ETERNAL FLAME
With time spent in some of the world’s best restaurants, is fired up about showing his skills in his Singaporean outpost, Burnt Ends.
“What really attracts me to pumpkin is how tough it is. At Burnt Ends, we throw a whole pumpkin on the coals and just let it burn. It’s like a little pressure cooker. You end up with this charred crust on the outside and this beautiful concentrated flavour in the middle.”
PORK TOMAHAWK
“The pork tomahawk cut is an extension of the loins to the ribs. What I like about it is you get a variety of tastes and textures and this nice competition between the slightly tougher loin meat to the really fatty belly meat. If you can’t get your hands on a tomahawk, you can substitute for a standard bone-in pork chop.”
MUSHROOM
“I really like the textural component of pine mushrooms. They have a relatively subtle flavour that is not too overpowering when grilled over the coals. The way the mushrooms are designed, with all those tiny pores, allow them to hold the smoke quite cleanly, making them a really good medium for transferring those flavours to a dish.”
Pynt FEW MEALS SPARK Dave
joy like those cooked over a fire, says Dave Pynt, the Aussie chef behind Singapore’s Burnt Ends. “It’s a kind of magic. I don’t know what it is but it just makes everything taste so f***ing good.” The Perth-born chef started his career at Tetsuya’s in Sydney before chasing the flame to Noma in Denmark, then Asador Etxebarri in Spain, where he trained under the great grill master himself, Victor Arguinzoniz.
In 2013, Pynt made the leap to Singapore, where he opened his first venue, the now Michelin-starred modernbarbecue restaurant, Burnt Ends. Like Arguinzoniz, Pynt has kitted out his kitchen with an impressive arsenal. A custommade, four-tonne dual-cavity oven as well as a series of elevation grills form the heart of the restaurant, where delicate flavours are gently coaxed out over the coals.
Many of the dishes, like the Western Plains pork shoulder, start out in the cold oven, used for slow and low cooking, before being transferred to the hot oven for a charring of the crust. The pork shreds are then loaded into brioche with coleslaw and chipotle mayo to create the famous Burnt Ends Sanga. And there’s more to the menu than just meat. Mushrooms are smoked, lettuce is grilled and fennel bulbs are caramelised over the coals. “Vegetables are actually one of my favourite things to cook,” says Pynt. “A vegetarian has never left this place hungry.”
And despite the restaurant’s recent closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pynt assures Burnt Ends fans can still get their fix. “We’ve launched a subscriptions and online platform for food delivery, including all our Australian wine imports. We’ve turned that into more of an online shop and delivery service. We’re just pushing every sort of channel that we’ve got available to us.”