Not many of us has so much as graced a Como Hotel & Resort property, let alone taste the fare prepared in the kitchen of one. But it is now possible to get a flavour of dishes served at the said COMO properties without ever setting foot in one.
Thanks to COMO Cuisine from the stable of COMO Dempsey, which opened in July 2017, diners can eat their way across COMO destinations of Asia, Americas, Europe and Australia in one seating, made possible by Australia born and trained Executive Chef, Timothy de Souza, a 10-year COMO veteran who gleans from existing à la carte menus around the world but consciously makes the COMO Cuisine menu his own.
For OCBC Gastronomic Adventures, de Souza has assembled a set menu at dinner featuring a number of off-menu items including the special OCBC dish of lamb. The cutlet of sustainably-farmed Maori Lakes lamb from New Zealand is encrusted with fennel, olive, rosemary, thyme and sour dough crumbs and pan-roasted so that it forms a herby, doughy and crisp facade around the lamb. Eating it is akin to biting into a sandwich with the tender medium-done flesh of the lamb cushioned by the pillowy-crisp crust. De Souza knows better than to serve the lamb on its own and on the plate, he creates a visually arresting palette of refreshing mojo verde in a moated pool of cashew nut hummus alongside a medley of mustard fruit, a swirl of Jerusalem artichoke puree and wedges of artichoke cooked in Vermouth tomato broth, all of which threaten to steal the thunder from the lamb.
Inspired by pristine Tasmanian ocean trout from his motherland, de Souza also showcases this off-menu fish in the OCBC menu. To allow diners to taste the sheerness of the ocean trout, de Souza cooks the fish delicately (45 degreee Celsius for 30 minutes) so it arrives moist and rare, still retaining its vibrant orangey-pink hue and velvety bite, but topped with hijiki seaweed for a savoury counterpoint and puffed buckwheat for added texture. To cut its richness, the chef pairs the fish with “green goddess”, a thick, if appetite-piquing, pool of blitzed avocado, dill, parsley, chervil and endive spiked with yuzu kosho (yuzu chilli paste) and anchovies.
Leveraging on his heritage, de Souza also serves an Anglo-Indian inspired, Mulligatawny-like broth of lentil pottage with tamarind, Kashmiri chilli and coriander seeds (“sort of like a sour pea and ham soup”, he says). But the Indian-Australian native makes it his own by adding cubed tomatoes, chickpeas, spinach leaves and a serving of Japanese scallop to the light and spicy lentil broth so that you get a thorough jaw-workout while the broth gradually works its magic of warming your heart.
COMO Cuisine offers this special OCBC Gastronomic Adventures Menu at dinner only for $180++ for six courses plus a glass of Taittinger Brut Reserve Champagne and two courses of amuse bouche from now until 20 October 2018 for OCBC Cardmembers. VOYAGE cardmembers are entitled to purchase the following wines at a special price – “Sallio” Ruggabellus Riesling Semillon 2015 at S$135++ (U.P. S$ 145++) or “La Masia” Marimar Estate Pinot Noir 2013 at S$165++ (U.P. S$185++). Find out more about OCBC’s exclusively curated menus at ocbc.com/gastronomy.
18A Dempsey Road, Singapore 249 677; comodempsey.sg/restaurant/como-cuisine
This post is presented to you in partnership with OCBC
BIBIK GOURMAND 