Aussie Rules
Whitegrass chef-owner Sam Aisbett is defining his own version of mod-oz food through delicately flavoured dishes with a strong Japanese influence, and oh-so-pretty interiors. Chong Seow Wei dines in
t means i can do anything i want!” quips Sam Aisbett, the tattoo-clad Australian chef-owner of Whitegrass, when asked to define modern Australian cuisine. At his fine-dining restaurant, which opened in January at Chijmes (01-26/27), the former head chef of award-winning Quay restaurant in Sydney creatively dishes out “mod-oz” food in a five- or eight-course dinner with a palpable—and palatable— Asian touch (especially Japanese, influenced by his two-year stint as senior sous chef at Tetsuya’s in Sydney). For example, the amuse-bouche could come as a bowl of refreshing ingredients, where pearls of savoury salmon roe sit on small cubes of mild-flavoured trout jelly, lightly pickled cucumber balls with a crunch and a base of creamy fennel puree. For starters, the yellowtail amberjack sashimi is served with creamy horseradish and aromatic toasted nori oil, which brings extra zing to coax out its sweetness, further accentuated by nasturtium leaves, and thinly sliced cucumber and salted egg yolk. The Mangalica pork here is particularly unforgettable; slowly brined in chicken stock for eight hours, the fatty cubes of jowl melt in the mouth. They lay in a light, moreish broth—made by boiling the pork bones with seaweed—alongside chewy chunks of tiger abalone and pickled cabbage that boost the dish’s Asian flavours. A course of butter-poached quail breast also stands out for the meat’s tenderness, although it offers more bite than the pork. But what’s more noteworthy is the dish’s medley of textures, reinforced by crispy roasted milk skin (made by oven-baking it), dices of jellied century egg whites and a sprinkling of toasted nuts and seeds. The meal could end with another texture-driven treat, like luscious jackfruit ice cream with coconut