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At Your Leisure: From fine dining to fun dining
(PHOTOS CHRISTIAN RAZUKAS, COURTESY OF CASSIS KITCHEN)CASSIS KITCHEN GETS A MAKEOVERAfter a rebranding process that’s lasted the better part of a year, Cassis Kitchen, one of the oldest French restaurants in Jakarta, is introducing its concept of fun dining, rather than fine dining
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(PHOTOS CHRISTIAN RAZUKAS, COURTESY OF CASSIS KITCHEN)
CASSIS KITCHEN GETS A MAKEOVER
After a rebranding process that’s lasted the better part of a year, Cassis Kitchen, one of the oldest French restaurants in Jakarta, is introducing its concept of fun dining, rather than fine dining.
Through a new program, dubbed the Tasting Table, guests can sample sumptuous multi-course menus specially crafted by top visiting international chefs, such as Carlos Montobbio of Esquina Singapore, who cooked an inagural nine-course meal of Spanish tapas.
The mastermind behind the evening, Cassis Kitchen’s operations chief Budi Cahyadi, spent almost a decade holding senior food and beverage positions at the Mandarin Oriental hotels in Hyde Park and Jakarta.
Budi is also behind the restaurant’s repositioning from fine French dining to more casual contempoary European fare.
The menu he’s devised is aimed at young adventurous foodies who are keen to explore.
“From my last trip to Europe in 2015, I noticed something different in the European dining experience,” Budi said. “The era of fine dining is nearly over.”
Young people at restaurants don’t dress up formally anymore, Budi noted. Even the music played is more contemporary than classic jazz.
Those were trends Budi was keen to capitalize on.
“People in Jakarta do not seek formality anymore,” Budi said. “They are tired by traffic and the office and want to relax after a busy day.”
Budi said that he doesn’t want Cassis Kitchen to be visited only on special occassions. “We want people come here for brunch, dinner, meetings or quick lunches.”
Keeping with this new approach, Cassis Kitchen regularly offers set five-to-seven course menus, in addition to the bimonthly event dinners with visiting international chefs.
Budi says that potential diners shouldn’t think that a multi-course dinner automatically will leave them too full.
“The combination of specific dishes and portions have been tested many timesto get the right formula,” Budi says. “Many ladies said that five courses would be too much. I guarantee that having five courses will not leave you too full. Try it. If you’re full by the fourth course, I will make an exception and stop the service.”
It’s enough to encourage the hesitant, Budi adds.
“Once the ladies hear my promise, their confidence grows and they just enjoy the food,” he says. “I have never stopped the service because a guest felt too full.”
Serving courses of contrasting flavors is the key to making diners happier with a meal of many smaller plates, Budi says.
When indulging in a single flavor, like a bag of potato chips, people will only feel full after they have eaten too much, he says.
In contrast, serving different tastes, such as sweet, sour, bitter, acidic, hot and cold, over a series of dishes, will lead to satiated diners.
“The sensors in our tongue taste things differently. It’s the brain that will start sending the message that ‘you are full’–not necessarily because the volume of the food eaten, but rather because the palate has been satisfied through different taste profiles,” according to Budi. “You don’t need to eat a lot to feel full. It is ‘just right’.”
Budi’s just-right philosophy of multi-course dining was put to the test during Cassis Kitchen’s inaugural Tasting Table with chef Carlos Montobbio of Esquina Singapore.
Chef Carlos, who was a stagier for the Roca brothers at El Cellar de Can Roca in Spain, served a nine-course menu of Basque-inspired dishes that was paired with four wines–and that left diners wanting more.
On favorite was the “Spanish Octopus”, beautifully seared and cooked as tender as lobster, served with a puree of Jerusalem artichokes, burnt onions, and, delighfully, given a salty tang by delicately sliced oyster.
Noteworthy also were two dishes adroitly paired with the wines served.
First was the “Suckling Pig”, a delicate square of crisp pork served lechon-style with its crackling skin in a sweet jus of mulled wine and glazed with sherry vineagar.
The savory pork flesh virtually melted in the mouth, filling the palate with a rich flavor that was deliciously cut by the Petalos wine from Decendientes de J Placios from Spain, whose tannins slowly emerged as the wine sat on the table.
Also exceptional was the dessert pairing of the “BBC”, combining banana, beer ice cream and salted caramel, with an icewine, the 2013 Inniskillin Vidal from Canada.
Icewines are exceptionally sweet, as the water in the grapes vanishes when the fruit is naturally frozen.
Paired with the BBC, the Inniskillin muted the sweetness of the dessert, allowing for the tastes of the beer and caramel to come through.
Kudos to the chef, kudos to the sommelier. — Christian Razukas
