A glittering crowd flocked to the Laguna Resort and Spa in Nusa Dua late last month for a culinary event: the third annual gala dinner of the Bali Professional's Association (BCP).
Under the theme "Art Culinaire", this year's BCP dinner highlighted the creative art of cookery, which kept as many as 130 guests continually guessing what the next course would be.
The event gave local and international guests, hoteliers and chefs a chance to see action in the kitchen on three large screens adorning the walls of a ballroom that housed the dinner.
The evening commenced with cocktails, complete with a martini bar in the court yard, an iced oyster station and a specially commissioned art gallery, before guests were ushered into the ballroom.
The ballroom was decorated with an array of paintings. The "Art Culinaire" theme continued with hand-painted show plates, menus printed on canvas and centerpieces of hand-crafted picture frames.
The menu, created by seven of Bali's leading chefs, was paired beautifully with selected wines and champagne as well as entertainment from a DJ synchronized with live music.
Live video footage on the huge screens featured interviews with chefs about the dishes they had created for the event, and their food philosophies.
"To create something really special, I love to be in the kitchen. Handle the best products you can get, get busy and 'dance' at the stove -- that's just fun, fun, fun," said Bastian Mantey of The Laguna Resort and Spa.
"Basically, my cuisine is modern-continental ... but more and more with an Asian-Balinese twist," Mantey added.
Mantey served up an ice creation that held a ruccolino test-tube shooter nestled on a spiced poached lobster tail with lobster ice cream on a melon gratinee.
"We need to find and retain the child within us -- that's when we are at our most creative. The imagination of a child is boundless. Go. Have confidence and create," said Andrew Skinner of Bulgari Hotels and Resorts Bali.
Skinner prepared a sublime mushroom consomm*. A delicate broth poured over braised oxtail and marrow cappelletti showed the skill and finesse this chef is known for.
The first course featured an ocean trout entr*e created by Dorin Schuster of The Legian Bali, accompanied by avruga caviar and taro puree prepared using a sous-vide cooking technique.
"My food philosophy is all about fresh ingredients, simple preparation and precise execution. In Bali, I'm using as much locally-grown produce as possible, especially vegetables, herbs and spices," Schuster said.
Andreas Krampl of The Ritz-Carlton Bali wowed the crowd with a beautiful foie gras ganache and duck confit presented with a luxurious personal spray bottle of balsamic-based sauce.
"What I love about being a chef is being able to express my style, taste and philosophy of food in my menus. Every day is different. You never know what will happen on any given day," Krampl said.
The main course was created by Conrad's Richard Millar, who served a tender short rib en crepinette in a miso-based sauce.
"Cuisine is both an art and a science, and as a chef I am an artisan, so simply my aim is to continually evolve my ideas and knowledge on all things related with food and wine," Millar said.
The Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa's Darren Lauder took on the challenging task of creating a cheese dish to marry with the spectacular menu. His skill in creating a dish that was deceptively simple relied on sourcing a high quality aged goat's cheese, which he served with a delicate hazelnut nougatine, cherry tomato sorbet and a chervil pesto.
"The decision on the menu was made as a team of chefs. This itself could have been trouble, with everyone bringing his own ideas and creations, but as you see the final menu is well balanced and very creative," Lauder said.
The celebrated menu was wrapped up by Chris Salans of Mozaic, who served a phyllo parcel that erupted with a warm passionfruit cream alongside caramelized mango, milk agar-agar and cardamon.
The gala dinner, which was sponsored by the BCP, was also commemorated by local artists who created artworks for the event, including Natissa Jones, Rudy Srihandoko, Suklu and Ida Ayu Bulan.
BCP is non-profit organization that supports chefs in Bali with members comprising mainly chefs of various levels from hotels to restaurants across the resort island.
Proceeds from auctioning six participating chefs and a painting donated by Rudy Srihandoko will go to a scholarship account to finance underprivileged culinary students in Bali.
