• Which part of the world has your favourite ingredients to cook with?
  • Thailand

    Japan

    Italy

    Australia

 
By Christopher LeQuesne

What a wonderful time for food lovers to be alive!
   Never has there been so much attention paid to the infinite variety of world's cuisines ... preserving and perfecting traditional recipes in some establishments, experimenting and fusing old and new in others.
   Never has the wealth of the world's food been so accessible through modern travel options.
   Chefs are travelling too. Some are seduced by
  the local ingredients they find far from home and settle long enough to work their magic on them.
   In the southern seas far from the sophistication of the Old World is a restaurant which we believe, in the words of the Guide Michelin, is worth a detour or even a special journey.
   It is Sardine in Bali.
   Pascal Chevillot is a 4th generation chef from Burgundy and his partner Pika a Slovenian artist and interior designer. Their life's work has taken them to the Caribbean, Los Angeles and now to one
  of the prettiest islands on the planet.
   They chose to build their temple of food away from the nearest towns so they could sit serenely surrounded by their own rice fields. A couple of years on, the town has almost caught up to their spectacular traditional pavilion in bamboo. High ceilings, intricate honey-coloured woodweave, with gently floating fringes like scarves. Truly brilliant and delightful to walk into, passing artworks by Pika as you glide. Your body feels sensations as you enter, long before you take up a menu and a glass of champagne or a local arak cocktail.
   The executive chef is Michael Shaheen from California with credits at Spago and Cafe Pinot Hollywood. He says it's a dream to have a menu changing every day, sourcing the freshest from the nearby fishing village of Jimbaran.
   The food is described as 'cuisine de soleil' and its light and sunny inventiveness reminds one of Roger Verge's cooking at the Moulin de Mougins in the south of France.
   Sardine is a bright, ...
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COMMENTS

We dined there and had one of the great meals. We seemed to eat everything EXCEPT rice. But we sat amongst it growing, while we had our coffee

 

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