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MONK FISH LIVER
WG MAGAZINE
Special cooking techniques behind Aitor’s signature dish… We don’t use too many fancy or molecular techniques at Iggy’s. Here, it is more about treating the food with respect and ultimately presenting delicious dishes. Some cool techniques that are on our current menu include our carabinero prawn disc that is found on our Carabinero Rice dish. We pound several prawns and use transglutaminase to bind it all together to create one thin sheet of prawn. One of our other signature dishes is the Vegetable Garden. Technique-wise, it is not overly complicated but it does bring over 20 ingredients together into one dish. Using the best seasonal vegetables from Australia, Europe and Japan, this dish is all about flavours and textures. We boil, braise, blanch, shave and lightly pickle a medley of vegetables and serve with a dashi stock that’s infused with jamon iberico. It’s comforting and super delicious. Creativity, Technique or Produce… To me, all three as just as important as the other. If one shines over the other, there will be something wrong with a dish or menu. Some people try to be super creative with textures and airs, but there is no produce in the dish, or some who don’t have the right techniques which hampers their creativity, too. I believe that when you get the perfect balance of the three, that’s when great chefs are formed. Their dishes might seem very molecular - which requires both technique and creativity”. WG April 2017 -
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AITOR JERONIMO ORIVE
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STRAWBERRY
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What keeps you motivated at this point in your career? There are two things that keep me motivated. The first is hearing that my peers - those I’ve worked with and suffered brutally long hours with - are doing well and achieving accolades and industry recognition. It makes me believe that if they can do it, so can I. The second would be all the chefs who have mentored me, like Josean Alija, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Heston Blumenthal and Rodrigo de la Calle, over the years. They keep me motivated as I would one day like to be like them. Aitor’s advice to chefs who are entering the kitchen for the first time… I would say you just have to be prepared to work extremely hard. Be sure that this is something you really want as it’s definitely not like what you see on TV. You have to be prepared that you will miss out on moments, like going on holiday with your friends or celebrating with your families. If you don’t have passion for what you do, it may not be worth all that time you are giving up. WG April 2017 -
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MICHAEL WILSON
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MICHAEL WILSON LIFE IS ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS...
Young and talented Executive Chef Michael Wilson has been awarded One Michelin Star in The Michelin guide 2017 for PHÉNIX eatery & bar. With more than 15 years of culinary experience, Chef Wilson was invited to Shanghai and started his tenure at the PHÉNIX in 2012. Quick garnering recognition for his remarkable gastronomic skills and culinary philosophy of “life is about the ingredients”, he believes that the perfect dish is a combination of fresh, seasonal ingredients and innovative ideas. Before joining The PuLi Hotel and Spa, Chef Wilson worked with Cutler and Co. and Grossi Florentino, one of the oldest restaurants in Melbourne, Australia. He started learning his craft at a young age of 16 in Melbourne, learning to cook with diversity and quality and working alongside Australia’s top chefs exploring various cuisines and styles. It was until Chef Wilson’s travels throughout Europe where he found his passion for simple and elegant local produce; he then became fully focused in providing guests only the upmost seasonal and natural ingredient in his dishes. WG April 2017 -
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WG magazine catches up with Michael Wilson… Michael Wilsons tells us how he found his into the culinary field to become one of the most sought-after chef!
Rooted in the philosophy of “Life is about the ingredients” PHÉNIX makes its mark, taking guests on an authentic journey of intuitive French cuisine...
My oldest brother was a chef and I idolized him quite a bit, I started working in a local restaurant at age 14 washing dishes for cash on the weekends and a couple of nights a week, then I got sucked in and started my apprenticeship at age 16. As the years went on I worked in some great restaurants and travelled to parts of the world and eventually landed in Shanghai where I had my 1st head chef position (2012) and 1st restaurant opening project Phenix (2016) The cuisine at PHÉNIX is inspired by a combination of seasonal natural ingredients and giving new life to French cuisine, creating a composition of flavours… I try took keep flavours as natural as possible, in doing this you need to find the best ingredients you can find which can be tough in Shanghai. Texture in food is important, they way it feels on your palate are just as critical. Even when cooking western/French cuisine I still think about the Thai cuisine and how balanced that is. Michael tells us about his experiences at Cutler & Co and Grossi Florentino and how as it helped him as a chef.. Working at Grossi Florentino taught me a lot about culture and tradition and why things are they way they are, you really learnt to cook without a recipe in the usual format, they taught you to feel everything out when you cook. Cutler & co was completely different, there was so much more technique involved in the food, everything had a precise recipe, I learnt consistency on a whole new level, every dish every time exactly the same. Combining both of these has defiantly been at the foundation if my ability as a cook
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STRAWBERRIES
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MICHAEL WILSON
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Michael describes his your culinary philosophy, and take us through creating a new dish…
PHÉNIX... like a “cabinet de curiosity”, it showcases a private collection of unique craft and objects travelers would collect and take along. This is like the narrative of a journey remembered through natural, scientific and exotic ingredients.
I just want to cook something tasty, interesting, unassuming, I like it when something seems simple but isn’t. I find myself most of the time associating ingredients with where they are from. We have a dish “dirty dutch carrots, eggplant, sesame, pickled and candy carrot’’ when you take a carrot out of the ground its dirty, so we replicate this with and ash made from burning and drying carrots, it has a smoked eggplant cream, sour and sweet carrot, and is crispy and firm and soft Ingredients that inspire Michael, his favourite ingredients… Michael adds “I was given these live wild scallops from Scotland air freighted, these are stunning, always look for freshness and quality, something that looks perfect may not taste perfect .” Favourite...Heirloom tomatoes, firm, soft, sweet, sour they are great. Special cooking techniques behind Michael’s signature dishes… We keep its relatively traditional we do a bit of sous vide cooking on some things, we make a bit of charcutrie in house we have a smoking that we do Veal tongues, pork hocks and salmon in and cure and dry our own duck breast into ham. Important to remember the past as a base for innovation Creativity, Technique or Produce…”1st produce 2nd technique, 3rd creativity”, Doesn’t matter how good or creative you are if the fish is not good quality or fresh then the dish is simply just not good. Being motivated, Michael adds… “Cooking is a bit of an addiction, you want to do more, be better than the previous day, and you’re competing with yourself as well as the competition”. Michael’s advice to chefs entering the kitchen for the first time… For the first 10 years just learn, don’t think you know, don’t be arrogant just learn! You will have your chance at the top but make sure your ready when it comes . WG April 2017 -
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JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO
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WG MAGAZINE
JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO A chef with over a decade of experience and having worked with some of the culinary greats - Raymond Blanc, Gordon Ramsay, Michael Caines, Jason Atherton, Peter Gorton and Andre Garrett. James Knight-Pacheco, Executive Chef at Vida Downtown Dubai is mandated with the all-round management and operations of the property’s outstanding dining venues including 3in1, a modern oriental inspired restaurant, and Stage2, the property’s international lounge located on the lobby level overlooking the pool and serving as an intimate terrace with an allday menu. His cuisine is inventive, progressive and intelligent; combining customer desire with industry knowledge to surprise and satisfy the diner through inimitable experiences. James is one of the two winners who will compete in the 2017 The Taste of New Zealand of the Year competition in September, the competition is designed to raise awareness of New Zealand’s diverse produce and food products among chefs. This summer, James will work alongside Esben Holmboe Bang at the three Michelin starred restaurant Maaemo, the cuisine at Maaemo is focused on clean bright flavors of Norway and built around its local produce reflecting on the seasons and the raw nature of Norway.
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JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO
WG Magazine catches up with James KnightPacheco It’s interesting to learn how chefs find their passion for cooking and where they grew up. James tells us how he found his way into the culinary world…
3 PS
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I was born in Venezuela, so that entire culture was based on family and food, so predominantly the most of my household were are all female, I have 4 sisters. Every weekend our family would gather, it was all about sharing, cooking and laughing, so from a very young age, I was in an environment where learning from my Grandmother, from my mother, even my Uncles you know, they would do the barbeque, and the kids would get involved. At that time I didn’t really think about it because I was a kid, that this would shape my career. Around the age of 8 or 9, we moved to the UK, my mum is from Venezuela and my father is British, we moved to the southwest of England – half an hour from the beach and half an hour from the mountains. It was an incredible place for great produce, the freshest seafood, incredible dairy. Started doing small jobs, worked my first kitchen job was dishes and having two career paths in mind – music or cooking and I got to a point where I didn’t know what to do. It was my father to told me ‘James, just think what you want to do, everybody needs to eat and being a chef you will be able to feed people, you can travel the world and this is the right thing to do’, reluctantly yet I listened to him. I did a three year hotel management food degree, which two years were mostly administrative and one year of intense cooking. I realized this is exactly what I wanted to do.
WG MAGAZINE
FILLET OF BASS
CHICKEN OR THE EGG
VEAL 2 WAYS
ROOT VEGETABLE GARDEN
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JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO
South American roots combined with an upbringing in the South West of England, developing recipes with locally sourced produce, with refined flavours, James tells us how he brings this balance on a plate… For me balance of flavor is a huge thing but it took a long time for me to learn, learning making mistakes and doing it all over again. I generally use a pyramid, and what I called a flavor pyramid. This flavor pyramid is quite straightforward, at the very top of the pyramid you have your superstar dish and the other two are supporting it. First is the flavor which must be the knock out thing, then number two is the texture and the third thing is the look. Once I have all the three, then it’s combining it together, trial and error.
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AÏOLI
WG MAGAZINE
The experience with Raymond Blanc and how did help James as a chef… Working with Raymond was an experience, he just made you think about every single aspect of what your job, it’s not just about food. He was huge on the guests, how will the guest see this, do you have respect for the produce, do you know how long this has been grown, do you know the farmer, and in terms of the kitchen team, I mean, it was all about Respect, Respect and Respect. I would say it was the toughest kitchen I have ever worked - not physically but mentally. In the kitchen, it was quite, only two voices – Gary Jones his executive head chef and the pastry chef and everything else was super quite, it was all about being focused. The other Michelin kitchens were very loud, stress which one would expect in a typical kitchen. This is why Raymond has so many Michelin Stars and over forty prodigies now working around the world. Raymond would think about everything, beginning to end which was about the guest experience. It’s amazing, as the experience for guest is incredible.
From Raymond’s Japanese Tea Garden, his orchard, and the first ever organic wild mushroom valley which I was lucky enough to help build. Every chef which joins him has to work in every section of the hotel, doing a week of gardening, a week housekeeping, a week in the finance department and front of the house for a week.
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JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO
OCEAN’S 8 - OCTOPUS CARPACCIO
THE SCOTT
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MR. AUBERGINE
THR GRILLER
WG MAGAZINE
James describes his culinary philosophy...
PEA AND MINT
For me it’s not necessary so much about the style on the plate, for me it is more about the experience of my guest. For me a restaurant is a magical thing, people who want to come and eat your food – which the number one compliment. Secondly, when they walk away from an incredible meal, that meal will last forever and they’ll talk about it forever, they’ll remember it forever. It’s just like perfume – you are on your first date and the date smells beautiful, that smell stays in your mind and I think food is about the memory. As I was saying before – Venezuela, Southwest of England, all of these are memories and food is so nostalgic. Special cooking techniques… I love the sous vide and char grilling, honestly I think they go hand in hand. The sous vide for me is very consistent and there is a level of technical skills that comes with it and then char grilling because it reminds me of home – Venezuela and England. There is something so pure about char grilling and the two flavors are actually fantastic.
