Eat & Drink

Friday July 20, 2007

Chef Salans adds a tropical twist with ingredients

BUNGA kantan and belimbing buluh are the surprising ingredients that show up in the modern French cuisine of Bali's famous Mozaic restaurant in Ubud.

Its chef-owner French-American Chris Salans is here to give Klang Valley folks a taste of his modern international Balinese cuisine.

Salans' unique modern French cuisine is done with a tropical twist, bringing to life the flavours of the Malay archipelago – with ingredients such as bunga kantan, kaffir lime, belimbing, coconut, pulut hitam, kicap manis and more.

Salans: Will be conducting the leisure and professional classes at the Cuisine Studio.

Although tourists to Bali are often taken aback to discover a Michelin-style restaurant in Ubud, lifestyle connoisseurs of the world have beaten a path to the Mozaic Restaurant for its six-course degustation menu.

Time Asia magazine described Mozaic as being "straight out of a Michelin-starred Parisian gem"; New York magazine proclaimed it world class, the National Geographic food critic deemed the food and service flawless and the French Tradition & Qualite said it's Bali at its best and promptly inducted it into its exclusive circle of Les Grandes Tables die Monde (The Best Tables of the World), whose members include Napa Valley's iconic French Laundry restaurant (rated 3-Michelin star in 2007).

Salans' resume is impressive, having worked at some of the world's most famous restaurants. After leaving the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, he interned at l'Oustau de Baumaniere, a 3-Michelin star restaurant in Provence and moved on to Lucas Carton under Chef Alain Senderens, another 3-Michelin star restaurant where he worked his way up to head saucier.

Although he spent his childhood in France, he said he only barely survived the tyranny of the French chefs and decided to return to his American roots.

"I was fortunate to find a job in New York City with David Bouley as a sous chef. I worked under him for a year, during which I developed an awe for Asian cuisine.

The interest grew to such a point that I decided to accept a position as an executive chef for two luxury boutique hotels in Bali, Indonesia."

When he returned to New York City upon completion of his contract in Bali, Salans rejoined Bouley as head chef of his new restaurant, Bouley's Bakery.

After a year there, he decided to move to Napa Valley in California and accepted a head chef position at Thomas Keller's new French bistro, Bouchon, a sister restaurant of The French Laundry.

However, missing the mystic of Bali, he decided to head East again. And this was when "the love for my Indonesian wife, her mother's cooking and my experience in modern cuisine came together and allowed me to finally express my own style of cooking," said Salans.

"Day after day, eating in warungs and at home, I developed techniques to bring the flavours of Indonesian cuisine to Westerners' palates. As head chef at Ary's Warung in Ubud, I developed a new, cutting-edge concept joining the flavours of Indonesian cuisine and the techniques of modern cooking and presentation. Working there for three years, I tried to create a cuisine with perfect balance between Indonesian flavours and Western techniques."

That was when Salans realised that he had developed his own brand of cuisine.

"For this, I started Mozaic and invited renowned pastry chef Francois Seurin, the former pastry chef of the 3-Michelin star restaurants of Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse, to join me.

"Together, we strive to offer the best of local and international ingredients prepared and presented with a modern and innovative approach," said Salans, who is here at the invitation of Cuisine Studio at Tropicana Golf & Country Resort in Petaling Jaya.

The three-day, mix-and-match event of lunch/dinner and cooking classes, starting from Sunday, will give Malaysian gourmets and cooking enthusiasts a chance to experience the chef's cuisine.

Salans will be conducting the leisure and professional classes at the state-of-the-art cooking studio in Cuisine Studio.

For the morning class leading to a sit-down lunch (10am-2pm), Salans will demonstrate the preparation of three famous Mozaic courses and then serve them for lunch.

For the full-day professional class, he will reveal his twin strategies of vacuum pack (sous vide) and low-temperature cooking demonstrated using his special menu.

Mozaic's six-course tasting menu will be available for dinner (July 22-24), starting off with the exciting pan-seared foie gras with belimbing buluh in sweet-and-sour broth and ending with the sublime Valrhona chocolate mousse, raspberry and roses and bunga kantan sorbet.

Pre-dinner cooking classes are also available for the connoisseur who loves to cook.

For more information and reservation, call 03-7805 3088 or 012-290 5342. Cuisine Studio is at the Clubhouse (Palm Wing), Tropicana Golf & Country Resort, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.