Vong Kitchen is one of the newest, hottest dining places in town.

The Vongerichten family has made quite a name for itself, as they are in charge of one of the most prestigious French restaurants in New York City, Vong.

Run by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the restaurant has earned three Michelin stars, therefore solidifying the Vongerichten name within the higher pantheons of world cuisine.

The elder Vongerichten, Jean-Georges, was trained as a chef specializing in French cuisine under famed French chef Paul Haeberlin in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until he moved to the United States in 1985 that he really started to develop his innovative techniques that helped develop French cuisine in America even further.

Jean-Georges has already spread the Vong name throughout the world, opening restaurants in partnership with other restaurateurs in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Chicago and Las Vegas to name a few.

Now, he has teamed up with his son and also award-winning chef, Cedric Vongerichten, who has spent a large part of his life growing up playing and creating pastries in his father’s restaurant “since [he] was about 9 years old”. They have spread their empire into Indonesia with the opening of their newest restaurant, Vong Kitchen in the SCBD area of Central Jakarta.

Vong Kitchen is built on the duo’s extensive knowledge of French cuisine as well as it being a love letter to their interest in Asian spices.

Indonesia, as Jean-Georges explains, possesses many ingredients that are abundant all year-round compared to the seasonal nature of ingredients in Europe and the US.

The chefs admit that many of their core ingredients are still shipped from the US, but they make use of what’s available in Indonesia’s traditional markets in order to help fit their infused cooking to the Indonesian palate.

Vegetables are sourced from places like Kebayoran Lama Market in South Jakarta, while some of the fish is sourced directly from Bali.

Within the Vong Kitchen menu, there are several dishes that display the interplay of flavors.

Fried chicken

One particular chicken dish, which can be described as KFC-style but deep fried in a much more sophisticated way, is paired with spoonfuls of creamed corn and sits on top of an orange sauce, which is both spicy and sweet, blending the Indonesian palate with a Western one well.

Vong Kitchen also has a formidable dessert menu that utilizes unique ingredients to round off the taste, such as a chocolate mousse pudding garnished with “crystallized” violet flower petals. It ends up tasting slightly better than sugar.

It is also interesting to note that Jean-Georges has claimed he is the inventor of the popular dessert dish, the molten lava cake, as he reportedly discovered it by accident in 1987. The claim has since been disputed, but nonetheless, his “invention” is available on the menu.

Aside from the abundance of ingredients, the diversity of flavor, compounded by the myriad of spices available in Indonesia, is what makes the country an attractive place not only for chefs to dig for new inspiration but also to challenge them.

“A challenge for us is to combine the flavors of both the East and West and come to a middle ground where it is suitable for both tongues,” the younger Cedric explained to members of the media invited to the restaurant.

Dynamic duo: Father-and-son chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten (right) and Cedric Vongerichten spread their empire into Indonesia with the opening of their restaurant, Vong Kitchen, in Jakarta.

One particular challenge that Jean-Georges took up was the creation of his own sambal — an incredibly essential element of Indonesian cuisine for both chef and patron. Habanero chilies are used and ground with tomatoes and vinegar, with an end result being a concoction that rightfully stings the tongue but goes down easy.

“It’s these kinds of experiments that make cooking more interesting,” Jean-Georges says.

Since its opening in April, Vong Kitchen has immediately become the hottest dining place in town, with curious diners having to make reservations and the waiting list often requiring them to wait for weeks.

Renowned designer Samuel Wattimena recalled that he had to wait about three weeks before he could dine at the restaurant.

But he was not disappointed — the service is friendly, the atmosphere great and the food delicious. “I had this meat dish, I forget the name […] And the pizza is great,” he told The Jakarta Post.

In addition to Vong Kitchen, the father and son also opened another restaurant adjoining Vong Kitchen but with an entirely different concept: a New York-style burger joint.

Chocolate pudding

Le Burger offers a more casual dining experience, serving up New York-style burgers but retaining the Vongerichten brand of class. Its interior is designed as per a typical joint one would find in New York, with industrial-style high ceilings and wooden booths.

The main balance of the dining experience comes down to the environment that the patron is dining in, at least according to the chefs. That is why the interior of Vong Kitchen and Le Burger eschews the fancy décor and designs and sticks to elegant, simple decor.

It is what Jean-Georges says is an answer to the evolution of the dining experience in the past few years. “Nowadays, people tend to go to fine dining places less than before. People are now looking for a casual environment to eat, and we try to accommodate that thinking the way we can,” he says.

“We try not to make it too upscale; you know, we want to make it casual, an atmosphere where people can share food in the middle. Nothing too fancy here though,” Cedric added.

— Photos courtesy of Vong Kitchen