Celeb Argentinian Chef Offers Priciest BBQ Meal In Singapore At $628 For Six Courses
Chef Francis Mallmann, who’s famous for cooking food over open fire, will construct an impressive dome-shaped barbecue contraption when he visits Singapore for a seven-day dinner in May.
Singapore is home to a number of three-Michelin-starred diners and posh sushi and European restaurants. Therefore, it’s no stranger to pricey meals. However, an upcoming seven-dinner series by visiting Argentinian celebrity chef Francis Mallmann, hosted at The Fullerton Bay Hotel’s The Clifford Pier, could possibly be the island’s most expensive six-course ‘ barbecue’ meal at $628 (it costs an extra $188 for wine pairing). The rustic-luxe “open-fire feast” next month will be personally prepped by the guest chef who "specialises in various Patagonian methods of barbecuing food with open fire". As a rough comparison, a tasting menu at buzzy wood fire-centric restaurant Burnt Ends at Dempsey is priced between $180 to $250. Even a lengthy multicourse meal at the famously costly three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Zen goes for a cheaper $580 per head.
The 66-year-old chef’s cooking is described as “elemental, fundamental and delicious” by late American TV personality Anthony Bourdain. Francis wrote two cookbooks, and was featured on a number of television programmes, including Netflix’s Chef’s Table.
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Specially-built BBQ “dome” for Singapore dinners
The cooking will be done “using a Patagonian-style pit cooking technique for a smoky, aromatic flavour” at a “specially constructed dome” on The Clifford Pier’s alfresco terrace. The impressive framework of iron sits above a pile of crackling firewood. Hunks of meat, whole fruit and veg are strung at varying heights of the dome to slow-cook over the flames. Sadly, only indoor seating is available, so diners can only catch a glimpse of the fiery spectacle when entering The Clifford Pier (below).
Chef Francis will be present throughout the dinners, working alongside a few members of his team and The Fullerton’s culinary staff. He “will make every effort to meet and greet guests within guidelines and restrictions set forth by the government and local authorities”, states the booking page for the event.
Why does the meal cost $628?
Well, we’re guessing part of the dinner bill pays for the construction of the aforementioned special barbecue dome, and also for the chef’s expertise, of course. He owns ten restaurants in South America, France and the USA, and occasionally hosts guests for a culinary getaway on La Isla, his private island in western Patagonia. According to travel magazine Travel + Leisure, a six-night experience will cost you and five friends US$66,000 (S$90,000). No wonder the man can afford to own an island.
What’s on the $628 menu
Expect “an homage to nature’s bounty from the majestic Andean region”, with ingredients ranging “from hefty meat to delicate fish and even the humble potato”, says the press release. Some of these ingredients, suspended over the fire on the dome, are cooked slowly via indirect heat and smoke; others are tossed directly into the fire, or grilled on a plancha (flat top grill).
The first of six courses features potatoes. But not just any old potatoes: smashed Andean fingerling potatoes, cooked on a griddle and gussied up with clotted cream and Polanco caviar – the only caviar produced in the Southern hemisphere, here sourced from a sturgeon farm from Rio Negro river in Uruguay. This is followed by an appetiser of cream of corn with white wine and basil, served on a corn cracker, then sustainably farmed King Salmon from New Zealand, cooked confit-style in olive oil and seared on a plancha.
Next, the beef: slow-grilled beef sweetbread (organ meat from the thymus and pancreas) on eggplant Milanese and Yamaguchi-imported wagyu rib-eye, roasted over the open fire. The prized Japanese cattle is raised for 100 months instead of the usual 28, which according to the PR rep, results in meat with a more concentrated umami flavour.
Finally, dessert — chocolate cream, dulce de leche flan (caramel custard), lemon crostata (a rustic Italian pie) and burnt late-summer fruits. If you’re willing to dig into your wallet for the wine pairing of six glasses, expect bottles from Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and France to complement your meal. You can also request for a vegetarian menu in advance (alas, for the same price tag).
By reservation only
Even at these prices, the hotel’s PR rep tells us that “reservations are picking up particularly quickly on May 22, which is the first day of the pop-up, and on Friday, May 27.”
The chef’s visit kick-starts the hotel’s inaugural World’s Best Chefs series, which promises more famous chefs and their brand of “unique dining experiences” in future – with equally eye-watering price tags, perhaps?
Details on Chef Francis Mallmann’s open-fire dining experience here. Available for dinner by reservation only on May 22 – 26, 29 & 30. Minimum two people per reservation required.
Photos: The Fullerton Hotel and Resorts
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