Some F&B and hospitality businesses have taken the time to shift their business models, for instance by focusing more on selling through online marketplaces and by adjusting to new ways to operate, mostly in order to meet the new health and safety requirements.

A renowned Indonesian restaurant in the capital, 1945 – which is part of Fairmont Hotel Jakarta – has spent the initial large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) period for a lot of research and development.

Hamish Lindsay, executive chef of Fairmont Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post in early November that, rather than sending the kitchen staff home during the PSBB, he worked with the sous chef at 1945 to experiment with the food and play around with certain dishes to figure out how they want the perfect Indonesian food, without taking away the authenticity of the flavor.

“We thought, how could we take [the food] to the next level? A prime example would be the satay. […] We looked in depth at how we can improve the flavors, and one we know is one of the best satays comes from the coconut husk, so let’s do coconut husk grill for the satay,” said Lindsay.

He went on to say that he had also experimented with how to tenderize the meat for the satay and found out that the sous vide method worked well for such beef cut as short ribs.

Lindsay also pointed out 1945’s maranggi tomahawk, in which maranggi is the Sundanese style of cooking satay and meat using spices such as turmeric, coriander and galangal that enhance flavor and aroma as well as help tenderize the meat.

“I thought, why don’t we get the flavor of maranggi that’s normally [found] in satay and put it into a tomahawk and see how it is received. And, [in] the first month, we sold about 20, which is amazing,” said Lindsay, adding that at Rp 1.9 million (US$135) per piece, the dish is not cheap, but when it serves 6 to 8 people and there are other dishes, the price is quite reasonable.

Authentic flavors speak for themselves

Enticing diners at 1945 with Indonesian flavors on quality ingredients – such as the tomahawk – is what Lindsay’s team aspires to.

“That’s what we’re after, taking [the food] to the next level, where [we’re] using prime quality cuts but cooking them with the […] traditional soups and sambals,” said Lindsay, also referring to the slow-cooked satay that melts in the mouth, and the rawon (blacknut) soup that uses slow-cooked short ribs and bone marrow.

Chef’s favorite: A bowl of “rawon sumsum” (keluak nut soup with bone marrow) created by Indonesian restaurant 1945. This Indonesian soup is a favorite of Hamish Lindsay’s, Fairmont Hotel Jakarta’s executive chef, who hails from New Zealand. (JP/Muthi Kautsar)

The three beef dishes, along with a host of other Indonesian dishes from ayam bakar madu (Yogyakarta-style honey-grilled chicken leg) to kalio udang (braised king prawns with lemongrass, coconut milk, crispy curry leaf), came out from 1945’s team work during the first PSBB period, in which the team designed a new menu to replace the previous one.

“[We wiped the previous menu], because it is of fine dining, and we don’t want fine dining. We want shared food, we want to go back to what Indonesian food is about, and that’s [a] selection of dishes on the table with sambal and shared with people. Because that’s what dining, I believe, is more about,” Lindsay, who has been in Indonesia for 15 years, told the Post.

He went on to say that he loved fine dining for special occasions but doesn’t want to come into an Indonesian restaurant for fine dining.

“You want to taste authentic dishes, not ayam taliwang that’s rolled and petite,” he said.

Lindsay then recalled his memory of having ayam taliwang (iconic cuisine from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, which is a grilled chicken served with chili paste). He said that the chicken was not the most tender, but he knew that it was the most authentic flavor, because it was served in the most famous restaurant of Lombok.

Surrounded by kitchen staff coming from different regions of Indonesia, Lindsay praised how his team members brought their knowledge to the flavors in the pastes and everything that the restaurant needed to create.

“I have to have them [the team] involved, have them super passionate about the food, so they own it. And when you do that with your own team in the kitchen, when they own the food themselves and have the dishes in the menu, they take a lot more pride, and the quality comes out,” concluded Lindsay.