Comfort with a classic twist

A DRIVING force behind the Thai fashion industry for more than 20 years, Cerut Thaveechaiwattana recently ditched couture for cuisine, opening his first restaurant, Ceret, at the new high-end EmQuartier. Along with his two young chefs, who happen to be brothers, he is now offering favourite foods prepared in fine-dining style.

Spread over 250 square metres, the glass-wrapped restaurant takes up one corner of the Helix building with a view over the artificial tiered waterfall. The open kitchen is also glass-wrapped and it’s a pleasure to watch the good-looking chefs hard at work.

Now three months old, Ceret is done out in rustic style with a bare cement floor, wooden tables and Scandinavian furniture, retro hanging lamps and playful triangle-shaped mosaic tiles dotted on the floor and wall. The main dining room can accommodate about 80 people and there’s a private room partitioned by a curtain for up to 15 diners. An outdoor area has space for 20 seats.

“I ran the furniture shop-cum-boutique-cum coffeeshop Axil Cafe on Sukhumvit Soi 39 a decade or so ago but I’m still new to this business,” says Cerut, the man behind the success of 

 Thai fashion brands in Singapore Fashion Week over the past several years.

“I met my young chefs while they were honing their skills in New York and loved their creative twists and willingness to offer new things.”

Tanakrit, 22, and Sorawis Saengvanich 20, trained in Le Bernadine, Bouley, WD-50, Eleven Madison Park, Corton and Aldea in New York. Their creations look simple, but the flavours and the cooking process are complex. They source most of their organic ingredients from the Royal Projects.

Inspired by classic Spanish cauliflower salad, Sorawis, who has worked at Barcelona’s famous El Celler de Can Roca, offers Kohlrabi and Cauliflower Salad (Bt290) with slow roasted 

 kohlrabi, cauliflower and fresh greens on a bed of cauliflower paste. It’s served with a dressing of macadamia, anchovy sauce, and raisin-tarragon.

Vegetarians will love the Selection of Wild Mushroom (Bt360) for which 10 kinds of mushrooms like shitake, eringi, abalone, straw, white coral and jew’s ear are pan-fried and dressed with a mushroom sauce. It’s topped with a “yolk fudge” – an egg yolk cooked sous vide for 90 minutes until it becomes sticky – and drizzled with parmesan cheese, truffle flakes and coffee powder. 

“The stems of the mushrooms are boiled and simmered slowly for several hours. We then soak the dried mushrooms in the mushroom stock until they are soft then put them in the blender with mustard, vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper. The shitake, shimeji and eringi are cooked as a confit with thyme and rosemary-infused oil. All the mushrooms are then pan-fried with garlic-infused oil,” Sorawis explains,

Drawing on their favourite childhood breakfast of cereal and milk, the brothers have created Sunchoke Soup and Granola (Bt210). The white gruel is made from oatmeal and the flesh of the sunchoke – tuberous roots from the sunflower family – while beneath the thick soup is crispy roasted sunchoke peel and sunflower seeds. Young sunflower sprouts are sprinkled on top.

An alternative is Pumpkin Soup (Bt190), a dense yellow concoction of Japanese pumpkin roasted with cinnamon, vanilla and cloves then blended with sugar-coated walnuts and paprika powder.

Tuna Tartare (Bt320) is a new version of larb – spiced minced meat. The tuna is cooked with ground toasted rice, caper, pickled cucumber, fried shallot, mint leaves, chilli, lemon juice and fish sauce and served with crispy romaine and home-made Japanese rice crackers for an added crunch. Beef Tartare is also available at Bt380.

Duck Burrito (Bt360) is an interesting combination of Chinese and Tex-Mex cuisine. Inspired by Peking-style duck, the pulled confit duck is finished in hoisin sauce and rolled in a grilled tortilla wrap with Mexican-style fried rice, pickled cucumber and spring onion. It’s topped with fried shallot and crispy duck skin. 

Do keep room for the Nom Yen Panna Cotta (Bt220) where the salak-flavoured panna cotta is paired with sweet-and-tangy fresh strawberry and poured on a vanilla sponge cake and caramelised phyllo sheet base before being topped with strawberry sorbet. 

Chocoholics should opt for Chocolate (Bt260), a sinful dessert of milk chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache and streusel topping. White chocolate granita adds the finishing touch.

 

SLICES OF HEAVEN

Ceret is on the ground floor of the Helix building at EmQuariter on Sukhumvit Road. It’s open daily from 10 to 10. 

Call (02) 003 6919-20 or visit the “Ceret” page on Facebook.