Braised and Confused

CHRISTINA KO bites into a bewilderment of dishes and decor at Buzz Concepts’ private kitchen at ACTS Rednaxela, Casa

EVERYTHING IS JUST a little bit confused at Casa. That, perhaps, is wherein lies its charm. The private kitchen run by Buzz Concepts sits inside ACTS Rednaxela, a serviced-apartment venture launched by developer Carl Gouw in March, but it doesn’t seem to attend to the building’s guests. The decor is eclectic: at a long table designed to seat 16, there are big chairs, small chairs, old chairs, new chairs…a mishmash of seating sourced from here to the United States to Germany, and dating from the 19th century to modern times. Lighting comes in various shapes and sizes, as do decanters that line up in a row that flanks one wall.

A quick scan of the bookshelf shows no discernable theme. There’s a row of Architectural Digest magazines, some coffee-table tomes on jewellery, economist Paul Krugman’s very serious The Great Unravelling and, a few books down, the considerably pulpier Asian Cult Cinema by Thomas Weisser. All have been culled from the personal collection of the owner. A series of framed posters of Bruce Lee-era kung-fu films – which his father, Alex Gouw, produced – decorate a wall. Even the name of the venue seems incongruous, suggesting Spanish leanings that are present neither in cuisine nor decor.

It could, of course, be argued that a lack of thematic rhyme or reason is perfectly acceptable in one’s home, so perhaps there’s nothing wrong with Casa being so cheerfully and confusingly casa-like. But when a broad-based, ragtag philosophy is applied to food, are the results just as endearingly homey?

At first glance, chef Jaime Young’s cuisine wins with its substantial portions (he has actually scaled them down so that Casa patrons aren’t bursting by the third course). It’s a pleasant contrast to the case at most haute private kitchens, where minuscule courses can require a McDonald’s chaser to fill the belly. Three menus are available for pre-choice: Rustic Italian, Summer Mediterranean and Fruits de Mer, offering five, six and seven courses respectively, and listed in ascending order of price.

We’re here to taste highlights from each of the three, which adds further befuddlement, and the culinary journey starts with scallops ceviche from the Fruits de Mer menu. It arrives on a large plate, with three luscious discs of the stuff lightly dusted with chives and each topped with half a devilled quail egg and a small heaping of caviar. Binding the trio in a hoop of harmony is a broad stroke of truffle sauce, offering a pungency that acts to elucidate the freshness of the seafood and give body to the creamy egg.

Summer Mediterranean’s watermelon gazpacho is a culinary rarity – a truly hearty cold dish. Forged of puréed cucumber, tomato and peppers red, yellow and green, and topped with shavings of basil, its frozen chunks of watermelon loan a cool crunch to proceedings.

Though executed well, none of this seems particularly derivative of the Jean-Georges school of fancy French dining (Young worked at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s New York restaurant before heading to Hong Kong). But we’ve seen enough protégés of celebrity chefs come to town, their heads filled with lofty ideas of experimental gastronomy. “I want it to be approachable,” says this chef. “I like simple presentation and not messing around too much, just paying attention to the quality of the ingredients.”

Young, who comes across as affable, modest and slightly shy, explains that he moved to Hong Kong when his girlfriend declared she was leaving the Big Apple: “ ‘I’m moving to Hong Kong in a month. Do you want to come?’ she said. I had never left New York. But I was like, OK, let’s try it.”

Once in Hong Kong, on a night at another Buzz Concepts venue, Volar, Young met the company’s F&B director Calvin Ku. “He wore a shirt that said New York City,” Young recalls, “and I said, ‘Oh, are you from New York or something?’ Kind of being an asshole. And he said no, he went to culinary school there, and it turned out to be the same school [as mine. Eventually] we became really good friends and started working together.”

Young’s easygoing attitude shows in Casa’s mains, which are straightforward favourites with unique character. The meat-to-pasta ratio in the gramigna with homemade sausage ragu is almost a generous 50/50. The beef cheek with foie gras is lighter than usual; the foie gras – which normally dominates this dish – is jarringly, though not unpleasantly, gentle in flavour, allowing the candied blackberry coulis to rise to the fore. Roasted pork belly has slowly crept up on us to become a must-have on fine-dining menus. In this instance it is served simply, the juicy pork covered by a lid of crackling skin that’s so tough you can barely cut through it. Tackling the brawny resilience is a joy.

The pièce de résistance, though, is the market bouillabaisse that is filled to the brim with fresh clams and giant prawns, all swimming in a tomato broth. Each sip feels like a warm snuggle, enveloping the diner from the inside out with memories – real or imagined – of momma’s home cooking.

While the haute comfort-food movement is sweeping town fairly successfully, the two factors that make a dish comforting – sturdy flavours and robust portions – are often forgotten in the quest to fuse le formidable with fried chicken. Young’s insistence on food with muscle is part of a dying tradition in today’s gastronomic landscape, and his culinary chaos, it turns out, fits in perfectly with Casa’s homely jumble.

For dessert, there’s nothing especially confusing about the flourless hazelnut chocolate cake, which sounds fancier than it is. Rich in taste and texture, it’s basically a brownie served with ice cream, and an unambiguous ending to a jambalaya of a dinner experience that, stripped of its more curious elements, is a winner.