ALL ABOUT TEA
Kate Pascual, beverage manager of Esora
When kappo restaurant Esora opened in 2018, it introduced diners to a unique tea pairing programme personally curated by its former chef, Shigeru Koizumi, a self-confessed tea lover who wanted to build a tea drinking culture in Singapore. While the culinary team has changed hands early this year and is now led by head chef Takeshi Araki, the dining experience is still anchored by its modern Japanese cuisine that has a strong affinity with nature, and a dedicated tea pairing programme curated by beverage manager Kate Pascual.
Pascual started out as a restaurant captain but learned the intricacies of brewing tea from her former mentor, Koizumi. He also instilled in her his “onedegree philosophy”, which essentially means paying great attention to the smallest detail when it comes to preparing food and drinks. She explains: “We use a certain type of water and brew various tea leaves in specific temperatures, as even a one per cent difference changes the taste profile.”
It is a skill that she has mastered in her years of hands-on training at Esora and what she applied in curating its latest summer tea menu, a collection of eight cold brews served in vessels similar to wine glasses for better appreciation of the flavours and aromas.
Pairing these brews with the food menu is a collaborative process, says Pascual, who works closely with Araki and chef de cuisine Noboru Shimohigashi to come up with the “perfect match”. Pascual starts by sourcing premium tea leaves from Taiwan, China and Japan, and brewing them in exacting temperatures. She uses a lower temperature of 80 C for green tea, 100 C (or boiling point) for black tea, and 85 to 88 C for oolong tea to reach optimal flavours.
She infuses these with a variety of ingredients such as vanilla, mango, basil and peppercorn to bring out nuances that complement the chefs’ creations. “It’s all about enhancing the guests’ experience,” she elaborates, and the tea pairing helps to “balance out the overall flavours, cut through the fattiness (of meats), and add another layer of flavour to the dish”.
In the restaurant’s signature amuse bouche of monaka stuffed with foie gras torchon, for example, Pascual serves it with oolong tea infused with vanilla for sweetness. “Monaka has a sweet component,” says Pascual. The tea plays on the creaminess of the foie gras and the toastiness of the wafer, exciting the palate for the dishes to come. In the grilled Omi Wagyu nasu, where the beef is marinated in red wine and miso, Pascual created the more robust hojicha infused with sancho pepper to offset the marbling of the beef, while highlighting the sweetness of the miso.
Pascual’s tea pairing menu will regularly change, just like how the food menu will be updated according to the peak seasonality of the ingredients. “We will constantly adjust the flavours and blends to see how they can pair better with their accompanying dishes.” It’s an ongoing process, she says, which will be based on the taste and texture of the chefs’ creations. At the end of the day, Pascual and her team want the “food and drinks to be a complementary enjoyment at Esora, and not only enjoyed independently”.