DBS’ UNDERGROUND SUPPER CLUB AT THE GRAND HYATT

Words Kevindra P. Soemantri

Chef Fatih Tutak recently visited Jakarta to cook for DBS Bank’s high-value customers at its Underground Supper Club at Residence OnFive at the Grand Hyatt Jakarta.

The 31-year-old is the culinary master behind the W Bangkok’s House On Sathorn, located in a heritage building that once housed the Russian embassy, in one of the city’s swankiest neighborhoods.

House On Sathorn is where Fatih has been devising “New Asian” dishes that blend his Turkish heritage—he trained at Bolu’s Mengen Cookery School, which has produced some of Turkey’s most acclaimed chefs—with Fatih’s travels in China and Japan.

At Residence OnFive at the Grand Hyatt Jakarta, diners had a chance to meet Fatih—and to see an artistic video of how one of the chef’s signature dishes, “Hunting the Duck”, is prepared.

The video starts with eerie autumnal images set deep inside a forest that are juxtaposed with a booming gunshot.

It’s followed by sudden cut to a plate of mallard duck and onion noodles that is violently splashed with a sexy red pomegranate sauce. The suggestion is of blood splatters and the thrill of the hunt.

Watching the video prepares the diner for what’s to come: Excellently presented dishes of the finest ingredients, devised with inspiration and served with a sense of play.

As I took my seat, Fatih, along with two sous chefs from House On Sathorn and the kitchen team of the Grand Hyatt Jakarta, were at work at a grand marble kitchen island in the front of the dining room.

I was excited to taste his creations. After all, Fatih worked as a stagiaire, or intern, with kitchen luminaries such as Rene Redzepi at the 2-Michelin-star Noma in Copenhagen, and Seiji Yamamoto at the 3-star Nihonyori RyuGin in Tokyo.

The first dish served had the quirky moniker “Is the fisherman a chicken thief?”, taking inspiration from an incident in Fatih’s childhood.

He translated the incident into a singular egg custard, cooked in its own shell and served on a bed of hay. Inside the shell was an egg yolk cooked in a 60-degree water bath—the standard temperature when you are doing sous vide—and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

For a finishing touch, the chef added grated Japanese imported dried soy sauce for another pretty layer of flavor.

Delving deeper into the dish, which was topped with a silky smooth mousse made from uni sea urchin and cream, was surprising, as I found a cube of cooked unagi that was slightly torched to develop a nice color.

Sea urchin gave a sexy richness and umami flavor to the dish. Chef Fatih later offered two lucky people (including me) an ersatz cooking class before the diners. “Is the Fisherman a Chicken Thief?” proved simple to execute, underscoring the chef’s creativity in devising it.

As I enjoyed the first dish, the kitchen island was transformed into a garden of lotus leaves as the kitchen staff prepared the next course, dubbed “Early Morning at Tsukiji Market”.

When served to us, the center of the lotus held two beautiful and delicate slices of partly torched cho-toro fatty tuna coated in miso, accompanied by a morsel of wasabi and grated lemon zest. it was crowned by a dollop of exquisite caviar.

Next was “First Meal in Beijing”, a creation comprising eggplant, cooked in soy sauce to give it a glistening coat, that served as a bed for the airy round tofu. In the negative space on the plate, Tutak smeared black sesame paste into the form of a teardrop-the dark part of a yin/yang symbol. The paste added nuttiness to the chunky eggplant and soft tofu ball.

We were then offered “Red Parfait”, a dish that had a persona all its own. It was a sultry deep-maroon tube of beetroot jelly whose insides were stuffed with a thick mousse of decadent foie gras along with chicken liver pate, which added depth and intensity to the luscious parfait.

To balance the smoothness, Fatih prepared a block of crisp golden-brown brioche. The game changer, however, was yet to come. The chef approached each diner, poured on their plates drops of 16-year-old balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy.

The balsamic vinegar transformed the parfait. The older it is, the more balsamic vinegar develops depth and complexity in flavor. It made the taste of the dish more subtle and richer at the same time.

We were then offered a sumptuous dish named “Roponggi Kaiseki”, with grade-5 wagyu beef and a golden brown potato in the shape on a baton. Buttery chunks of beef met beef tendons crackling and tangy, topped by an umami espuma béarnaise/shoyu sauce.

Chef Fatih ended the night with a dessert dubbed “Trying to Learn Mandarin” that was inspired by the gifts that his language teacher (and later girlfriend) in Beijing used to give him. The Chinese offer oranges to show their respect and sympathy for others, he added.

That sentiment was made edible with Fatih’s beautiful dessert: A mandarin pannacotta and crispy crumble trapped inside the edible skin of a candied Mandarin orange.

The dessert, which looked to be the freshest orange of spring season, was an exceptional finale for an exquisite dinner.

PHOTOS BY KEVINDRA P. SOMEMANTRI, CHRISTIAN RAZUKAS
ONE ON ONE WITH FATIH TUTAK

Why give your dishes such quixotic names?

In order to deliver the inspiration of the dish. When you’re visiting an art gallery, each painting has its own name, right? [It’s the] same with my dishes. They have their own stories. Sometimes elaborate menu names don’t work to deliver the essence of your dishes, which are the stories.

What’s behind your idea of “fun dining”?

What we do is “high gastronomy”. You can see it when you have a time to visit House on Sathorn. It is fine dining, actually, but we are not stiff. We are not arrogant and will never be. Our service is also very outgoing and fun. We are trying to offer guests simplicity and comfort, rather than elaborate regal attitudes. When people come to my restaurant, I want them to have fun.

What was it like working with luminaries like Rene Redzepi and Seiji Yamamoto?

[Their] two restaurants are from different parts of the world: One in the icy part and one in the sunny east. I absorbed the essence of their award-winning establishments, their philosophies, how they could come up with this idea or that idea, how they serve food with such character, and, of course, outstanding cooking techniques.

At Noma, I learned a lot from how Rene Redzepi has been using very unpopular and bizarre ingredients that in fact we encounter each and every day. Or like how Seiji Yamamoto of Ryugin has a very high respect and revere his roots in Japanese culture and translates it into the dishes he creates.

Tell us more about Rene Redzepi.

Rene is a tough and dominant guy. When he gets angry, you don’t want to be there. After work, we would drink together with him. He is like that—quite temperamental, because he is a very passionate and a perfectionist. The technique he uses for product sourcing—directly from nature—shows his dedication to nature’s gifts.

Can you describe Bangkok’s culinary scene?

I think Bangkok is a booming gastronomy city: Many new chefs coming, many restaurants opening. We have Bo.Lan, Nahm and Eat Me, for example, that were included on the Asia Best 50 Restaurants list.

On the other hand, all those great restaurants in Bangkok, including mine, always have problems regarding to ingredient sourcing. We can’t make great food with bad products. Thank God we have a great relationship with suppliers and colleagues who can help us.

The House On Sathorn
106 North Sathorn Road, Silom, Bangkok 10500
Phone: +6623444000
Email: thehouseonsathorn@whotels.com
Website: thehouseonsathorn.com
Facebook: fb.com/thehouseonsathorn
Instagram & Twitter:  @thehouseonsathorn