Where to get a taste of autumnal flavours at Singapore’s fine dining restaurants

Autumn is here, or at least in the seasonal cuisine influenced by the rest of the world.

Aside from the ubiquitous truffles you’ll be seeing everywhere, fall season also brings with it a few surprising ingredients worth trying.

Art

Inspired by a farmer’s breakfast of bread, pears and raw artichokes dipped in olive oil, executive chef Daniele Sperindio’s Colazione nei Campi is a delicate, multilayered dish of sweet and savoury.

Charcoal-roasted and flavoured with house-made vegetable-based ‘fish sauce’, thin slices of the fruit overlap atop a small mound of baby artichokes, viola artichoke custard, comice pear sorbet, whipped artichoke and aged sand carrot.

1 St Andrew’s Road, #06-02 National Gallery, 178957. Tel: 6886 1977

Braci

At chef-owner Beppe De Vito’s one Michelin-starred contemporary Italian establishment, the pesce spada or swordfish is the catch of the season.

The Japanese swordfish belly is cured in yakinori (dried seaweed) with salt, sugar, bergamot zest and charcoal powder.

Cut into a cross section, each serving is finished with a ponzu made with Kwong Woh Hing soya sauce, bergamot juice, and fig leaf oil (a nod to De Vito’s fig tree in his backyard in Italy).

52 Boat Quay, #05-01/#06-01, Singapore 049841. Tel: 6866 1933

Esora

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Highly attuned to the seasons, chef Shigeru Koizumi’s kappo-style Michelin-starred restaurant brings to attention the fruits of Japanese autumns — chestnut, persimmon and nashi pear.

Persimmon is paired with myoga or Japanese ginger in a foie gras monaka, in line with his childhood-inspired and nostalgia-driven cuisine. While the nashi and chestnut both appear as post-meal sweeteners as a pear candy with vanilla milk foam and souffle respectively.

15 Mohamed Sultan Rd, Singapore 238964. Tel: 6365 1266

JAAN by Kirk Westaway

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British autumn takes the form of pears and figs in desserts at the two Michelin-starred restaurant but it’s the simple white beetroot that’s given its turn in the spotlight.

Cut into paper-thin sheets, it’s salt baked then rolled into a cylindrical shape. Like a cannoli, it’s stuffed with a soft cheese with a hint of horseradish then topped with Kristal caviar, edible flowers and finished with a dill cream sauce.

2 Stamford Road, Level 70 Swissotel The Stamford, Singapore 178882. Tel: 6874 1488

Jag

Known for his omakase-styled French cuisine, chef Jeremy Gillon at his one Michelin-starred restaurant procures the bounty of the land specifically from La tour en Provence, Bruno Cayron and Chitose Agriculture Initiative as well as wild herbs handpicked from the alps of Savoie.

A highlight is the yacon that’s prepared in a few ways all for one dish — it’s braised, raw slices are marinated in Savoie sage oil then stuffed with langoustine, it’s also diced and roasted as well as made into a syrup.

76 Duxton Rd, Singapore 089535. Tel: 3138 8477

Nae:um 

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The singular contemporary South Korean restaurant on the island moves into its second ‘episode’ titled Mountain Lodge.

From Nov 2 onwards, chef Louis Han applies his refined techniques to dishes that remind him of his grandmother’s home at the food of Mount Cheonggye, and the small cafes along the way.

He highlights the acorn, found in abundance during the fall, as a dotorimuk jelly in a sashimi salad where the raw fish is briefly splashed with hot water in a preparation method called matsugawa tsukuri. 

161 Telok Ayer Street, Singapore 068615. Tel: 8830 5016

Restaurant Gaig 

At the Singapore outpost of the Michelin-starred restaurant in Barcelona, Restaurant Gaig has the pleasure of welcoming Spanish autumns being one of the few Catalan restaurants here.

Executive chef Marti Carlos takes the season’s best Galician gooseneck barnacles, a strange-looking filter-feeding crustacean, and prepares them in two ways; its texture reminiscent of a clam, they’re steamed with bay leaves and salted, or paired with carabinero prawn jus, uni and Oscietra caviar.

16 Stanley Street, Singapore 068735. Tel: 6221 2134/9771 2674

Zen 

Sister restaurant of Frantzen helmed by executive chef Tristin Farmer, Zen recently won its third Michelin star for its Nordic approach to locality and seasonality.

For autumn, the Chawanmushi with slow-growing tokobushi (abalone) and Bafun uni ensui (sea urchin packed in saltwater) in cauliflower dashi is Farmer’s ode to the season’s best produce.

The tokobushi is steamed in ginger dashi then grilled with horseradish dipping sauce, while its liver is also used, grilled then marinated for 24 hours in white soy, mirin and sake. Chives or he-mengi and its flowers, sweeter during the fall, are also used as garnish.

41 Bukit Pasoh Rd, Singapore 089855. Tel: 6534 8880

This article was first published in The Peak.