Here's a (final) food report on Batam's current top resto - Kez's Bakery and Restaurant.
I’ve savored dishes by Michelin chefs, local head-cooks, upstarts, and my mother (God bless her). Spent too much on food. LOL. Meat is meat, potato is potato – but it’s passion that turns such simple things into Nirvana.
You know it when you feel touched the moment the tastes, textures, aromas and juices melt and mix and blend inside the mouth – creating emotions overpowering the mind (that controls one to remain calm and not over-react) and behaving like an orgasmic idiot. In a crude sense, it’s the same to comparing a hot passionate one night stand versus paid mechanical sex.
And in this resto – after going there several times, I indeed found Nirvana in its cuisine. And in comparison with my past dining experiences of 30+ years : drop-dead affordable to the common man for its amazing culinary quality, selection, creativity and, above-all, passion. No wonder this resto, which began in Dec 2014, is #1 resto in Batam and Batam Center in just 6 months (May 2015).
This time, wanted Chef Denny to totally let-go. Let his OCD passion take over. Wanted him to blow me out the waters and send me to planet Pluto with his creations.
It was an outright challenge to a champion chef.
Asked Chef Denny to prepare a dinner course with dishes totally out of the menu. Was told to confirm the exact day and timing bcs he said what he had in mind required (long) preparatory times and had to be savored there and then. OK, Fine.
The dishes, he and his crew prepared, were used in his competitions and further improvised. What they prepared
is easily priced at USD600 by those Michelin chef fine dining restos.
There was no name to his dishes. SO , let me name this dinner course here, NIRVANA.
NIRVANA (2 pax 4-course dinner with pictures – RP 1 Juta)
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APERITIV
*Compressed* watermelon infused with red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar , with balsamic sauce, and some kind of leaves. WOW. The watermelon was compressed to obtain smooth and solidified texture – and with all the natural taste sealed within. The leaf’s bitterness, the sweet from the watermelon, the sour from the vinegars. Sweet, sour, bitter – all blended in with fruity flowery aroma .… wow. It set the tone of what’s to come..
STARTERS
Quail egg coated in beef *powder* with diced basted spicy scallops on top a bed of fish roe. I was thrown off my high chair. The quail egg – the white is totally cooked, yet the yolk is runny. The fish roe provided the primary taste – crunchy popping bursts of saltiness as one bites in, the scallop provided the chewy tangy spice with the yolk counterbalancing with its mellow flavor… MANTAP! This starter is a winner. Unfortunately this dish will not be in the menu.
MAINCOURSE
Wagyu steak smelted (3 hours to prepare) with crispy prime rib floss sitting on top. Beef tenderloin rolled with smoked beef with crispy snow fungus sitting on top. Potato “tube” with filling (vegetable puree and beef bits infused with wine vinegars). A VERY VERY special in-house ground , seasoned crispy onion powder-crumbs. Pumpkin puree, balsamic sauce, worchester+truffle sauce, wine vinegar sauce.. Boiled snow fungus as garnish on the side.
If Nirvana be a physical thing – this dish *is* Nirvana – I kid you not. I truly felt the Chef’s OCD passion in this dish.
Slice the beef. Dip the puree/sauce. Then dip onto the crispy prime rib floss and onion powder-crumb. Put in mouth… I was shot to planet Pluto. There and then. I was delirious, confused, amazed, happy, bewildered, sad, angry, blissful, and hopeful. This dish brought out the little boy in me, fark. Couldn't contain myself at the resto, fucking embarrassing. For me, this dish concluded my journey of 30+ years’ (and loads of money) sampling cuisine. No. No exaggeration at all.
Anyway, notice from the photo – unlike what we usually get – red in middle and gradually turning cement grey/brown towards the sides of the steak, this steak is uniformly red (not bloody) throughout. *PERFECT*. Chef took exactly 2hrs 45 mins to get that texture right – and hence why I was told to be exact on my dinner time and day – as it cannot be enjoyed later or earlier.
The tenderloin beef roll (rolled with smoked beef and spices) is a dish on its own. Many tastes all fighting and blending together… meaty… peppers.. smoked.. wine.. salt .. tangy .. spices…..my tongue talked duck, my brain talked chicken...really dunno.. All the disparate juices and aroma blended in my mouth as I chew... while picking up any remaining onion crumbs and rib floss.
The potato tube was crunchy on the outside with the soft mashy meat/vege filling providing an assortment of flavors and textures. Unable to describe the taste.
From the photo, one can tell that each item has to be independently prepared – down to the crispy prime rib floss/strands. Suffice to say, this dish (being laborious and time consuming) will not be in the menu. However, one *MUST* really try this dish which I call Nirvana. Chef Denny says it’s possible but only as a special request and reservation made in-advance so that they can buy ingredients.
A modified version of the Rustic Nail cocktail was specially created (by Aldo) to pair with this supreme dish. It was *perfect*. Pandan puree + egg white + Herb liquor + lemon juice + germwheat (/w honey)
DESSERT
(photo was too blur so didn't upload)
Pliable 85% dark chocolate infused with truffle sauce, with egg white powder-crumbs (!!), with rum-raisin ice cream, with crispy quenched sago seeds, and white-wine infused orange-pieces.
Absolutely WOW. The bitter chocolate can taste this great. And the egg-white powder-crumbs … provided the slight crunchiness. The rum-raisin ice cream – having real rum – provided the full-body aroma of rum alcohol and sweetness. WOW.
As usual with special off-menu dishes, each course was served by the waiter, followed by Chef Denny describing/explaining what we were about to experience. Hence was how I was able to roughly describe the dishes above. I’m no chef – I live to eat.
All of the above for around S$100 (USD75) – quality, this time, surpassing Michelin star chefs’ creations and at a fraction of prices (typically at least USD600) commanded by those Michelin chefs. Where to find ???
This dinner course is far far FAR beyond value. Top quality fine-dining creations ... made available and (finally) affordable to the common public.
My suggestions to all bros :
If you haven’t been to Kez’s – go do it whilst that chef is still *working at the kitchen* – it is only a matter of time he will be busy with resto expansion, franchising, administrative / operational matters.
If you been to Kez but haven’t tried his special off-the-menu dishes, *very strongly* try it. It’s truly once-a-lifetime experience (made affordable). Even his crew and Kez’s shareholders didn’t have the chance to taste his off-menu dishes.
I was totally blown out the waters, slingshot to planet Pluto. And marooned here….. my journey for culinary cuisine is concluded. Not in first world countries, not in 5/6/7 star restos, but by a resto which makes solid quality cuisine fit for kings and statesmen, affordable to the common man.
I am truly humbled.
Enjoy!