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JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO
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TURKEY CARBS
WG MAGAZINE
Creativity, Technique or Produce‌ Produce come first as without good produce it’s an immediate challenge, for me all opportunity to get it correct. Next is being creative, I think that as a chef you have to be creative, not only on a plate but on your mind. The best thing I think about a chef is that you keep learning, you learn from other people and you learn from an idea you can learn from anything. So creative is a huge thing for me. The last is technique, technique comes with time and learning from mistakes these type of things that you pick up along the way.
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JAMES KNIGHT-PACHECO
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CHEESY CAKE
WG MAGAZINE
LA VIDA LOCA
As Executive Chef of Vida, with responsibilities of overseeing and co-ordinating with the staff… How do you ensure the highest quality is constantly maintained?
have to taste everything that they do in order to understand if its correct, if it’s not correct, correct it. That’s how we keep our consistency and maintain high quality standards.
I do need to look at the bigger picture, I don’t necessary just need to see what’s on the plan or what’s going on around me, I do need to know what’s competition I have, what do the diners like, what’s Dubai’s dining scene like. I have a senior team where we develop things together in terms of the kitchen and we then pass the knowledge down. However, to keep up with the quality all I ensure all my chefs know that I am not only the executive chef but also their mentor. I am fortunate to have other managers in different departments around me who also helped me. In this day and age if you don’t take criticism in a positive way. For me it is important to be consistent, I think consistency is the key in anything to do. The recipes that we work with, the chef follows the recipes, its not to change the recipes but to follow the recipes, so we give them a number of tool to ensure that everything is correct. I believe kitchens should allow their chefs to taste the food, as stupid as it may sound, my chefs
What keeps James motivated? I always want to keep pushing myself as hard as possible and as much as possible, and I love a challenge. I always think what I can improve whether it’s a dish, whether it’s my style of cooking, whether I talk to somebody. I continuously challenge myself. The nice part about coming to Vida is that my background hasn’t been hotel based, it has been restaurant led, so the challenge is how to manage different outlets for example, how do I manage different chefs, how do I manage different kitchens, how do I manage two food trucks - these are all challenges that I never faced before. So the learning curve wasn’t a small curve it was a huge curve. From all these incredible things, I have learnt to drive forward, they all have their own challenges but at the same time it is an amazing opportunity to grow, to grow with the team, to make the brand stronger, and to take it to another level. WG April 2017 -
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DOMINIQUE ANSEL
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Dominique Ansel has shaken up the pastry world. He is the Chef and Owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery and Dominique Ansel Kitchen in New York City, as well as Dominique Ansel Bakery Japan.
DOMINIQUE ANSEL THE WORLD’S BEST PASTRY CHEF PHOTO © THOMAS SCHAUER
New York-based pastry entrepreneur Dominique Ansel is also honored this year, claiming the 2017 title of The World’s Best Pastry Chef. Since opening his eponymous SoHo bakery in 2011 and launching the Cronut, his signature croissant-doughnut hybrid, French-born Ansel has extended his global influence to London and Tokyo. This award recognizes his relentless creativity, innovation and ability to span the retail and restaurant sectors. Perhaps what has most widely been reported is Chef Dominique Ansel’s creation of the Cronut®, a croissant and doughnut hybrid that has been reported on throughout the world, and domestically on Good Morning America, the Today Show, ABC’s The Chew, Inside Edition, Fox & Friends, Live with Kelly and Michael, CNN’s Piers Morgan Live with Anthony Bourdain, E! News, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Bloomberg and more. TIME Magazine named the Cronut®, one of the “25 Best Inventions of 2013”. It is also the first pastry to have been so in demand, it sells of up to 20x its retail price on the black market. The Chef’s various other inventions, including his Frozen S’more, Magic Soufflé, and Milk & Cookie shots have all become popular treats with international fame. The New York Post proclaimed Chef Ansel the “Willy Wonka of NYC” and Food & Wine called him a “culinary Van Gogh.” WG April 2017 -
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DOMINIQUE ANSEL
CRONUT™
Chef Dominique opened his celebrated Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York’s Soho neighbourhood in November 2011. Serving both sweet and savoury items, with pastries reigning supreme, the Bakery is home to many of Chef Dominique’s signature creations – from his famed Cronut® pastry, which first debuted in May 2013, to the DKA (Dominique’s Kouign Amann), Cookie Shot, Frozen S’mores, made-to-order madeleines, and more.
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WG MAGAZINE
The Cronut® pastry is the unique creation by Chef Dominique Ansel that many have described to be a croissant-doughnut hybrid. After its launch on May 10, 2013, Cronut® pastry fans spanned the world from Berlin to Singapore, making it the most virally talked about dessert item in history. Taking 2 months and more than 10 recipes, Chef Dominique Ansel’s creation is not to be mistaken as simply croissant dough that has been fried. Made with a laminated dough which has been likened to a croissant (but uses a proprietary recipe), the Cronut® pastry is first proofed and then fried in grapeseed oil at a specific temperature. Once cooked, each Cronut® pastry is flavoured in three ways: 1. rolled in sugar; 2. filled with cream; and 3. topped with glaze. The Cronut® pastries are made fresh daily, and completely done in house. The entire process takes up to 3 days. WG April 2017 -
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DOMINIQUE ANSEL
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DKA
WG MAGAZINE
April of 2015, Chef Dominique launched his second NYC shop with Dominique Ansel Kitchen, located in the West Village. Turning the tables on a traditional bakery, the Kitchen features an idea perhaps even more radical – more than 70% of the menu is either made, finished or assembled to order, reflecting Chef Dominique’s belief that “time is an ingredient.” In 2015, Chef Dominique brought his famed pastry shop to Tokyo with the opening of Dominique Ansel Bakery Japan, his first outside of the U.S. Located in the fashionable Omotesando neighbourhood, the shop is housed in a beautiful 3-story tower and celebrates the next generation of pastry. Many of Chef Dominique’s signature items from his original NYC bakery are featured on the menu, including the Cronut®, Frozen S’mores, DKA, and Cookie Shot, as well as many exclusive-toTokyo creations highlighting local ingredients and traditions.
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DOMINIQUE ANSEL
Dominique Ansel was bestowed the prestigious Ordre du Mérite Agricole award, one of the highest honour in France, for his dedicated to promotion French cuisine and culture...
In July 2015, Chef Dominique launched U.P. “unlimited possibilities”, his after-hours tasting table hidden within the Kitchen shop in NYC. The exclusive U.P. table seats just 8 guests and descends from the ceiling into the center of the bakery’s prep kitchen, where Chef Dominique serves an 8-course, all-dessert tasting menu, complete with cocktail and wine pairings.
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CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE SHOT
COTTON SOFT CHEESECAKE
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DOMINIQUE ANSEL
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FROZEN S’MORES
WG MAGAZINE
Prior to starting his own business with his first Soho bakery, Chef Dominique was wellknown in New York as the executive pastry chef at Daniel, Daniel Boulud’s flagship French restaurant. During his six years there (the longest tenure of any pastry chef at Daniel), Dominique was part of the team that led the restaurant to receive its first 4-star New York Times Rating, 3 Michelin stars, and James Beard’s Outstanding Restaurant of the Year Award in 2010. Chef Ansel also spent seven years at the venerable French bakery Fauchon, where he was in charge of international expansion, helping to set up shops around the world. Dominique Ansel is often noted for his support of various charities, including the fight to end hunger with Food Bank for New York City, City Harvest, and God’s Love We Deliver. In 2014, Chef Ansel’s first cookbook DOMINIQUE ANSEL: The Secret Recipes published by Simon & Schuster was released. MONTBLANC
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THE WORLD’S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS 2017
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PHOTO © THE WORLD’S 50 BEST RESTAURANTS 2017
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ELEVEN MADISON PARK
Daniel Humm’s cuisine is focused on the locally sourced ingredients of New York, with an emphasis on simplicity, purity, and seasonal flavors. A native of Switzerland, Daniel was exposed to food at a very young age, and began working in kitchens at the age of 14. From there he spent time in some of the finest Swiss hotels and restaurants before earning his first Michelin star at the age of 24. In 2003, Daniel moved to the United States to become the executive chef at Campton Place in San Francisco, where he received four stars from the San Francisco Chronicle. Three years later, he moved to New York to become the executive chef at Eleven Madison Park.
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CELERY ROOT IN BLADDER
WG MAGAZINE
No. 1 The Best Restaurant in North America
Over the course of Daniel’s tenure, he and Eleven Madison Park have received numerous accolades, four stars from The New York Times, six James Beard Foundation Awards - Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Restaurant in America, three Michelin Stars. In 2011, Daniel and partner Will Guidara purchased Eleven Madison Park from Union Square Hospitality Group, and the following year also opened the critically acclaimed NoMad. Since its opening, The NoMad has garnered three stars from The New York Times, one Michelin Star, and a James Beard Foundation Award. Together with Will, he is the author of Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook, I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes, and The NoMad Cookbook.
DANIEL HUMM ELEVEN MADISON PARK NEW YORK, USA
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OSTERIACHIANG FRANCESCANA ANDRÉ
MASSIMO No. 12 The BestBOTTURA Restaurant
in Singapore OSTERIA FRANCESCANA MODENA, ITALY
Over the past twenty years, Massimo Bottura has consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s most creative culinary figures. He has written an acclaimed cookbook – Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef - and starred in several television series. Bottura’s second restaurant, Franceschetta58, is a contemporary osteria in his home town. Though it’s taken him a while, Massimo Bottura is a trail blazer among a new generation of Italian chefs. His work both as a visionary and restaurateur confirms him as one of the world’s most creative culinary forces. In 1995, Bottura opened Osteria Francescana in the medieval city center of Modena. His concept was to juxtapose culinary tradition and innovation with contemporary art and design. Bottura then spent a summer at El Bulli with Ferran Adrià, which encouraged him to continue pushing boundaries and rewriting rules with his cuisine.
ALAIN No. 2 PASSARD
The Best Restaurant in
ARPÈGE Europe PARIS, FRANCE 100 - WG April 2017
A piece of work by Gino de Dominicis struck a particular chord with Bottura, at Osteria Francescana, tradition is seen from ten kilometres away. Italy’s extraordinary ingredients and classic dishes are re-evaluated with the benefit of critical distance, ensuring that the Italian Kitchen is free to evolve. Bottura is dedicated to reconstructing Italy’s cultural heritage - not deconstructing it.
WG MAGAZINE
CAESAR SALAD IN BLOOM
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EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA
The Roca brothers’ passion for cooking was initially kindled in Can Roca, the establishment their parents manage in Taialà, a neighbourhood lying on the outskirts of Girona. It is where they grew up, amid the hubbub of dishes, pots and pans and clients. The bar was their living room, their playground, where they did their homework, watched television... whence the aroma of the stews generously, simply and honestly prepared by their mother, wafted in. Joan Roca was just 9 years old when he decided to put on his first chefs jacket and help his mother in the family traditional restaurant and house. Today Joan Roca runs with his own project along with his two brothers, Josep the sommelier and Jordi the pastry chef. El Celler de Can Roca is the authentic creative triangle formed by the three Roca brothers, with continuous research committed to innovation and creativity, enhancing traditional flavors with cutting edge techniques with an original balance. Through a transversal vision of the creative process, Joan Roca’s restaurant project dialogues and engages both with science and peasants, technology and sensitivity, product and sensorial anthropology. El Celler is a free-style restaurant, committed to the avant-garde, but still faithful to the memory of different generations of the family’s ancestors dedicated to feeding people. El Celler de Can Roca’s commitment to cuisine and to the avant-garde, and its link to academia, has led it to defend the dialogue between the countryside and science, a total dialogue.
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ONION FLOWER WITH COMTE CHEESE, WALNUTS, WALNUT BREAD AND CURRY-CARAMILISED WALNUTS
WG MAGAZINE
No. 3 The sweet world, the liquid world, the world salty; Jordi, Josep, Joan. The kitchen, the dining room, the cellar; art, science, dialogue. Light, space, people; the object, the look, the moment. In The Celler, everything is a three-party game...
