LUXURY LURE

There’s a new restaurant moving into Palazzo Versace and it’s bringing another kind of star power to the designer hotel, writes Sally Coates

MICHELIN-starred chef Manjunath Mural has landed on the Gold Coast to headline a new gourmet Indian restaurant at Palazzo Versace.

Replacing Vie Restaurant and Bar, Kokum will serve upmarket Indian fare in the exclusive waterfront setting.

Named after a native western Indian spice, it’s a joint project for Manjunath and Saffron Broadbeach’s Sridhar Penumechu, a team Palazzo Versace have complete faith in despite Indian cuisine not being the obvious choice for the designer destination.

“Asian Indian fusion was different from other culinary offerings within the hotel and is one of the hardest cuisines to master when it comes to true flavours and techniques,” resident manager Alicia Denning says.

“With already having an Italian dining experience and an international seafood buffet, it gave our guests another option without being a conflict of interest for the hotel itself.”

The venue will undergo significant structural changes before its predicted opening mid-year.

Manjuneth comes to the Gold Coast after a successful stint as executive chef at The Song of India, Singapore, where he was awarded one Michelin star in 2016 and again in 2017, the only Indian restaurant in Southeast Asia to achieve this accolade.

“In Singapore I learned how Indian food can be enhanced, look wise, flavour wise,” he says.

“Indian cuisine has a depth of history, tradition, ingredients and techniques, yet it is still considered ‘niche’ and often kept to the family restaurant in many parts of the world. I have often asked myself why.

“My dream is to share my style in presenting Indian cuisine in a way that is relevant to diners across the world, and that haute Indian cuisine will one day be as accepted as haute French dining.”

One way he’ll achieve that is by combining ingredients that are not typically common in Indian cuisine, including caviar, seafood and foie gras. “One dish I will be doing is lemon, garlic and chilli pan-seared lobster with southern coconut sauce,” he says.

“I’ll also have sambal tandoor spiced barramundi, cooked in the tandoor style and served with avocado peanut chutney salsa.

“It will be topped with spiced masala caviar. “For dessert I am doing a macadamia Bailey’s kulfi, a traditional Indian dish, but given a modern taste and look.

“There will be a lot of presentation and new dishes that people might not have seen before.”

But with a deep attentiveness to what local palates love, there will also be a few classics.

“I don’t want to make people unhappy, so I’m creating one or two choices if people really want curry,” Manjunath says.

“It’s called Curry Culture, it’s a three compartment dish and three different sauces.

“We will have naans, but again done to suit where I am cooking.

“I’m creating a mushroom truffle naan and creating naan with sesame and saffron.

“It will be Indian, but less traditional. I really think that people will like the taste of the food and the presentation.”

Kokum at Palazzo Versace will open mid-year