i like it, just so
BRINGING HIS OWN INTERPRETATION OF MODERN EUROPEAN CUISINE TO AYANA RESORT & SPA’S SIGNATURE RESTAURANT, DAVA, AWARD-WINNING SINGAPOREAN CHEF JUSMAN SO HAS CREATED A STIR ON BALI’S FINE-DINING SCENE
Winning international awards like most people catch colds – recently, among the 2012 Condé Nast Traveler Gold List – you’d expect nothing less from a world-class resort like AYANA than to have snapped up one of Singapore’s most acclaimed chefs, Jusman So. His fine-dining restaurant, Sage, founded in his native Singapore, was listed one of Singapore’s Best Restaurants 2010 by Singapore Tatler, nominated Best New Restaurant at World Gourmet Summit 2008 (when Jusman won Singapore’s Best Rising Chef) and made the prestigious Miele List in 2010-2011. Now chef de cuisine at Dava, AYANA’s signature fine-dining restaurant, Jusman brings with him his Singapore legacy, reinvented for Bali with fresh adaptations.
AYANA is already well secluded amid sprawling cliff-top gardens, but Dava is even more so, detached from the main resort within the villa enclave. In Sanskrit, Dava means “water”, which figures, as this fine-diner is accessed via Zen-style floating gardens, edged by lotus ponds and looking out over Jimbaran Bay. Designed like a giant lotus flower, the circular, open-sided restaurant-bar features spaced, eclectic seating arrangements.
As in Singapore, Jusman’s culinary signature is modern European, with classic French and European techniques tweaked with modern interpretations. His new a la carte menu – a self-confessed “masterpiece” – introduces some of his most acclaimed, popular dishes from Sage, but takes them to new heights of gastronomical refinement. For those wishing to leave decision-making at the office, Menu Degustation, with four- and six-course menus chosen by Jusman himself, provides more choices and smaller portions and is priced at Rp 390,000++ and 500,000++ per person.
“Some of the dishes are similar to those served at Sage but are now prepared and presented with new twists, while some dishes are brand new,” Jusman explains. “The menu, however, defines my signature style of cooking and presentation.” And that is evidently a superb showcase of colour, texture and form, with a masterful ying yang balance of flavours.
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