The Ferrari Trento Art of Hospitality Award 2017
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MIRAZUR ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 MAURO The Best Restaurant in Singapore COLAGRECO MIRAZUR MENTON, FRANCE
Mauro has imposed a style of its own in the interpretation of the product and the contrast of flavors. A style that is not rooted in the Italian-Argentine cultural heritage and that doesn’t refer to the great Chefs with whom he worked in France. Mauro Colagreco feels free to express himself by following his intuition that leads him to dig into the local culture on both sides of the border.
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PHOTO © MATTEO CARASSALE
In Mirazur nothing is fixed. If the menu changes on average every two months, the audacity of Mauro Colagreco is based at his ability to do ephemeral dishes invented for a service, two days or a week. Just because he sees a product that inspires him, Mauro decides to display it on a plate. The creation is born, a symbol of freedom of expression and inspiration of the moment.
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MONKFISH, TOPINAMBUR PURÉ, PIEDMONT HAZELNUTS
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CENTRAL
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CHARCOAL
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In Central Virgilio Martinez celebrates the biodiversity of Peru. Fresh produce and an inexhaustible curiosity to discover and integrate new ingredients into the menu bring Peruvian cuisine to the forefront in the heart of the traditional district of Miraflores in Lima. Virgilio presents a novel cuisine dedicated to the richness of our products. Its preparations are a travel experience though Peru by its hidden ingredients, undocumented to modern gastronomy. He chooses to approach the diversity of our ingredients in a manner similar to that used by the peoples of the Andes in pre-Hispanic times: through vertical ecological monitoring. According to this alternative way of understanding the geography, land is perceived not as a horizontal plane but rather vertically, so that it takes advantage of all that the flora and fauna are able to deliver according to the particularities of each ecological system. As a result of the dramatic fluctuations in the Andean terrain in a relatively small radius of 100 kilometers, there is direct access to the country’s products from various altitudes ranging from the coast to the Amazon. Virgilio’s interdisciplinary team that complements each new “discovery” in a necessary context that seeks to transcend the strictly culinary and penetrate nutritional, biological, anthropological aspects.
No. 5 Chefs’ Choice Award 2017 The Best Restaurant in South America
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ASADOR ETXEBARRI ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 VICTOR
The Best Restaurant in Singapore ARGUINZONIZ ASADOR ETXEBARRI AXPE, SPAIN
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The grilling genius of Spain - Victor Arguinzoniz’s Asador Etxebarri opened in 1990, outside Bilbao, nestled deep in the Atxondo valley, at the foothills of the magical Mt. Anboto. Far from the noise, the restaurant preserves ancient techniques of grill cooking using carefully selected firewood from different trees to work in harmony with the locally cultivated, natural produce, to offer endless possibilities of truly wonderful dishes. Perfecting the art of grilling over the years, Victor Arguinzoniz uses a fine-tuned system comprising of six grills, pulleys, cables and two brick kilns to heat the right wood for the right food, and taking grilling to the next level.
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GAGGAN
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BUTTERFLY
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No. 7 The Best Restaurant in Asia Drawing on his memories of the amazing street food and the diversity of India’s different regional cuisines, Chef Gaggan Anand has used science and modern technology to create modernist and progressive reinterpretations of traditional recipes that have made his restaurant, ‘Gaggan’ one of the top culinary destinations in Bangkok. TIME magazine even dubbed him the “Captain Kirk of cuisine”. As a young boy, studies were not a priority, music and cooking rocked his world. But when he announced his aspiration to be a chef, many people mocked the idea, and however he stuck to his guns. He arrived in Bangkok in 2007 for a short consultancy and like a typical Indian never left. “Gaggan”, the restaurant was the result of a drunken evening with friends, where my frustration at previous jobs initiated a proposal to my current partners. His dream was to put India on the global fine dining map, and the only way to do that was to take an audacious risk of doing the impossible: serving progressive Indian cuisine.
GAGGAN ANAND
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MAIDO CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 The MITSUHARU Best Restaurant in Singapore TSUMURA
MAIDO LIMA, PERU
Micha, as everybody calls him, was born in Lima and since his childhood Micha has was very passionate about cooking. While studying, he trained in various hotels and restaurants in Rhode Island and did his internship in Swissotel Lima. He also worked to develop along with the newspaper El Comercio “The Great Encyclopedia of Peruvian Cuisine”. After graduating, he decides to go to Osaka, Japan to specialize in Japanese cuisine, where he worked in restaurants such as “Seto Sushi” specialized in sushi and “Imo to Daikon” in Izakaya style cuisine. His passion for Japanese and Peruvian cuisine led him to create Maido, a Japanese restaurant with Peruvian heart. It is a fervent and unique love, Peru always being his source of inspiration. The landscapes, the products and the creativity of the Peruvian people are the ingredients that play in his mind and inspire his work.
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Here the cook is not the protagonist, but it is the top quality ingredients that promise the artist the creation of the unique work of art. This wonderful cuisine is the reflection of the Japanese influence on the Peruvian gastronomy. The ingredients of both cultures complement each other as if they had been born to be one. It is an honest cuisine with unique textures and flavors.
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MUGARITZ
Andoni Luis Aduriz is undoubtedly one of the most influential chefs of our time. Throughout his career, he has remained highly committed to culinary evolution, making him somewhat of a rebel in the kitchen. Aduriz intends a meal at Mugaritz to shock and surprise as well as delight with ‘trompes l’oeils’–culinary tricks of the eye. Mugaritz delivers a gastronomic experience of 24 dishes. Pleasure is experienced in an unpredictable melody where sensory harmonies, emotions, and culinary messages lyrically intertwine.
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No. 9
At Mugaritz, eating is a path to experience, a path scattered with histories, aromas, textures, flavours, games, memories, desires and numerous other pleasurable stimuli. That is why he creates and suggest forms of service that prompt situations in which his diners can give free rein to their senses and interact with only the barest of rules for engaging on a culinary voyage. An aim to break the barriers imposed by customs. Named after a border oak tree that grows in the hills around San Sebastian - Mugaritz takes attention to detail to new heights. From the specially created barbecue smell that emanates from the restaurant, designed to remind approaching diners of their childhood, to the way the table is set (or not) – is done for a very specific reason – to transcend the dining experience to new and unexpected heights.
ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ
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STEIRERECK ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 HEINZ
The Best Restaurant in REITBAUER Singapore
STEIRERECK VIENNA, AUSTRIA
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The cooking style of Heinz Reitbauer reflects his respect and appreciation of raw ingredients and products. He has constructed his own cooking identity on these foundations and through his embracing of the national and regional cooking styles of his native Austria. This style consists first and foremost of the meticulous creation of small moments of surprise for the diner, be this through the discovery of a previously unknown ingredient or the resurrection of one long forgotten. Heinz claims the key to his success is the longstanding, intricate and ever expanding network of farmers, gardeners, foragers, botanists and food enthusiasts he has nurtured over the years who never cease to provide him with inspiration and motivation.
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AMUR CARP
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BLUE HILL AT STONE BARNS
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TREVISO, SARDINE CREAM, SMOKED ROE CHARCOAL PHOTO © ANDRE BARANOWSKI
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No. 11 Highest Climber Award 2017
Dan Barber is the chef and coowner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and the author of The Third Plate. His opinions on food and agricultural policy have appeared in the New York Times, along with many other publications. Sourcing from the surrounding fields and pasture, as well as other local farms, Blue Hill at Stone Barns highlights the abundant resources of the Hudson Valley. There are no menus at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Instead, guests are offered the multi-taste Grazing, Rooting, Pecking menu featuring the best offerings from the field and market. Appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Dan continues the work that he began as a member of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture’s board of directors: to blur the line between the dining experience and the educational, bringing the principles of good farming directly to the table.
DAN BARBER
BLUE HILL AT STONE BARNS POCANTICO HILLS, USA PHOTO © SUSIE CUSHNER
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ARPÈGECHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 ALAIN
The Best Restaurant in Singapore PASSARD
ARPÈGE PARIS, FRANCE
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Alain Passard creates Arpège, formerly L’Archestrate belonging to his mentor, Alain Senderens. He baptizes it in tribute to his second passion, his love for music, and he opts for an Art Deco style interior, an atmosphere of which he is particularly fond. Alain has been viscerally bound to his burners for the past 30 years. relentlessly seeking, with each movement and with the utmost respect, to bring out the best in his subject. By preserving its color, essence, hues and scent, he restores purity to the product. Roasting is no secret to Alain Passard. The talent that his grandmother passed down to him and this passion for the flame were the key ingredients behind the long-time success of his slow-cooked choice meats. Today, he applies this fascination and know-how to the vegetables he roasts, grills or flambés… Working the art of open flame stays crucial :”Learn how to travel delicately with your pan on the open flame guaranties texture, taste, color, light and transparency with your vegetables” Alain plays particularly with colours, perfumes, savoury of the vegetable kingdom. Working with vegetables is, in a way, an incentive to replant the earth, to tackle a new language, a different vocabulary. Alain Passard’s quest for perfection is no less intense in the decoration of his dining room than in the heart of each course; he craves continual harmony.
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CHOUS ROUGE POMME & OIGNONS
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ALAIN DUCASSE AU PLAZA ATHÉNÉE
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LOUP, BETTERAVES, CHARCOAL AGRUMES
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No. 13 Alain Ducasse tells a personal and radical story, continuing the work he began twenty-five years ago. He represents the naturalness cuisine, inspired by the fish-vegetables-cereals trilogy, with the help of his chef of Romain Meder. Healthier and more natural, more respectful of the Planet, it delivers a free and nearly instinctive interpretation of Haute Cuisine, revealing the produces’ original flavour, from the noble to the humble, all exceptional. Turning his back on traditional presentation, wines are now classified by generation. 10 years, 15 years, all the way up to 55 years! A beautiful way to choose wine, defined by an event that marks a life and their celebration. The dining room is a gem- where all is softness of curves, materials and contents. Everywhere is wonder in the remarkable quality of the pieces created with an absolute attention to every detail, a formidable representation of the craftsman’s expertise. The hand of Man at the service of Beauty transcending matter and form.
ROMAIN MEDER
ALAIN DUCASSE AU PLAZA ATHÉNÉE PARIS, FRANCE PHOTO © PIERRE MONETTA
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No. 12 ANDRÉ The Best Restaurant in Singapore CHIANG
RESTAURANT ANDRÉ SINGAPORE
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PHOTO © EDMOND HO
André’s focus on using fresh artisan produce to create culinary art that reflects his roots in Southern French nouvelle cuisine. He has continued to research how our capacity to taste food is influenced by our memory banks, through the personal experiences we acquire over time. This has led him to develop a culinary principle – Octaphilosophy™ – based on eight primary characteristics: Unique, Texture, Memory, Pure, Terroir, Salt, South and Artisan. One is treated to myriad flavors and textures that engage the senses, a definitive holistic gourmet experience through the freshest produce, ideas that will gain a better understanding of André’s thoughts and the philosophy behind his cuisine.
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FOIE GRAS JELLY B
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PIAZZA DUOMO
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PINK RISOTTO AND PRAWNS
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No. 15
Enrico Crippa loves Eddy Merckx. He also loves Brussels, his mentor Gualtiero Marchesi, the eternal fiancĂŠe Silvia plus the whole Ceretto family who picked him (him and no one else) among dozens and dozens of candidates to make a dream come true. To give to Alba, the small town of Piemonte, capital of white truffle and imperial Barolos, Piazza Duomo, an avant-garde restaurant meant to be nothing less than its herald around the world. That was then (in 2005), this is now: Enrico Crippa is unrivaled when it comes to redefining purity and concentration, mastering a zenlike precision and a creativity renewed daily, at the break of dawn, in the two gardens of miracles, his much-beloved source of inspiration, just outside town.
