Michelin in Bali? ⭐️⭐️

[jstar]

Syrco Bakker, the 38 years old chef of restaurant Pure C, will start his own restaurant in Ubud. In June, Syrco and his family will move to Bali. As a child, Syrco grew up with Indonesian cuisine, his grandparents were from Java and Sumatra.

The restaurant he will run in Ubud in Indonesia will be called Syrco BASÈ. The name comes from both the Balinese word for spices and the English word ‘base’. The chef wants to go back to his roots. (That’s something we heard before.) The restaurant should open this autumn.

Syrco BASÈ will be a standalone project and is not part of a resort or hotel. Syrco will use the same approach in Indonesia as he did in Zeeland; base the dishes on cooperation with local fishermen, farmers and producers. The restaurant is set around a central garden and combines Balinese architecture with a modern style. For the design and construction local companies are used.

Bit of a bad timing for owner, tv celebrity and topchef Sergio Herman, who loses the Michelin stars* of that particular restaurant.

Here you see -a very young- Syrco work on some (Indonesian influenced and westernized) dishes for the restaurant. It gives a good explanation why the prices are so high. It makes me wonder a bit if this will be successful. But it does fit in the new philosophy of high quality vacations.



* “For the sake of clarity, that does not mean that the food was therefore not good,” Michelin points out. “Under the leadership of chef Syrco Bakker, the restaurant received two stars. But this year he will be replaced by chef Jeffrey Laarberg, who previously also worked within the Sergio Herman Group in Le Pristine. We want to visit the restaurant again first to be able to hand out the stars. We have therefore temporarily removed Pure C completely from the Michelin selection. We will visit again soon, and then the restaurant can be included in the digital selection again. If the quality of the restaurant is just as good, Pure C may have a chance to win 1, 2 or 3 stars again next year. And we certainly have confidence in that if continuity can be guaranteed.”

 

[Wisnu]

The restaurant he will run in Ubud in Indonesia will be called Syrco BASÈ. The name comes from both the Balinese word for spices and the English word ‘base’. The chef wants to go back to his roots. (That’s something we heard before.) The restaurant should open this autumn.

I believe the word BASÈ here come from balinese word which mean seasoning. Base genep is the complete Balinese spice paste comprise of 13 spices.

 

[Helpful Herbert]

Syrco Bakker, the 38 years old chef of restaurant Pure C, will start his own restaurant in Ubud. In June, Syrco and his family will move to Bali. As a child, Syrco grew up with Indonesian cuisine, his grandparents were from Java and Sumatra.

He grew up eating Indomie?

 

[snpark]

Ah the usual same same PR marketing blurb about working in cooperation with local suppliers.

Basically means like everyone else he can only serve what they deliver. Eventually they will start shafting him on quality and price and he will have to change his menu every week because maaf Pak habis we don't have prawns today or tomato or oil or this or that.
When you talk to restauranteurs here they all have the same sad story of problems with suppliers on a regular consistent basis

So yet another fancy Bule place in Ubud.

 

[jstar]

I believe the word BASÈ here come from balinese word which mean seasoning. Base genep is the complete Balinese spice paste comprise of 13 spices.

Ya that’s probably a translation issue; the word “kruiden” can be a noun (spices) or a verb (applying seasoning).

 

[Samoerai]

Syrco Bakker, the 38 years old chef of restaurant Pure C, will start his own restaurant in Ubud.

He'd better have a KITAS-investor ...

 

[jstar]

Of course the whole “discover my roots” that you hear so much from Indo’s (EurAsians in NL, Dutch Indies descent) is BS. They go to Bali while their predecessors originate from other islands. And their (great-)grandfather was a Totok (white European) working on Java, Celebes, Borneo or Sumatra who had a relationship with a local Njai (concubine) who was the ancestress. Sometimes married but most often not, and then the guy usually did not recognize his own children. And after the independence of Indonesia, in the fourties or early fifties the family was seen als collaborators, had to flee the country and arrived in a rather hostile ‘home country’ where they were called “pinda” (peanut) or “blauwe”. They had to pay back the boat trip to Holland and in the new country their diploma’s and degrees were not recognized. So it was a difficult start. Dark page in history.

 

[jstar]

He grew up eating Indomie?

