Making Memories
Dining at Ultime Atelier and Boulangerie is an experience like no other
All eyes are on Ken Ng, founder of Ultime Atelier and Boulangerie, as he strides towards our table, a wide grin on his face. He is holding something unusual; at first glance, it appears to be a large wooden cube, several inches high. Our surprise turns to awe as we realise it is a croissant loaf, painstakingly laminated into perfect geometric shape.
The dapper Ng, who is dressed in a stylish brown suit, laughs when he sees our reactions. “Do you know how much effort it takes to make something like this? It’s crazy!” he exclaims. “But I want to share this experience with you. This is one of our hot-selling breads. Not just because of its shape, but also because of its crust. It’s soft and buttery, and everyone loves it.”
An unconventional dish, but one highly appropriate here, where unconventional experiences are the order of the day. There’s nothing Ng enjoys more than witnessing his meals make strong impressions on his guests.
“We share experiences of different food, different ingredients. So you’ll see us changing all our menus every three to four months. In fine dining, you may not enjoy every course of a degustation menu. Tastes are very individual. But we hope the overall experience here creates a memory you remember,” says Ng.
Ng tells us the boulangerie here exists thanks to an odd twist of fate. It all started several years ago, after a friend advised him to invest in Beni, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Singapore. As the founder of a property management company, he had little experience in food and beverage but had always considered himself an epicure.
This led to him opening Beni’s Malaysian branch in Genting Highlands in 2019.
Ng made several changes to Beni’s menu to accommodate for the market here, and for a while, the restaurant flourished. Two months into operations, however, Covid-19 cases started spiking all over the country, and the national Movement Control Order came into effect. Genting Highlands was closed, and Beni’s chefs, mostly living in Kuala Lumpur, were forbidden to cross state lines.
With Beni temporarily closed, the resourceful Ng did the next best thing and opened Ultime in Changkat Bukit Bintang in March this year. When
dine-in became restricted, he started Boulangerie Delivery so that the restaurant’s pastries and dishes were still available for takeaway and delivery. Dealing with all these unexpected roadblocks proved challenging but Ng was determined to weather the storm.
“My strength has always been in leadership and learning new things. Once I’m passionate about something, I go all the way,” he reflects. Fortunately, all’s well that ends well, and
Ultime is now doing good business.
Ng has invited us to try the eatery’s Afternoon
Tea, and true to its raison d’etre, it is slightly different from what you’d normally expect what with a slightly heavier focus on the savoury than the sweets. Four exquisite varieties of Brittany butter (unsalted, pesto, porcini mushroom and truffle butter) are available to spread on fluffy buns and croissant loaves. The Wagyu brioche burgers and truffle profiteroles are delightful, and the meal is washed down with Ultime’s special siphon-infused teas.
For Ng, seeing the satisfied faces of his customers after a meal is one of the greatest joys of running a restaurant.
“During fine dining, people talk to each other over long courses,” he says. “They laugh, they chat, they share stories. It’s only during meals that we communicate.
And it’s one of the best times of the day.”
“Tastes are very individual. But we hope the overall experience here creates a memory you remember” —KEN NG