Scandinavian culinary flair in the spotlight

Isaksson is guest chef at Mandarin Grill as part of the Scandinavian Week promotions. — Photos: ONG SOON HIN/The Star

AS A way of introducing Mandarin Grill’s guest chef Sayan Isaksson, the organiser started to sing a chorus line from Rasa Sayang, a popular Malay folk number.

But Isaksson frantically signalled for the Swede to stop.

The chef of Esperanto, a Michelin-star restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, was in no mood for fanfare.

One of his team members had accidentally cut himself with a steak knife, requiring six stitches to close the wound.

After a quick wave as a way of saying “hello”, Isaksson and his team of chefs went into the kitchen. Minutes later the appetiser emerged, each item presented like a small toy on a little platter.

There were quail eggs resting on a bed of shells, done just right so the yolks were soft enough to explode in the mouth, coating the tongue with its golden, velvety sauce. Potato balls, dipped in koji the night before to be fermented and then steamed, were rolled into balls and fried.

Served with marigolds, they came with a sour cream, drizzled with leek oil.

Using a combination of buckwheat and millet grains softened with a chicken stock, the mushroom porridge is topped with deep-fried oyster strips and lychens, pickled and then deep-fried.

The salad was too pretty to eat. A puree of cilantro, parsley and chevril rested on a buckwheat cracker. It was garnished with pea shoot tendrils and baby daikon and oxalis leaves. There was also a clear vegetable broth, which Isaksson said was made of organic waste. “It’s made of vegetable scraps and peels,” admitted Isaksson who practices a no waste policy.

Some clues on how this devotee to beautiful food presentations reduces wastage, is he uses egg and oyster shells for garnishing. He also served us rye bread with delightful virgin butter.

Slightly yellowish with a creamy, yoghurt like consistency, we were told this was due to the presence of buttermilk, liquid produced from churning butter out of cultured cream. Isaksson’s reasoning is to keep the nutritive qualities of the liquid as well as the flavours of the half solidified fats. Why throw a good thing away?

But when Isaksson announced the shell was edible at the first course which was Gillardeau oyster with cucumber beads, preserved elderberries and oscietre caviar, you could have heard a pin drop.

One writer promptly picked up a part from a bed of cracked shells and bit into it to test him out.

Oyster with preserved elderberries and oscietre caviar. The oyster shell replicated from rice and tapiaco flour is edible. 

It turned out those were real. But the whole shell, a cracker replica made of rice, tapioca flour and cut away oyster parts was not. It was in this oyster keropok that the fleshy mantle was presented atop a mayonnaise of egg white and canola oil, given extra flavour with oyster scraps. No part of the oyster, save for the shells, were discarded for this dish.

As continuation, air dried yellow fish, marinated in garlic, sugar and salt and topped with radish slices and fresh horseradish followed next. Surrounded by a dashi moat, it brought to mind the salty flavours of the sea with oily notes from the fish coating the palate with a rich flavour.

This was followed by a mushroom porridge. Using a combination of buckwheat and millet grains softened with a chicken stock, it is topped with deep-fried oyster strips and lychens, pickled and then deep-fried.

Hearty but complex, there was a distinct flavour of blue cheese and preserved butter. The latter is actually left out to age for six months until it smells like cheese. Combined, the ingredients reminded of a thick Marmite vegetable stew.

Air cured yellow fish, radish and horseradish.

This readied our palates for the aged sirloin topped with grilled shredded green vegetables. Aged beef is known for its robust flavour due to the chemical changes from controlled decomposition. As promised the sirloin was tender and bursting with flavour.

To end the meal was a roasted potato ice cream. Garnished with a leaf of dried apple slice with gold flecks, it lay on a bed of dried apples and roasted dark and white chocolate crumbs softened with apple juice. As the ice cream ball had been dipped in nitrogen, it took time to melt. This allowed the diner to enjoy the silky texture as it glided affortlessly across the tongue.

Isaksson also created magic with the bedding. Someone said she could taste butterscotch but that was the chocolate working with the apples.

The Simply Scandinavian promotion ends April 21.

MANDARIN GRILL, Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Tel: [phone]). Business hours: 12.30pm to 2.30pm, 7pm to 10.30pm. Pork free.

This is the writer’s personal observation and not an endorsement by StarMetro.