That was introduced in ‘72 so long after they arrived in Holland, they are not so familiar with it. Also, it has a rather bad name in The Netherlands. Instant noodles are available but that brand is mainly sold at toko’s or discounters, they have more Royco, Unox and Knorr or so in regular supermarkets.

 

[jstar]

He'd better have a KITAS-investor ...

Probably PT PMA or a local partner.

 

[Samoerai]

Of course the whole “discover my roots” that you hear so much from Indo’s (EurAsians in NL, Dutch Indies descent) is BS. They go to Bali while their (great-)grandfather was a Totok on Java or Sumatra with a local Njai (concubine), sometimes married but most often not, who usually did not recognize his own children. And after the independence, in the fourties or early fifties the family had to flee the country and arrived in a rather hostile ‘home country’ where they were called “pinda” (peanut) or “blauwe”. Where they had to pay back the boat trip to Holland and where their diploma’s and degrees were not recognized so they had a difficult start. Dark page in history.

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Yes, I agree. The 2th, 3th and 4th generation don't really know their background. First, because the 1th generation didn't talk about what happend and why the left Indonesia, part because of their traumas in the war. Second, because the history books in The Netherlands didn't cover that part of history. The 3th and 4th generation are now actively searching for their roots in Indonesia. I wonder, when they will be conscious of that part of history, if they still are proud to be Dutch-Indies?

 

[ChrisTex]

And once he leaves to look after his other places, the one in Ubud will allow its standards to drop.

 

[jstar]

Yeah the plan is to start a second restaurant in The Netherlands and open that a year later. So I guess they will go back, obviously after making another chef responsible. As Sergio Herman, Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver c.s. all do of course.

Talking about the latter, I guess most of his restaurants are closed. We visited the ‘Italian’ one in Bali once and were not impressed.

 

[jstar]

I remember Uncle Roger also not being so positive about Jamie’s fried rice…



But he had -besides the acne- nothing to say about Gordon Ramsey who made Nasi Goreng during his Indonesian cooking show.

.

 

[snpark]

Actual Uncle Roger done a lot with Ramsay. And William Wongso

 

[snpark]

Btw you know he is not real right?
He is a character. Like Ali G. Dame Edna. Mrs Merton.

 

[jstar]

Ah the usual same same PR marketing blurb about working in cooperation with local suppliers.

Well, there are some in Ubud where it does seem to work. Another Dutch chef with a similar Michelin star background, Eelke Plasmeijer, also tries to use only local ingredients. They even have steak tartare (which is raw minced beef and for obvious reasons rather difficult to get in Indonesian restaurants, for me it is brasserie food though). Now their restaurant is rather successful. Not cheap of course.

 

[pantaiema]

However skilful the chef is. However star rating they have got from Michelin, they certainly can not turn chicken, beef, lamb cuisine to taste like lobster, king crabs, king prawns, octopus/calamaris varieties of shell fishes, sea fishes, or other exotic seafood.

The seafood restaurants, cafes have all sorts of fresh seafood which you select from large tanks and they are relatively cheap compared to other countries. The seafood is then barbecued and bought to your table with several side dishes. Sweet, nutty with refreshing flavour form fresh green coconut water as beverages.

For seafood lovers, seafood is abundant and relatively cheap in Bali, there are a number of seafood restaurants, Chinese specialist restaurant serving seafood, cafes, street food vendors at Jimbaran Bay, seminyak and across the island. Why on earth the tourists, seafood lovers would want to look for Michelin chef serving beef, chicken, lamb where they could easily get it in other countries with quite similar price ? If you search in YT there are a lot of testimonies about this street seafoods.

 

[snpark]

That's because they are different meats / proteins. With different flavours.

You are aware of that right?

Like an orange will never taste like a banana

 

[Balifrog]

For seafood lovers, seafood is abundant and relatively cheap in Bali, there are a number of seafood restaurants

Seafood from warm water is tasteless. Hence they grill, bbq it and serve it with plenty spices.
This what a proper seafood platter from the Atlantic looks like.....

With a Muscadet or Entre Deux Mers.

 

[Samoerai]

I remember Uncle Roger also not being so positive about Jamie’s fried rice…



But he had -besides the acne- nothing to say about Gordon Ramsey who made Nasi Goreng during his Indonesian cooking show.

.

Very funny, this Uncle Roger. Bet Jamie didn't like his comments.