74 CHEF'S TRAVELOGUE
Michael Wilson from Pollen
Chef Michael Wilson digs up old tomes like a persistent archaeologist in search of uncovering culinary truths that shed new light on traditional dishes. Esther Faith Lew pokes deeper into the inner workings of his urges.
Blood. He misses it. That’s the other intriguing thing I’ve discovered about him. It’s the one ingredient that he would really love to have in his kitchen (if it wasn’t banned in Singapore). “Blood is a key ingredient that is missing in a lot of dishes. I would love to make a chocolate tart out of it. In Southern Italy’s Sardinia, there is a popular dish that’s like a black pudding, but it’s prepared as a dessert with dried fruit and nuts. I want to reinterpret that into a classic French chocolate tart. The idea came from sanguineaccio, a blood sausage. This savoury element, when used in a sweet dish, adds a layer of depth to nose to tail cooking.”
He is quite the Indiana Jones, this one, and an old soul that knows much but is unwilling to reveal too much, Wilson is a selfconfessed “nerd” who wanted to be an archeaologist or a history professor if fate had not driven him down the culinary road.
Still, he manages to recreate a sense of history with his current undertakings. Research is one of the ways. “Fifty percent of my time is spent on research; it motivates me to go back to history.”
Wilson is also a raider of lost tomes, resurrecting recipes of old from Apicius, a cookbook containing Latin recipes dating to the 4th and 5th century. “I’m currently experimenting with a recipe for what is now called Pain Perdu; basically it’s a recipe for soaking bread in milk, wine and eggs before cooking it. I’ve always read about Romans dipping their bread in their wine, and I’m trying to find a way to interpret this into a new dish. Neither wine or bread tastes the way it did 2,000 years ago; the grains used were different and the process of wine fermentation was, shall we say, more rustic and less scientific. So, is it possible to replicate this? I’m not so sure, an interpretation, yes. But trying to find a way to incorporate both without getting the bread soggy, now that’s the challenge,” he muses.
In this day and age, food and the dining experience must have a meaningful narrative, and from the plot, you find your own style, voice and ethos, Wilson believes. His inspirations beckon from the Mediterranean shores.
MAD ABOUT THE MEDITERRANEAN
Every year, Chef Wilson makes it a point to head to the Mediterranean region. Drawn to the sea, he is inspired by the simple life of fishermen. “I remember a fishing trip in Sardinia where we had caught sea urchins; we cooked them and ate them fresh on the boat. There was nothing more beautiful than that; there’s a greater appreciation for something when you have harvested it, grown it, or caught it yourself.” To him, it is all about the quality of ingredients and respecting them without the need to do too much to them.
“He is quite the Indiana Jones, this one, and an old soul that knows much but is unwilling to reveal too much, Wilson is a self-confessed ‘nerd’ who wanted to be an archeaologist or a history professor if fate had not driven him down the culinary road.”