ENRICO CRIPPA
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No. 12 The ALEX Best Restaurant ATALA in Singapore D.O.M. SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
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PHOTO © RUBENS KATO
Alex Atala, chef and owner of D.O.M. Restaurant, is recognized by an innovative cuisine, thanks to the flavor variety of the Brazilian ingredients. Atala graduated at the Hospitality School of Namur, in Belgium. In Brazil, made his debut as a chef at Filomena, a mixture of bar and events venue. In 1999, after working in other venues as a hired chef, he opened two houses: NaMesa, a chic fast-food (extinct), and D.O.M., creative contemporary cuisine restaurant with a marking Brazilian accent. In 2009, another contribution to the astronomy universe: Dalva e Dito restaurant, which presents the concept of affective cuisine and reinforces the faith Alex Atala has in both native ingredients and culture. The work developed throughout his career towards Brazilian ingredients, colors and flavors enhancement caught the specialists’ eye. Atala has a collection of both national and international prizes and, in 2013, made it in the 100 most influential people list of TIME Magazine. For the last ten years, D.O.M. has been included in the 50 best restaurants of the world list by the British publication, Restaurant Magazine. Currently, it is holds the 9th position in the ranking. In 2014, Atala was given the Lifetime Achievement Diners Club Prize in the South American 50 best election, by the same magazine.
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PIRARUCU (AMAZONIAN FISH) WITH AÇAÍ BERRY AND PIMENTA-DE-CHEIRO (AROMATIC CHILLI) PHOTO © WELLINGTON NEMETH
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LE BERNARDIN
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DARK CHOCOLATE PHOTO © SHIMON TAMMAR
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No. 17 “For me, food is about memories, feelings, emotions, and so is Le Bernardin, and that’s why it’s not just a restaurant” Eric Ripert
Eric Ripert is grateful for his early exposure to cuisine. His family instilled their own passion for food in the young Ripert. Ripert seized the opportunity in 1989 to work under Jean-Louis Palladin as sous-chef at Jean Louis at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Ripert moved to New York in 1991, working briefly as David Bouley’s souschef before Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze recruited him as chef for Le Bernardin where he took over after Gilbert’s untimely passing in 1994. Maguy Le Coze began working closely with Chef Eric Ripert, a disciple and close friend of Gilbert, who took over the kitchen to continue preparing the freshest seafood with the simple philosophy that the fish is the star of the plate.
ERIC RIPERT
LE BERNARDIN NEW YORK, USA PHOTO © NIGEL PARRY
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NARISAWA ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 YOSHIHIRO The Best Restaurant inNARISAWA Singapore NARISAWA TOKYO, JAPAN
Chef Narisawa’s “Sustainability and Gastronomy” - This is the theme of Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa. He is a pioneer of cuisine connected to the preservation of the natural environment. Having travelled to his producers fields, having stepped into the earth, and having built a relationship with the natural world, he has created dishes such as ‘Soil Soup”, “Water Salad”, “Essence of the Forest”. Through these signature NARISAWA dishes, natural ingredients such as wood and soil can be eaten, through this experience, the consumer gains a new relationship with the natural world, and with environmental concerns.
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PHOTO © SERGIO COIMBRA
“Innovative Satoyama Cuisine” a food culture built on the richness of the natural Japanese environment- the satoyama and the respect of the one’s ancestors. A unique genre, not traditional Japanese cuisine, nor French: an original, NARISAWA cuisine, spreading its call to the world.
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AMADAI & SAKURA
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GERANIUM
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RAZOR CLAMS
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No. 19
Rasmus Kofoed, first he won bronze, the silver’ and finally, in 2011, he received the golden statue, the proof that he was the winner of Bocuse d’Or and thereby the title “the world’s best chef ”. Kofoed has undertaken to create meals that involve all the diner’s senses, as well as to challenge perceptions through his cooking. Practicing minimalistic cooking, Geranium is a lucid, light and dynamic kitchen. With a mission to create meals that involve all senses - restores, challenges and enriches. Geranium quickly grew a reputation for its inventive and highly intuitive culinary approach through its aim to explore the area of tension between the urbane and the natural with dishes of amazing delicacy. Among the ingredients on Geranium’s tasting menu, ceps, heather, sheep butter, dried leaves and pine needles contribute to this Nordic experience of terroir cooking at its finest.
RASMUS KOFOED
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PUJOL CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 The BestENRIQUE Restaurant in Singapore OLVERA
PUJOL MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
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PHOTO © ARACELI PAZ
Olvera’s culinary proposal has been defined over time based on an obsession for detail, subtle ingredient selection and flavor construction, as well as a dynamic of constant evolution and deep exploration of Mexico’s gastronomic potential. His unending curiosity has driven change and ever-greater perfection in his work. Following a first phase reinterpreting Mexico’s popular recipes-that brought him fame well beyond the nation’s borders-Olvera adopted a more personal focus in which he began to explore and create based on Mexico’s almost inexhaustible universe of ingredients, while never ceasing to experiment with both contemporary as well as millennia-old culinary technique, always deeply invested in bold and imaginative proposals. Olvera has achieved a certain balance by means of experience, maturity, evolution. To evolve for Olvera is to incorporate tools into his life. Tools to communicate himself better. Tools to be able to manage and put into practice what you’ve learned through books, travels, talking to people you admire, eating at other restaurants. For Olvera it has become very personal, free and fearless. Where there has to be a dialogue with the ingredients he is using and with the context that he is working on. The best food is the intelligent one and the best dishes are the ones to come.
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CHIA TOSTADA AVOCADO PUREE
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ALINEA
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Grant Achatz started flipping eggs at his parent’s Michigan restaurant. Graduated with honors from the Culinary Institute of America, which then took him to Chicago and a stint at Charlie Trotter’s, followed by a tour of some of Europe’s Michelinstarred restaurants.
No. 21
It wasn’t until his four-year post at The French Laundry with Thomas Keller that Grant really hit his stride, learning how to cook and how to live life. During his time there, he took a one-year break from the kitchen to work as an assistant winemaker at La Jota Vineyards. And in 2000, a brief stop at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli helped crystallize Grant’s future. At 26, Grant accepted his first executive chef position at Trio in Evanston, Illinois which got the attention of Nick Kokonas, who would become Grant’s partner in the creation of Alinea. Alinea revolutionize the Chicago restaurant scene and quickly gained national and international attention. In 2010, Grant coauthored his memoir Life, on the Line. Grant also teamed up with Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for its Science & Cooking lecture series, and was recently featured in Joseph Levy’s documentary “Spinning Plates.”
GRANT ACHATZ
ALINEA CHICAGO, USA PHOTO © MATTHEW GILSON
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QUINTONIL ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 JORGE The Best Restaurant in Singapore VALLEJO QUINTONIL MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
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PHOTO © FERNANDO CARBAJAL
Jorge Vallejo is one of Mexico’s most recognized young chefs on the culinary scene, at home and abroad, whose solid, everupward career path has been an unstinting labor of love and enthusiasm. After discovering his culinary bent as a teenager, Vallejo entered the Centro Culinario de México to study Culinary Administration and Arts. A restless spirit led him to set sail with Princess Cruises in 2004, where he worked on voyages to all corners of the globe. Once back on land, he joined the team at Pujol and was later Corporate Chef at Grupo Habita, where he oversaw kitchens at the Condesadf, Habita and Distrito Capital hotels. He became Executive Chef at the St. Regis hotel’s Restaurante Diana, in 2010, before traveling to Copenhagen for a season at Noma. That same year, in collaboration with Mauro Colagreco and Virgilio Martínez, Vallejo started the Orígenes initiative, designed to rescue and preserve culinary products, techniques and customs in small Latin American communities. 2012 was a critical year. Alongside his wife Alejandra Flores, Vallejo opened Quintonil, his “life project”; a gastronomic proposal that clearly expresses the flavors and forms of modern Mexican cooking. He strives to use ingredients derived from Mexico’s small-scale producers to create dishes that take every day, home style flavors to an even higher level.
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CACTUS CEBICHE WITH BEET ROOT AND MANDARIN
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CRAB, CARROTS, PIKE CAVIAR AND SALTED EGG YOLK
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Local seasonal products, modern techniques, search of new combinations... Vladimir Mukhin is one of the brightest representatives of modern Russian cuisine. He is looking for new products in gastronomical expeditions and masters the latest trends combining cocktails with food. His mission is to popularize Russian cuisine worldwide. This 5th generation chef became the first chef in the history of modern Russian cuisine to tour in France.
No. 23
Picturesque backyards of old Moscow districts, majestic skyscrapers of the Stalin-era, futuristic skyscrapers of MoscowCity, a blue ribbon of the river – this is only a small part of what one can see from the height of the 16th floor of the Smolensky Passage. Here for the first time Russian cuisine sounds in unison with the latest culinary trends and Russian products rise to a height of recognized delicacies. Seasonal local products, original recipes and finely-designed combinations – those are the distinctive features of a cuisine of Vladimir Mukhin. Following the rules of high gastronomy, Vladimir opens every season with a tasting menu, which is based on new products, ideas and combinations of flavors. Every dish on the menu is a result of long work hours, gastronomical expeditions and a special respect for traditions.
VLADIMIR MUKHIN
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AMBER CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 The BestRICHARD Restaurant in Singapore EKKEBUS
AMBER HONG KONG, CHINA
ALAIN PASSARD ARPÈGENo. 24 PARIS, FRANCE
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With a strong desire to explore world cuisines, Richard Ekkebus embarked on a journey that saw him train in the conventions of classic French cuisine, much admired for his fresh ideas and innovative spirit. Thus Amber’s cuisine is built on a solid foundation of traditional French cooking, nevertheless evinces a contemporary and light feel. Here the focus is on superior produce and ingredients in timehonoured dishes with a modern twist. Richard takes particular pride in the superb quality of his ingredients. There is no compromise regarding quality, at Amber, they committed to using the finest and freshest ingredients sourced from all parts of the world.
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KOREAN ABALONE
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DISFRUTAR
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Mateu Casañas Oriol Castro Eduard Xatruch 2017 Global Rising Star MIELE ONE TO WATCH Open since December 2014, the restaurant Disfrutar (in English “Enjoy”) arose after years of intense work at elBulli, where Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch met while cooking at former No.1 restaurant El Bulli, where they worked alongside legendary Spanish chef Ferran Adrià. Following El Bulli’s 2011 closure, Casañas, Castro and Xatruch opened Compartir (meaning “share”) in the nearby coastal town of Cadaqués. Building on the success of their initial venture, the trio launched Disfrutar to widespread acclaim, earning their first Michelin star in 2016.
PHOTO © FRANCESC GUILLAMET
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DISFRUTAR
Centrally located in Barcelona’s Eixample district, just in front of the Ninot Market, Disfrutar evokes a Mediterranean spirit with its décor and laid-back ambience. Respect for the history and legacy of the Mediterranean, the inspiration and ceramics is the common theme marking the interior. The entrance area is inspired by Barcelona, by the wrought iron of the Ninot Market and bright and earthencolored of Mironian ceramics. The central corridor, made from ceramic with the colors and textures of clay, goes through the kitchen which is completely visible to clients and leads to the main dining room. This is inspired by small fishing villages and stands out as a bright, white space, that transports one outside the city and connects with the terrace; a symbolic nod to Barcelona’s cultural heritage and the restaurant’s focus on artistry.
