A bachelor's life is a fine breakfast, a flat lunch and a miserable dinner, according to French author Jean de La Bruy*re.
But two bachelors - Adhika Maxi and Nicholas Lin -beg to differ.
In their latest cookbook, Bachelor's Banquet, Seductive Recipes for Intimate Dining, they argue bachelors who follow their recipes will be able to serve food, from appetizers to dessert, which appeal to the eyes and senses.
"Presentation is very important, the truth is, a well-arranged meal is always more appealing than a sloppy looking one. However, bear in mind that while a dish should look good, its taste is equally important," says 24-year-old Adhika Maxi or Max.
Naturally, in line with their tagline "Cook to impress", their cookbook is a feast to the eyes and the recipes are easy to follow with mouth-watering pictures, taken by 25-year-old Nicholas Lin or Nick.
"This book is designed with the modern day men in mind. Actually, 95 percent of the recipes are designed to be prepared in less than 30 minutes; the other 5 percent take about 30 minutes, as they are very simple," says Nick.
"This is a cookbook for men who cannot really cook but want to cook to impress."
In terms of cooking style, Max and Nick are as different as chalk and cheese.
Max tends to be more into classical French cuisine, "I'm kind of more progressive, avant-garde. Two different styles, but we met in the middle and the result is simple food prepared in both a traditional and avant-garde way," says Nick.
Hence, buyers of the book will get the best of both worlds in the form of unique dishes, with the Italian rice dish bacon and egg risotto embodying the synergy. Instead of using cheese the traditional way, they opted to add egg yolk to bring out extra creaminess in the risotto.
Nick and Max first met in the lounge of their New York City apartment. Between conversations on the many uses of duck fat, they discovered they shared the same passion for food and cooking.
Later, Nick, who initially came up with the concept of the Bachelor's Banquet, invited Max to become his co-author and the rest is history.
Max, who grew up in Indonesia, developed a passion for food and cooking at the age of 15 watching his grandmother prepare family meals. Nick grew up in Singapore and his interest in cooking started at the age of 11 when he began experimenting in his mother's kitchen.
After studying business management and marketing at Curtin University in Australia, instead of enrolling in graduate school, Max opted for a career in professional cooking and furthered his study at the French Culinary Institute in New York City.
Before going back to Jakarta, Max was chef de partie at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's eponymous restaurant (a Michelin two-star restaurant) located at the London Hotel in New York City.
Nick, on the other hand, has a business degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. But last year, he attended various courses at the French Culinary Institute and completed Japanese Culinary Technique courses at the Gohan Society in New York City.
Currently, Max is a private chef based in Jakarta and Nick, while working as a management and marketing consultant, is a private chef in New York City.
Their self-published, 213-page cookbook features more than 80 recipes from appetizers to desserts, including smoke salmon napoleon - one of the authors' favorites - and pound cake garden.
Bachelor's Banquet also features a special section, called "In-bed Aphrodisiac" - luscious little dishes ideal to share intimately, like white chocolate petit fours.
The secret recipe for making a delicious and good-looking dish, according to them, are "Season, Heighten, Tighten and Clean" - meaning: season the ingredients well to avoid blandness, heighten the dish by topping it with garnish to enhance its presentation, tighten the dish, as a tightly put together dish looks more appealing and lastly, clean and wipe off any smudges from the rim of the plate.
Launched in Singapore in mid-Sept. 3 2009, Bachelor's Banquet hit bestseller section at Kinokuniya bookstore in Singapore, earning a spot next to other chartbusters, including Julia Child's Appetite for Life and Fast Food by Gordon Ramsay.
Their story and cookbook have been featured in various Singapore media like the Straits Times, Appetite Asia, Time Out Singapore, Skin Magazine, men's Folio and www.razor.tv.
Bachelor's Banquet was launched in Jakarta recently, with the cookbook instantly selling out at the book-signing event. Guests had the chance to taste Max and Nick's Panna Cotta as well as Bocconcini meatballs. The food was as delicious as it looked in the book.
Bachelor's Banquet is now available at Kemang's Pantry Magic store, Kinokuniya, Times, Periplus and other bookstores.
"As for the title, we chose Bachelor's Banquet because a bachelor's life is a banquet of many things; it's a banquet of experiences, a banquet of different life paths and a banquet of food. Our cookbook takes care of one of those aspects," says a smiling Nick.
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