Whether it’s coaxing the embers of a wood-fired oven or kneading pasta dough, chef Lim Yew Aun of Bar Cicheti uses his Asian sensibilities to interpret Italian cuisine
“I love it so much...the one at Opal Crescent. They only open for lunch until 2pm. It’s very good. You should try it.” Penang-born chef Lim Yew Aun—of the recently opened Italian pasta and wine bar Bar Cicheti, its mothership Cicheti, and modern Australian restaurant Fynn’s—is raving about his favourite minced pork noodles stall.
We’re quite sure he would have scoured the island before making this call. This is someone who pursues his passions to the zenith degree. The tattoo-clad chef previously took a year offF&B to master tattoo art, and when he was learning how to be a pizzaiolo (pizza chef) at the Japanese-Italian L’Operetta Group, watched umpteen Neapolitan pizza-making videos late into the night. The wiry chef even speaks with intensity, his words loud and resonant, like new guitar strings strung taut.
Chef Aun put his pizza-making skills to good use when he and his cousin-business partner Ong Liling started Italian restaurant Cicheti at Kandahar Street five years ago. The casual restaurant with a hershey shaped wood-fired oven at its heart was a sleeper hit. With the restaurant going strong, the pair decided to start Bar Cicheti. This new addition, barely five months old, sees Chef Aun paying more of his laser beam attention to handmade pasta. But pizza is never far from his mind. He says with an easy laugh, “My heart is round (like a pizza) even after all these years.”
Why do you have a passion for making wood-fired Neapolitan pizza?
Denne historien er fra March/April 2019-utgaven av WINE&DINE.
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Denne historien er fra March/April 2019-utgaven av WINE&DINE.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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New Blood
The next-generation is breathing new life into the forgotten art of spice-mixing, peppering the traditional trade with renewed ideas and fresh perspectives.
Sharing Is Caring
Compared to its flagship at Serene Centre, Fat Belly Social at Boon Tat Street is a classier and bolder affair, in more than one sense.
Nutmeg's Role In Singapore's History
From tales of it being used to ward off the plague in mid-1300s Europe to one of the ingredients in dessert, we have all known, tasted, or at least heard of nutmeg. But not many know of the spice’s role in Singapore’s history.
New And Improved
The ever-profound chef-owner Kenjiro ‘Hatch’ Hashida finds more room, three to be exact, to express a Ha Ri philosophy at Hashida Singapore’s new location at Amoy Street.
Pairing Spice-Driven Cuisines With Wine
Pairing spice-driven cuisines with wine has long been a challenge but with a little imagination, it doesn’t have to be.
Let Land Grow Wild
Niew Tai-Ran has worn many hats: aeronautical engineering major, investment banker, avid surfer, and, for the last 14 years, winemaker. Discover how this Malaysia-born, Singapore-native is championing the “do-nothing farming” philosophy at his vineyard in Oregon.
The South Asian Misnomer
Incredibly diverse and varied than most know, Indian food is far more intriguing than butter chicken or thosai. Here is a crash course on the extensive cuisine from region to region, recognisable for the seemingly infinite ways of using spices.
Keepers Of The Spice Trade
From its glory days along trade routes to pantry staples all over the world, spices have become so commonplace that we’ve taken them for granted. For these three trailblazers, however, spice is their livelihood and motivation: Langit Collective working with indigenous rural farming communities in Malaysia; IDH’s Sustainable Spice Initiative; and chef Nak’s one-woman mission to share forgotten Khmer cuisine.
Sugar, Spice And Everything Nice
Like food, spices bring vibrancy and variety to alcoholic beverages. Surfacing in unexpected ways on the palate, find everything from cumin to tamarind, cloves to cardamom enriching these drinks.
Building Blocks From The Archipelago
For the smorgasbord of dishes found in Indonesian cuisine, it is a little known secret that the modest bumbu, in all its variants, is the bedrock of such flavourful fare.