PHOTO © ADRIÀ GOULA
In Barcelona the gastronomic offer revolves around the tasting menu, with clearly avant-garde cuisine and where the dishes stand out for their great, markedly Mediterranean identity. In short, a restaurant with daring, fun and modern cuisine searching for taste as the main proposition. Disfrutar is not a replica of Compartir, but they are united by inherent aspects that reflect the three chefs and owners: a comfortable and welcoming ambience; attentive, close and relaxed, with a great team led in the kitchen by Nil, Antonio and Francesca and in the dining room by Toni, Patricia, Rubén and Vicente. Their multi-course tasting menus uphold modernist culinary principles, they also reveal the chefs’ quirky personalities. Avantgarde, theatrical and inventive, each course aims to delight and excite the senses.
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CORN TART WITH FOIE GRAS PHOTO © FRANCESC GUILLAMET
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DISFRUTAR
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PHOTO © FRANCESC GUILLAMET
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macaroni made from gelatin, tossed in truffle foam and smothered in Parmesan at the table... WG April 2017 -
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DISFRUTAR
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deconstructed whisky tart invites guests to wash their hands in whisky and inhale the scent as they eat...
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DISFRUTAR
RAZOR CLAMS WITH PEAS IN “SALSA VERDE” PHOTO © FRANCESC GUILLAMET
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PANDANG PHOTO © FRANCESC GUILLAMET
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PARMESAN CHEESE, COQUITOS, EGG YOLK AND TRUFFLE PHOTO © FRANCESC GUILLAMET
Avant-garde, theatrical and inventive, each course aims to delight and excite the senses...
Eduard Xatruch of Disfrutar, said: “Being named this year’s winners of the Miele One To Watch Award is a huge recognition of our collective work. In addition, this award helps Disfrutar, which is a very young project, to become established and obviously encourages us to continue working and challenging ourselves.” At the end of 2015, when the restaurant celebrated its first anniversary, Disfrutar received its first Michelin Star in the Michelin Guide and was awarded with Two Suns in the Repsol Guide. In addition, the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition named Disfrutar “Restaurant of the Year”. In 2016, Disfrutar had been named Best New Restaurant in Europe by Opinionated About Dining and Barcelona Best Restaurant by Macarfi Guide. This 2017, Disfrutar has reached number 55 on the list 51100 of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and has won the “Miele One To Watch” Award 2017 also of the hand of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Besides these recognitions, the design world also recognised the restaurant in 2015 and they gave it first prize for the Interior category in the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards. WG April 2017 -
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TICKETS
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No. 25
Albert Adrià is the other member of the Adrià saga. Albert was once pegged as “the greatest unknown cook in the world” by Joel Robuchon, a man who himself carried the label of “greatest chef of the century” and who named Ferran “the greatest chef on the planet.” Born in Barcelona in 1969, he was just sweet 16 when he decided to drop out of school and join his brothers’ El Bulli, shuffling relentlessly from the pastry frontline to the lead of El Taller, their research lab in Barcelona. Burnt out by the stressful life he was living day after day and night after night, in 2009 he decided to tune out of fine dining to explore new directions, in the purest form of genius disguised as an inspired restaurateur, with Tickets in Barcelona, the first of a series of modern, most enjoyable and highly ambitious restaurants that Albert launched with his hermano Ferran, from 2011 on (41, Pakta, Enigma). Smartest kid(s) on the block.
ALBERT ADRIÀ
TICKETS BARCELONA, SPAIN
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THE CLOVE CLUB ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 The Best Restaurant ISAAC in Singapore McHALE
THE CLOVE CLUB LONDON, UK
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Growing up in Glasgow, Isaac McHale’s eyes were opened to the world of food. Indian cuisine being prominent in Glasgow, Isaac passion prompted him to find out how to cook pakora’s – a North Indian snack, this was the start to his culinary journey. Teaching himself, reading books and learning about Indian spices. Isaac made pakora’s and several other Indian dishes, his inquisitive nature allowed him to try his hand at South East Asian and Chinese cuisine, which today is one of his main influences in his cuisine. Completing his internships with Tom Aikens, René Redzepi and Mark Best and working for six years at Ledbury. His short stage at Noma has a lasting effect and is prominent in his current cuisine which is full of flavor combinations.
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DUCK
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THE LEDBURY
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BEETROOT AND EEL
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No. 27
Originally from Australia, Brett Graham began his cooking career in Newcastle, Australia, aged 15, working in a simple fish restaurant. He then moved to Sydney where, during a 3 year stint under Liam Tomlin at the highly acclaimed Banc restaurant, he won the Josephine Pignolet Award. This granted him a trip to the UK where he secured a job at The Square, working and trained under Philip Howard. In 2002, Brett was awarded the “Young Chef of the Year” and in 2005, together with Howard, Brett opened the Ledbury. A believer in customer service and satisfaction, a dedicate chef who copes with the pressure of maintaining that Michelin Star.
BRETT GRAHAM
THE LEDBURY LONDON, UK
PHOTO © JAKE EASTHAM
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NAHM CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 DAVID The Best Restaurant in Singapore THOMPSON
NAHM BANGKOK, THAILAND
An obsessive approach to authenticity, David Thompson’s outlook is both retrospective – studying century-old cookbooks of long departed Thai matriarchs and forward-thinking and passion for Thai cuisine. David Thompson’s dishes demonstrate his keen understanding of the balance of salt, spice, sweet and sour, as well as the fermented and smoky notes in Thai cooking. David has developed such a passion for Thai cooking that he has not only made a life’s work of it, but made it his avocation—a passion that consumes his every day. In 2010, David took his first professional step into the land that inspired him, opening Nahm at the Metropolitan Hotel in Bangkok. David continues to partake, and share, everything possible about the cuisine that has so thoroughly enthralled him. Cookbooks like Thai Food and Thai Street Food - a solid testament Thompson’s knowledge and reverence of Thai cuisine.
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Prior to opening Nahm, David established himself with Darley Street Thai in Sydney, a restaurant that debuted in 1991 and was voted ‘Best Thai Restaurant’ by the Sydney Morning Herald eight years in a row. David followed this up in 1995 with Sailors & Thai in Sydney Rocks area. Nahm London came next, where David secured the first ever Michelin star for Thai cuisine.
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MINCED FERMENTED FISH
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LE CALANDRE
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CRISPY BUFFALO MOZZARELLA AND RICOTTA CANNELONI WITH TOMATO SAUCE
WG MAGAZINE
No. 29
Max’s cuisine, based on the concepts of depth, lightness and fluidity, is poetry on a plate. Inspiration for his distinctive dishes comes from looking at the world with a sense of discovery. His distinctive approach to cuisine finds is reflected in the dining room of Le Calandre. Everything from the hand-carved wooden tables to the glassware and room fragrance was designed by the Alajmo brothers and produced by master Italian artisans. Max’s cuisine is the fruit of a study that goes beyond taste. He approaches ingredients with respect, researching them in depth, in order to understand their true essence and bring out the best in them. His dishes capture all of our senses; beginning with the most evocative of the five, our sense of smell. According to Max, the ephemeral component of aromas and perfumes is compensated by their immediacy and ability to create lasting memories, particularly in relation to food.
MASSIMILIANO ALAJMO
LE CALANDRE RUBANO, ITALY
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ARZAK CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 The Best Restaurant ELENA in Singapore ARZAK
ARZAK SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN
A place to eat. To discover. To experience. The culinary style Arzak is associated with is mark and personality. Deeply rooted in tradition and boasts creativity and a constant search for change. From the mid70-s on, Juan Mari won one award after the other, which placed the Arzak Restaurant among the best establishments across Spain and around the globe. In 1976, Juan Mari Arzak and a group of chefs revolutionized the art of cooking when they created a new culinary concept, a movement known as New Basque Cuisine. In 1978, he was awarded his second Michelin star and in 1989 the third one. He was the second to get three Michelin stars in Spain, and he still holds them.
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PHOTO © COCONUT
In the 90s, Elena Arzak, one of Juan Mari’s daughters, joined the family-run restaurant. Elena attended hotel and restaurant management schools in Switzerland, broadening her culinary knowledge in great European restaurants. Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena share the kitchen, as well as the culinary knowledge, passion and enthusiasm they bring to cooking and to managing their restaurant. A history of the Arzaks.
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SOUPE IMPROBABLE
WG MAGAZINE
“Prince of the Palaces”, as he was nicknamed in the early 2000’s, Yannick Alléno is much more than that. A mole in the hole, a revolutionary within the French establishment, slowly finding his way to detonate gastronomic codes from the inside. His work there is unrivaled in culinary creativity, with tradition and technology joining forces, putting extractions and modern sauces into the limelight for a most elegant, stylized transgression of the somewhat stiff(ened) rules of the Great Old (French Culinary) Party.
No. 31 Highest New Entry Award 2017
Yannick Alléno advocates a French cuisine that draws its strength from its heritage but is also ambitious in its creativity. He has developed a visionary approach to the culinary arts in which know-how and excellence are combined with audacity that pushes boundaries to better experience new flavors and exalt tastes. Passionate about French cuisine, Yannick Alléno has pioneered new research on modern sauces and introduces these new techniques into each dish. Creativity, passion and pursuit of culinary excellence… Offering an exceptional dining experience, guests are invited to choose one key ingredient – vegetable, meat or fish - for their main dish. Guided by this choice, Chef Alléno then constructs the entire meal around the core dish, including the starter and dessert.
YANNICK ALLÉNO
ALLÉNO PARIS AU PAVILLON LEDOYEN PARIS, FRANCE PHOTO © GEOFFROY DE BOISMENU
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ATTICA CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 BEN The Best SHEWRY Restaurant
in SingaporeATTICA
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Born and raised on the rugged west coast of the North Island, New Zealand, in the rural North Taranaki, Shewry holds strongly the belief that food can be evocative, emotional and thought provoking - appealing to all of the senses.
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He is known to draw inspiration from his childhood that includes volcanos, rivers, the ocean and native bush that make up Taranaki, as well as his current Australian surroundings. He simply has a fundamental connection with nature and a deep respect for sustainability. Some of what you may find on your plate at Attica may even be the result of foraging by Shewry himself near his home on the Bellarine peninsula. This is one of the ways that he likes to spend his mornings and helps to articulate his deep commitment to excellence.
ARPĂˆGE Australasia PARIS, FRANCE
Ben Shewry seems to be making all the right moves to make our collective mouths water.
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ASTRID Y GASTÓN
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Promoter of Peruvian culinary arts, Gastón Acurio attended law school. However, his passion for food was stronger, so he left law school to begin studying culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. During his time in Paris, Acurio met his German-born wife Astrid. In 1994, they opened the restaurant Astrid&Gastón in Lima, Peru, establishing one of the first restaurants of Peruvian haute cuisine in the world. Initially very French-oriented due to the couple’s classical French training, Gastón soon found himself experimenting with Peruvian ingredients and taking inspiration from local traditions. In 2013, Acurio was the recipient of The Diners Club® Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the organizers of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. He was selected to receive the prestigious award in a vote by 250 industry experts from across the region. The honor recognizes Acurio’s fundamental contribution to Peru’s culinary industry and national identity. Acurio is the primary supporter of the culinary instruction institution, Pachacutec School of Cuisine, located in one of the poorest areas in Lima. The school provides underprivileged young people with a facility to study under industry-leading instructors.
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GASTÓN ACURIO
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DE LIBRIJE ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 JONNIE The Best Restaurant in Singapore BOER
DE LIBRIJE ZWOLLE, NETHERLANDS “Passion” is Jonnie’s motto and the heart of the different Librije companies. Passion for cooking, wines and gastronomy. Everything in the world of De Librije is carried out with a contemporary, modern twist, adverse to convention and entrenched customs.
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Restaurant De Librije stands for savouring extraordinary dishes and accompanying wines in unique surroundings. Pure ingredients from the region make up the bases of the kitchen. Jonnie Boer and his kitchen brigade ensure perfection in the kitchen. Restaurant De Librije is all about the good things life has to offer. This is translated into an experience in which the guest is able to enjoy unique dishes complemented by fine wines, in an atmosphere that is both exclusive and relaxed. The kitchen sources its pure, natural ingredients and produce locally. While Jonnie Boer and his kitchen brigade create culinary perfection in their kitchens...
WG MAGAZINE
MONKFISH PHOTO © THOMAS RUHL
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SEPTIME
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WG MAGAZINE
No. 35 Sustainable Restaurant Award 2017
The Head Chef of Septime, Bertrand Grébaut has brought modern French cuisine to Paris. 2017 winner of the Sustainable restaurant Award and currently placed number 35 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Septime’s menu reflects Bertrand’s delicate cooking style, which he developed from working with Alain Passard and his travels through Asia. Bertrand studies at one of France’s best culinary schools - l’ESAG and then went on to work at Marius et Jeannette and La Table de Joël Robuchon and later in 2006, with Alain Passard at L’Arpège and went on to open Septime in 2011. Depending on fresh ingredients, Bertrand’s creative and seasonal menu changes every day.
BERTRAND GRÉBAUT
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DINNER CHIANG BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL ANDRÉ
No. 12 The Best HESTON Restaurant in Singapore BLUMENTHAL
DINNER BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL LONDON, UK
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Dinner began in the late 90’s with Heston Blumenthal’s fascination with historic gastronomy. The savoury ice creams of the late 1800’s, the theatre of the Tudor dining experiences and the dishes of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland all resonated with his unique approach to cooking. Dedicated to the modern day discovery and evolution of dining he realised that the excitement and obsession with food is no new modern day phenomena. Together with Ashley PalmerWatts the two chefs created a menu that takes those discoveries and fascinations of history into a new and evolving modern dining experience. Researching 14th century cookbooks such as those by the royal chefs of King Richard II to Lewis Carroll’s flights of fancy. Working with food historians, tapping into the world of the British library and the team at King Henry VIIIth Hampton Court Palace the very modern dining experience of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal was born.
WG MAGAZINE
COUNTING SHEEP
It is never easy naming a restaurant. On this occasion, Heston Blumenthal wanted something that represented his menu that is inspired by historic British gastronomy, so he searched for a name that had a bit of history, but was also fun. In the past, the main meal -dinner-was eaten at midday, before it got too dark. But affordable candles and, later, gaslight saw dinner shift. By the mid-1800s people were dining later. People working in the cities were taking a ‘lunch’ to work and having their main meal at 5.00pm when they got home, while in rural areas the main meal was still taken at midday. Even today, depending where you are in the British Isles, ‘dinner’ might be served at lunchtime, suppertime or, indeed, dinnertime! This made ‘Dinner’ the natural choice for its typically British quirky history and linguistic playfulness. If nothing else, Heston hope it’s easy to remember. WG April 2017 -
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SAISON
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No. 37
Joshua Skenes career choice was clear, he enrolled in The French Culinary Institute in New York directly after graduating from high school and since his kitchen has been his passion. While in school, Joshua managed to balance his courses with a fulltime position in the kitchen with Jean-Georges. After graduation, Joshua moved to Boston to help open Troquet and to work under Anthony Ambrose at Ambrosia. He later moved to San Francisco and worked with the acclaimed restaurant Chez TJ as the executive chef. Joshua spent a significant amount of time cultivating his own concept, Saison, which initially started out as a pop-up serving a handful of tables a few nights a week. Joshua belief that for ingredients to reach their fullest flavors, they should be prepared with components from the native land and sea from which they were harvested, recreating their natural habitat in edible form.
JOSHUA SKENES
SAISON SAN FRANCISCO, USA WG April 2017 -
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AZURMENDI ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 ENEKO The Best Restaurant in Singapore ATXA
AZURMENDI LARRABETZU, SPAIN Eneko Axta’s level of commitment to innovation has been the cornerstone of his career and of Azurmendi’s success. His cuisine, imaginative but without stridency, is based on the produce of the traditional Basque recipe book. He knows how to add a pinch of modernity to the local cuisine through universal touches unlike anybody else. The balance point is perfect between vanguard and roots of tradition.
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PHOTO © DAVID MUNCHARAZ
Eneko Atxa’s cuisine provokes intense emotions, visual flavors, but always from a Basque point of view. His signature creations, inspired by an environment in continual evolution, engrave the tasteful pleasure into the identity pleasure. Eneko Atxa has made real his conception of what a restaurant should be, “a place where you feel comfortable, where you feel a land, but above all, a place to be happy”. Definitively, it is a place where simplicity and distinction can be felt.
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RELÆ
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PORK FROM HINDSHOLM AND RYE
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No. 39 Christian Francesco Puglisi was born in Messina in Italy, arriving in Denmark as an immigrant in 1990 he later attended the Danish Hospitality College and graduated with honors in 2004. His cooking career took off with short stints at le Taillevent, Paris in 2005 and later in 2006 at El Bulli. Shortly after Christian became the sous-chef at Noma in Copenhagen where he remained there for two and a half years until he ventured out to open his own restaurant, Relæ in 2010. Relæ was opened with partner Kim Rossen and soon after the smaller eatery Manfred’s was opened just across the street from the original restaurant thus benefitting from the synergy between the two kitchens. Relæ was in 2011 awarded a Bib Gourmand by the Michelin guide and that the year after was swapped for a Michelin star. Relæ was also shortlisted amongst the top 100 of the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurants three years in a row. Simultaneously, Relæ was honored with the Sustainable Restaurant Award. In 2016 Relæ held the place as #40 on the list while receiving the Sustainable Restaurant Award for the second year in a row.
CHRISTIAN PUGLISI
RELÆ COPENHAGEN, DENMARK PHOTO © PA JORGENSEN
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COSMECHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12 The Best DANIELA Restaurant in Singapore SOTO-INNES
COSME NEW YORK, USA
ALAIN PASSARD ARPÈGENo. 40 PARIS, FRANCE
PHOTO © ARACELI PAZ AND FIAMMA PIACENTINI
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Daniela Soto-Innes believes that the simplest food can inspire the imagination most of all, and she makes her dishes meaningful by “finding the secret life in each ingredient.” Coming from a long line of women who love food and cooking. Visiting food markets and restaurants in Mexico City from a young age, she was instilled with curiosity for flavors and interest in baking. At age 5 she was placed in after-school cooking classes and never looked back. Moving to the U.S. years later, she enrolled in the culinary program at her career academy high school from which she was recruited to work at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott at age 15. She then moved to Austin, Texas where she graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. After traveling and staging at restaurants in Texas, New York, and Europe, she joined Brennan’s of Houston where she worked throughout the whole kitchen helping Chef Danny Trace create tasting menus. Two years later, she joined the progressive American restaurant Triniti, followed by the charcuterie driven restaurant Underbelly with Chef Chris Shepherd, a mentor who pushed her to become a leader in the kitchen. After a stage in the kitchen of Pujol, Soto-Innes was offered a fulltime position working alongside Chef Enrique Olvera. In 2014, she opened Cosme in New York City as Chef de Cuisine, where she quickly began garnering praise as one of the city’s top young chefs.
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ULTRAVIOLET BY PAUL PAIRET
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FOIE GRAS CAN’T QUIT
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No. 41
Dinner may begin with just one or two bite dishes, move to more substantial fare, before hitting uphill a “pivotal moment,” where the meal might suspend its synchronization to introduce a choice. All guests receive the same 20-course set menu at the same time, which pushes the experience towards the essence of what a meal is about: a communion. Ultraviolet’s 20 courses (or so) menu will move in a series of dishes grouped by size and nature. The menu will then shift downhill for a series of digestives and sweets in diminishing sizes. What dishes make up the series is entirely flexible. Pairet reserves the freedom to express his personal “avant-garde figurative” cuisine (understand modern with flesh and bone) as much as his right to express the essence of a product, simplicity and anti-theatrics.
PAUL PAIRET
ULTRAVIOLET BY PAUL PAIRET SHANGHAI, CHINA PHOTO © SCOTT WRIGHT
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BORAGÓ ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 RODOLFO The Best Restaurant in Singapore GUZMÁN BORAGÓ SANTIAGO, CHILE
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PHOTO © CRISTOBAL PALMA
Rodolfo Guzmán runs his kitchen based on the Chilean territory and its seafood, products from the native forests, valleys and mountains, respecting what the earth is capable of giving us at any given moment, just like the Mapuches and Pehuenches proposed, but not only this. Rodolfo, with his team have dedicated themselves to document the uses and properties of all that is endemic Chilean life. Exploring new possibilities, through a collaboration of more than 200 people from foraging communities and small producers from the entire length of Chile. This for years, has allowed access to a product unique in all the world, with a huge cultural weight, transformed by a true ritual, to represent the temperament of the Chilean environment, looking back in time into our natives to shape the future of Chilean cuisine. In an effort to go beyond, Guzmán has tried to reinvent Chilean food from a point of view one may think is invaluable. Using the ancestor legacy of cooking over different kinds of rocks, and smoking with indigenous woods that come from diverse regions of our country. A cuisine develop at Boragó which is based on the environment, and “what the earth is ready to give us at this moment.” Rodolfo Guzmán uses the legacy of his Chilean forebears in his cuisine, cooking on hot stones and smoking with native woods from all parts of Chile.
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REALE
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No. 43 Niko Romito was born in 1974 in Castel di Sangro, a small town in the Central Italian region of Abruzzo. Since 2000, together with his sister Cristiana, he’s been at the helm of the Reale, a bakery-turned-family restaurant. An aspiring broker, a self-taught cook, with deep ties to his territory, in just 7 years Romito has received 3 Michelin stars, followed by many more distinctions, such as the “Performance of the Year” award (with a score of 19,5/20) from the Espresso Guide in 2015, the 84th place on The 50 World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2016 and the “Dish of the Year” award, with the highest score of “5 Hats”, from the Espresso Guide in 2017. Niko Romito’s entrepreneurial instinct and gastronomic vision go hand in hand. As proved by his most recognized dishesAbsolute of Onion, Parmigiano and Toasted Saffron, Melting Pigeon and Pistachio, Roasted Savoy Cabbage and Potatoes, through never ending research Romito is in constant pursuit of the essential, of balance, of taste. In a very short time, he was able to forge a culinary grammar that is as unique as it is personal.
NIKO ROMITO CRISTIANA ROMITO REALE CASTEL DI SANGRO, ITALY PHOTO © ALBERTO ZANETTI
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BRAE CHIANG ANDRÉ
No. 12
The Best Restaurant DAN in Singapore
HUNTER
BRAE BIRREGURRA, AUSTRALIA
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PHOTO © COLIN PAGE
After starting his cooking career in Melbourne, Australia at Langton’s and then Verge, Dan’s journey with cooking saw him travel around the globe and into the kitchens of some of the world’s most acclaimed restaurants. A highlight includes a four-year stop-over in Spain, culminating in an appointment as Head Chef under Andoni Luis Aduriz at Mugaritz. On returning to Australia, Dan spent six years leading the kitchen of Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel. There, he developed his first intensive organic kitchen garden program; was awarded Australian Gourmet Traveller Magazine’s Regional Restaurant of the Year for four consecutive years; The Age Good Food Guide 2011 Restaurant of the Year; and took the establishment to its ThreeHat status. Brae is Dan’s first solo venture, set in the Otway hinterland amongst 30 acres of vegetable gardens and orchards. Here, Dan leads a team of chefs and gardeners committed to a sustainable method of farming and cooking. Together, they grow organic fruit and vegetables and use only ethically-grown produce from the surrounding land and local farmers to offer a unique, contemporary cuisine built around an immense respect for nature and seasonality.
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DEN
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GARDEN SALAD
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No. 45
Zaiyu Hasegawa interest in cooking was through the Bento which his mother would bring back from the ryōtei (high-end Japanese restaurant) where she worked as a geisha when he was a young. After graduating high school, he received training at a ryōtei “Kagurazaka Uwoto ku” from age of 18 as living and working. Acquired experience in the other various restaurants. Became independent in 2007 at age of 29 and opened” Den” in Jimbocho, Tokyo. While appreciating the value of Japanese tradition to incorporate excellent ingredients, the four seasons and unique Japanese culture, as well as introducing a new form of Japanese cuisine that is different from the original Japanese style.
ZAIYU HASEGAWA
DEN TOKYO, JAPAN
PHOTO © SHINICHIRO FUJII
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L’ASTRANCE ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12
BARBOT ThePASCAL Best Restaurant in Singapore CHRISTOPHE ROHAT
L’ASTRANCE PARIS, FRANCE
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Pascal Barbot and Christophe Rohat’s L’Astrance is a masterpiece in French culinary. Their three Michelin star restaurant is a relaxed yet cozy restaurant and a reputation that is undeniably impeccable. Barbot and Rohat delivers a cuisine inspired by classical French recipes but combined with a graceful blend of oriental flavours. Pascal Barbot is a young and talented chef who impressively went from one Michelin star to three Michelin star in under seven years. His bountiful creativity and willingness to push Parisian culinary is clearly evident in his impressive cuisines served at L’Astrance. L’Astrance upholds a unique concept where there is no traditional menu, instead diners are expected to select the number of courses desired and the Michelin Chefs will prepare their “surprise dishes”. The sense of mystery filled in the air truly sets L’Astrance apart from any other restaurant. Chef Barbot is extremely well-travelled and this reflects in his cuisine, which gives diners a gastronomic tour. Dishes are filled with a sense mystery as diners are clueless with what to expect; however cuisines are surprisingly light, colorful and beautifully presented. L’Astrance is famous for introducing innovative ways to experience new foods in the stunning city of Paris.
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VENDÔME
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No. 47
Joachim Wissler has established the Vendôme as one of Germany’s best restaurants, serving a blend of classical cuisine, creativity and modernity. In their first year in business, the Vendôme, which shares its name with the famous square in Paris, received its first Michelin star. Now the restaurant boasts three Michelin stars. Joachim’s imaginative concoctions are unforgettable, refined yet daring, using only the finest ingredients, the purest aromas and unique visual arrangements to create an artistically exciting dining experience. In addition to numerous other awards, the Vendôme has been named “Restaurant of the year by the prestigious ‘Feinschmecker’ magazine and in 2005 Joachim Wissler was named “Chef of the Year ”.
JOACHIM WISSLER
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RESTAURANT TIM RAUE ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12
TIM The Best Restaurant in Singapore RAUE
RESTAURANT TIM RAUE BERLIN, GERMANY
Tim Raue presents an Asian inspired cuisine, which can be best described as a combination of Japanese product perfection, Thai flavors and the Chinese kitchen philosophy. Raue only serves dishes that release energy and joie de vivre to the body instead of stressing it. Therefore, he abandons supplements such as bread, pasta and rice, as well as white sugar, dairy products and gluten. His menu features Raue classics.
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PHOTO © NILS HASENAU
Highlight of Restaurant Tim Raue is “The KRUG Table”, a massive oak wood table with handmade, metal marqueterie. The table, for a maximum of ten guests, is located directly next to the kitchen and allows a perfect view into the interior of the chef’s sanctum. At The KRUG Table, connoisseurs may indulge in individual created menus that are combined with their choice of KRUG champagne and a strong interaction with the kitchen.
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SCALLOP DIM SUM PHOTO © ASA SELECTION
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TEGUI
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OSTRA FRESCA, FRUTILLAS TOMATE PHOTO © MARCELO SETTON
WG MAGAZINE
Germán Martitegui spent much time alone as a young boy, experimenting with and learning from his grandmother. He studied International Relations and Foreign Trade at the University of Salvador, but his true love was cooking. At age 19 he began working in catering kitchens, and in 1989 at the age of 23, he went to France, starting under Georges Blanc. He then worked at the Fitz Roy hotel, and they invited Germán to work on their new summer restaurant on Corcega Island. He returned to Argentina in 1992 to become chef of hotel La Casada de Bariloche on the Argentine Patagonia. He later went to California to work at restaurants like Patina, La Brea, and Campanilis to learn the California cuisine. In 1994, Germán returned to Argentina working with Francis Malmann at his beach store in Punta del Este and his two famous restaurants in Buenos Aires, Patagonia Sur, in the La Boca barrio section, and Cholila. Germán then went on to become the executive chef of Agraz Restaurant in the Caesar Park Hotel. In December of 1999, the Great Chefs team showed up at Agraz to feature Germán for their Great Chefs of the World television series on the Discovery Channel. Germán created Restaurant Casa Cruz in 2004 and in 2009 Germán opened Tegui.
No. 49
GERMÁN MARTITEGUI
TEGUI BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA PHOTO © JOE PEREIRA LUCENA
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HOF VAN CLEVE ANDRÉ CHIANG
No. 12 PETER The Best Restaurant in Singapore GOOSSENS HOF VAN CLEVE KRUISHOUTEM, BELGIUM
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PHOTO © HENK VAN CAUWENBERGH
Peter Goossens prefers to savour what is exceptionally delicious. And he not the only one. Living in a country full of good food and partygoers. That’s a part of the tradition. Finesse is the message here. Preferring local products, which is part of the DNA of Goossens kitchen. Goossens love a kitchen with individuality. Local products are the tool, to do their taste, scent and texture the best possible amount of justice is a wonderful, daily challenge. He does, also use products from other countries. Especially when they can provide significant added value to my creations. Some ingredients deserve all of the attention because of their unique nature and culinary capabilities. They complement the ensemble, and their subtle nuances and diversity result in extra culinary pleasure. Because this is what it’s all about, at least for Peter Goossens.
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SCALLOP DIM SUM PHOTO © JEAN-PIERRE GABRIEL
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ANDRÉ CHIANG MONSTERA BISTRO
A CULINARY EXPERIENCES IN THE HEART OF LJUBLJANA!
BINE VOLČIČ PHOTO © MIHA BRATINA
Bine Volčič is one of the first Slovenian chefs to establish the concept of the so-called “zero waste cuisine”. The chefs of the Monstera bistro tastefully serve you even those edible parts of plants and meat which are usually thrown away. Potato peels thus become tasty chips and the less known parts of beef discover new forms of use. Bine Volčič always wanted to open a bistro where guests could casually enjoy his culinary creations... this dream became a reality when he opened Monstera bistro - just like the monstera plant which he has known since his childhood. Monstera bistro represents Bine Volčič’s innovative and creative cuisine, fresh seasonal ingredients are the center point, and the constant search for new flavors find their way into his menu.
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ROASTED RABBIT, OVEN-BAKED CARROT, GRAPES, WHOLE GRAIN MUSTARD & SAGE SAUCE, POLLEN
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WG Magazine catches up with Bine Volčič… Bine Volčič tells us how he found his way into the culinary world…. Since I don’t come from a family in the restaurant industry it was somewhat strange that I kept “helping” my mother in the kitchen all the time as a small boy – for me the oven with something baking in it was far more interesting that any TV show… My mother even started cooking and baking after I have gone to bed, so that I wouldn’t bother her! As I remember I always wanted to be a cook, the first book I chose was a cookbook for children (when I was 7) and have dressed several times as a chef for “Mardi Gras” ... I went then on to culinary vocational school but it hasn’t fulfilled my aspirations and when I was 26, with almost 10 years of working experience, I went to study at the Culinary Institute Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. This was the time of my life as I was learning the true basics of cooking – French cuisine still defines my “culinary roots”.
A cuisine is described as fusion... Bine tells us how he brings about this balance on a plate… My philosophy considers an ingredient as a starting point – discovering the depths of each ingredient to understand it fully (where and how was it produced, how it changes taste in regard to different techniques of preparation or in combination with other flavors …) is in my opinion the key to squeezing out its maximum. Only then I start thinking which texture and technique are the most suitable for a dish I wish to create with this ingredient. In general, I’m not a very “technique-type” of a chef, I try to keep it simple and pursue the authentic flavours. For example, a pork roast it’s all about the sauce we adore dipping bread into – so I emphasise the sauce and I use an additional texture to enhance its overall impact in a dish. That’s my complexity of simplicity… Also, I’m using more and more the “old-fashioned” oven & stove instead of high-tech kitchen appliances. Tradition is centuries-old for a reason.
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Bine Volčič’s culinary experiences before he started Monstera Bistro… Coming back home to Slovenia in 2009, after studying and working in Paris for 2 years, I’ve assumed a Head Chef position at a 5-star hotel in Moravske Toplice, but it was too managerial – I just wanted to cook! So I moved to Bled where I set my culinary freedom on fire – my fusion cuisine spurred attention and our Promenada restaurant made it among the top fine-dining restaurants in Slovenia. Then I have left to devote 4 years to share my culinary knowledge and promote catering professions in the most popular TV reality show in Slovenia. Together with the production team we have managed to fill up Slovenia’s culinary vocation schools and make a chef’s job well-respected again. That’s what I’m most proud of! However, I have always wanted to have a small place of my own, where I could cook for my guests, and Monstera bistro is just what I have hoped for – a cosy place with relaxed atmosphere where people return for good food and friendly service, we are not perfect, but we put our hearts in what we do best.
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CURED MACKEREL, CAULIFLOWER AND SUMAC
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Why the name “Monstera bistro”? When I remember growing up, there is this huge monstera deliciosa plant I played with Legos under, I ran around it in my primary school, I have been seeing it in public offices throughout my youth… and when I learned that it grows edible fruits, I just had to taste it. Its mix of flavors from pineapple, banana, kiwi to strawberries, reminded me instantly of my “fusion cuisine” and became my inspiration.
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Bine’s culinary philosophy… “At Monstera bistro I follow the “zerowaste cuisine” concept, which offers a new dimension of thinking about food and cooking. Of course I was overwhelmed with Scandinavian cuisine when I encountered it 5 years ago, but we can’t and shouldn’t »copy« it in Slovenia. We have so many interesting produce of top quality here that we should first discover the treasures we have on our doorstep. On the other side, I’m a huge fan of Japanese cuisine and the Umami, so I try to make the best out of the fifth taste as well, I use algae, mushrooms, dried fish...” Take us through your zero waste cuisine… “I’ve been introduced to this philosophy through my friendship with Finnish chef Sasu Laukkonnen who was recently awarded with a Michelin star. For me deciding on keeping the waste as minimum as possible in the process of preparing a dish was very easy: why waste food, if it is edible and can offer a treat to your taste buds if prepared correctly? So I aim at using the whole animal, not just steaks and fillets, I use vegetables from leafs and stems to the roots, with all the peels in between. For example, they make great fried chips or you mix their dehydrated powder with salt for flavor enhancement. Zero-waste idea is truly a noble effort with which we show respect to our ingredients”. Ingredients that inspire Bine Volčič, his favourite ingredients and ingredients he may have given up on… Cauliflower and sumac inspire me, individually and the combination of both. At first I thought that sumac is an oriental spice, but I discovered that sumac trees grow in abundance here in Slovenia, practically in every back-yard. People rarely use it, only to prepare a fresh summer drink from its flower. But it combines so well with food that I’m fascinated by it. I’m exploring the overlooked meat parts that butchers and cooks used to throw away, like bone marrow, pig snout, veal brain, … The taste and texture are incredible and I have a lot more discovering to do. I have never given up on anything, but when I think of this I should probably point out chocolate. I never took the time to study it in detail, even though I love it. It’s a very complex ingredient and the patisserie in general remains a field I still have to engage myself more profoundly, to bring to perfection.
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PIG SNOUT, PRESERVED WILD HOPS, PUMPKIN SEED OIL WITH GARLIC, CREAMY PIG’S BRAIN WITH MUSTARD AND CHIVES
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Special cooking techniques behind Bine’s signature dishes… Honestly put, I’m not a master of special cooking techniques. Of course, in the past I also did spherifications, but it was just playing with something new. I don’t consider the molecular cuisine a true cooking. Foremost I follow the seasons, ingredients that grow together normally pair well together. Then my experimental side kicks in… in general I have a habit of walking on the edge and my dishes reflect it – I like bold and intensive flavors, unexpected combinations and honest cooking which means that I don’t exaggerate with techniques and avoid “special effects” that don’t complement the ingredients. Creativity, Technique or Produce… “Creativity defines me most, because I already have great produce at hand to work with. Right after creativity comes the produce as I have mentioned in the beginning. In the end comes the technique, always in service of flavour”. What motivates Bine Volčič… My guests. All those returning for more… Cooking for me is expressing emotion through taste. It’s one of the most powerful senses, we have a saying that “love goes through the stomach” – I totally believe it. If you’re in a good mood and want to please your guest, the food will taste incredible and guests will feel it. And even criticism is needed from time to time – to remind me that I’m not a “hot-shot” yet, that I should keep trying to be better, day after day… My other motivation are the ingredients I do not know yet – so many stuff is out there, I’m like an amazed kid in a toyshop, discovering and experimenting… As a chef I learned that the more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to know. So remaining humble and grateful is the best you can do. Being a chef is perceived as a glamorous profession, Bine Volčič’s advice to chefs entering the kitchen for the first time… The glamorous part of our profession doesn’t come until you have worked extremely hard for 10 or 15 years – you simply have to work your way up from the washing sink to prep, line and stove. This includes maximum dedication, sacrifice, responsibility, and always striving for more knowledge, experience and inspiration. Only then can you become a chef, and not everyone is cut out to be one. You have to lead your team, inspire, push and reward them. When you appreciate every individual, the team can become fierce. Because at the end of the day, what is a chef without his team? WG April 2017 -
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GASTRONOMIC TOUR GUIDES Text Costanzo Scala
In my career I had an opportunity and luck to work with some of the most iconic restaurants in the world and to taste some of the most delectable dishes and ingredients the cuisine of the world can offer. Being born and brought up on the idyllic Island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples in Italy, I grew up with a strong sense of belonging to my land, to its heritage, culture and obviously products. I started to understand the depth of the Italian culture when, as young boy, I was visiting Capri, the island where mia mamma is from. Although both island are 40 mins away from each other, the mentality, the accents, the philosophy of life, the ultimate feeling was very different. Most of the people from Ischia never visited Capri and most people from Capri never visited Ischia. They are 2 islands of stunning beauty that happened to be next to each other but they have very little in common. This made me already think at very early stages. It made me believe that if I would have visited, for example, Sorrento I would have experienced yet another dimension, and so on.
for over 150 years. Its treasures really lie within, everywhere! For me Italy is still not a country but a collection of small towns within the country. It starts from small independent towns to the neighbourhood in the cities. Before becoming Italians, there were, for example, Ischitani or Capresi. And what fascinates me is the number of differences not only between them, but also within Ischia or Capri, even though the islands are small. Each tiny town may have a different history, heritage and culture comparing to the village nearby and there are several culinary treasures within them. All the above makes Italians very proud people to the extent that the culinary world outside their towns almost doesn’t exist for them. At the age of 21 I decided to move to London and the main luggage I took with me was my values and cultural believes. And I knew from the first second it was a place where I wanted to stay for a while and learn as much as I can about the world.
I started to see things in prospective and how strongly my mind and beliefs were attached to my Growing up I also explored and developed my roots I was coming from. I was coming from the passion for Gastronomy and Wine. I started very best place in Italy. I understood its beauty but to understand better and in depth the cultural I also understood its great limitations, especially differences in Italy, as well as the reasons behind when it comes to every aspect of life. Its pros and them. Italy is a country that is only been united its cons!
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The biggest surprise for me was the wine discovery. I realized that there are not only different types of cuisines around the world, but also different types of wines, which are produced not only in France and Italy. It inspired me to learn everything about culinary treasures and wines that would accompany them. Exploration of the wine paring that seemed impossible for me became an amazing adventure. It was a focal moment in my life, I realized what I wanted to really do in life. In Italy we say “fare l’amore con il sapore” which translates “I wanted to make love to the taste”’. And this is exactly how I felt. The world became my country and the cultural differences were the new “towns”’ I wanted to discover. My first experiences were with French Cuisine and Spanish cuisines. Italian cuisine, obviously, made me understand the importance of wine, but at the same time it proved the conservative approach that Italy has. I then experienced British cuisine, which for many people doesn’t exist but I strongly believe it’s a wrong myth. British cuisine opened my eyes, not for the culinary dimension but for the way wine was associated with it. In fact there were no strict rules and more space to experiment as there was no wine production and strong wine pairing culture like in Italy and France. Then I started looking for something even more exotic. Because if British cuisine was such an opening mind experience, what would have been a non European cuisine? Possibly more Asian? So I decided to work for top Chinese, Indian and Japanese Restaurants along the years. Each one of them were on a category of their own and the
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wine experience was really outstanding, free from schemes and regulations. The beauty was that there were no rules, you could actually create them yourself through the discoveries you would make every day. I wrote all this because I believe that it’s extremely important to be open for experiments when it comes to food and wine. Many times I hear guests who claim that they only drink French or Italian wines and looking down at any other wine from any other country. Often this mind closure may also apply to many type of food, ingredients, cuisines or simply beverages as if all of them are the same. The world is such an astonishing place full of hidden idyllic places with cultural and culinary treasures. In my top 10 dishes, each dish will be from 10 different countries and same applies to wines. If I stayed in Italy I would have never explored any of them. This is why I believe that our job as professional is to open a window to guests and show them a different panorama to what they are used to, as they don’t know what they are missing. It often happens to others, not because they are close-minded, but because their culinary mindset has never being challenged before. I believe it is our responsibility to understand their palette and offer something suitable because there is a dish and wine for each of them. Our depth of knowledge and spectrum of flavours associated with it give us the opportunity to break the lock and open a window with a fantastic view. Offering a new taste will always do the trick and they will remember us for that. WG April 2017 -
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ANDRÉ CHIANG THE BANYAN
Asian Kitchen in the Shade of the Banyan... Text Gigi Martin Photo Š Inna Tyshchenko
Set in Asagao, Goa under the expansive shady branch of a two-hundred-year-old tree is this unique Asian kitchen, The Banyan and thus so aptly named. As you step in through grand intricately carved wooden doors of The Banyan you notice a wonderful amalgamation of Indonesian, Thai with a hint of the Goan architecture. The eclectic yet uniquely harmonized collaboration of styles was the brain child of local architect Chirstopher Gonsalves.
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The house itself is painted in hues of Grey and White with wooden accents. The Rattan furniture, true to its Balinese form has been lifted with colorful cushions, low tables and sofas to create a relaxed and casual dining atmosphere. They are open for lunch but it is at night that this place truly comes to life with its subtle lighting and a Buddha right in the center of the restaurant. The bar area is perfect for those gathering with friends for drinks and snacks with its high tables but the pièce de résistance must be the back wall with a collage of wooden carved boxes with hidden writing on them, if you can find it. The owner Tejpal Gandhi the tells us that he hand carried the unique rot iron lanterns and other knick-knacks from Bali to help complete the look of the restaurant. CHICKEN PRAWNS SUMAI
Tejpal, a third-generation restaurateur with more than forty years of experience is the brainchild behind The Banyan. He is very well known in Pune for his authentic north Indian restaurant The Great Punjab which opened in Koregaon Park thirteen years ago, and with the recent addition of their Banner branch eight years ago. Tejpal tell us “I have always wanted to have a restaurant in Goa as I have such fond memories of going to school and growing up in this amazing state, it is an integral part of who I am.” His love for all things Asian came about while he living and working in London in his twenties as he missed the flavours of the east. Having eaten in all the best restaurants in the UK and traveled extensively in the east the seed of The Banyan was planted. WG April 2017 -
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The menu at The Banyan covers an array of dishes from various parts of the Asia. From their small plates comprising of such items as Stir Fried Lotus Stems (Bhein or Kamal Kakri in Hindi), a north Indian favorite are perfectly stir fried in black bean sauce has just the right amount of crunch and tang. The Konjee Kirspy Lamb a signature of the The Banyan is succulent strips of Lamb fried and tossed in Hoisin sauce are just finger licking good. Another signature dish one was informed was the Son in Law Eggs, a funny name for a dish but this is the favorite amongst the Thai people.
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However, what is not to be missed is the vast array of Dim Sum on the menu, with three different types of skins made in-house and with their own dipping sauces, the Soy Garlic and Sweet Chili. For those who don’t know what Dim Sum are, these are a style of Chinese cuisine (particularly Cantonese) prepared as small bite-sized portions of food served in small steamer baskets or on small plates, perfect for those who are on a diet or are being healthy. For the ones who love sea food one has to try the Prawn & Cilantro Har Gow what was different was the Prawn Pearls. The Pearls, one had forgotten how incredible these Asian dumplings are and sometimes served as a first course at banquets in Beijing. For these Asian dumplings, a fragrant prawn mixture is shaped into balls, then coated in soaked sticky rice and then steamed. There are lot of choices here with lots of different fillings of meats, from Chicken and Water Chestnut to Spicy Black Bean Beef Dumplings but to name a few and not be missed is the Pork and Shitake Mushroom Sui Mai.
CHEUNG FUN PRAWN
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KOREAN PORK SKEWRES
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SON IN LAW EGGS
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One must try a baozi or simply known as “Bao”, which is a type of steamed filled, bun in various Chinese cuisines, with a large variation in fillings. At The Banyan one had a choice of two, stuffed or open. Another one of the signatures of the restaurant is the Roast Duck Baos, which is open and served with onion, tomato with sweet and spicy sauce topped with jalapeno to give it just the right kick. In the stuffed variety of this The Banyan has introduced some local flavours such as the Goan Sausage which surprises one, but very tasty none the less, or one can just go for the Pulled Pork if this is ones meat of choice. In the large plates, there is a lot to choose from. Tempura - is a Japanese dish is made with seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. A light batter is made of cold water (sometimes sparkling water is used to keep the batter light) and soft wheat flour. A must try at the The Banyan. The Slow Boat to Thailand is the unique signature dish here – It is a steaming pot of aromatic spice laced broth served with exotic vegetables, meats or seafood and dumpling. The idea behind this is to be one’s own chef where one simply dips, cooks and east and sips it the way one wants. The Banyan is the very first restaurant to introduce this to Goa as one was informed. No Asian restaurant would be complete without a choice of curries, Jungle Curry, Sambal Seafood or Chicken, but the Beef Rendang , usually a spicy meat dish which originated from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia is a must try here if one is looking for something different from the regular Massaman or Thai curries. Over all The Banyan is the perfect Asian Kitchen in Goa! WG April 2017 -
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WG MAGAZINE JANUARY 2017
2016 A COLLECTIVE OF CHEFS
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The Artist With Flavours
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MARGOT JANSE
The Magic Of The Kitchen www.wgmagazines.com
DAVID TOUTAIN The World’s Most Gifted Chef WG June 2016 -
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A SWEET PERFECTIONIST www.wgmagazines.com
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