Ordering in: How ricotta cheese gave a young restaurateur a new lease of life

The classic ricotta toast highlights the natural beauty of ricotta cheese, with little in the way of embellishments or enhancements. — Photos: COTTA

It may sound strange, but the truth is, ricotta cheese has given 34-year-old Ivan Chong Han a new lease of life.

The whole story begins – like many these days – at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, the exuberant, personable Chong owned a company which quickly crumbled under the weight of the pandemic. For nine months, he was in a self-professed “slump” before he finally pulled himself together and decided to do something to regain his professional footing.

After selling many of his earthly possessions, Chong came up with some capital. Then he wondered, “What can I do with this?”

“In November 2020, I thought of the idea of starting a restaurant. Interestingly, because of Covid-19, rental was very cheap, so I drove around town and took note of locations that I liked and realised that starting a restaurant was surprisingly achievable. I needed to get my mojo back, so I thought, ‘Okay, let’s do this!’.”

Chong finally opened his restaurant Cotta KL in Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur in April this year. The space that he eventually settled on is fairly unusual in that visitors to the restaurant have to enter through a mini mart!

So what does ricotta cheese have to do with all this? Well, Chong makes it fresh every day and has built his entire restaurant (and reputation) around this cheese.

Ricotta cheese is essentially Italian whey cheese made from the milk whey left over from the production of other cheeses. The final product has a creamy, cottage cheese-ish texture but is often lighter and more palatable.

Chong’s advent into ricotta-making actually began eight years ago as a means of impressing a girl or as he says, “My go-to move was ‘Let Ivan Chong cook for you’.”

After losing his company during the pandemic, Chong was in a slump until he decided to open Cotta, which he credits with giving him a renewed sense of purpose.

From those romantic beginnings unfolded a greater love story than Chong could have ever imagined – except in this instance, his partner-in-crime happens to be ricotta, as opposed to a girl.

“When I was thinking of what to do next, I thought of all the things I am good at and hit on ricotta because it is a higher perceived value item. It is not easy to run a restaurant but with an easy enough model, I can do it.

“And ricotta checked all the boxes for me. I had a lot of time to perfect it during the lockdown, so it was just me in my kitchen making ricotta again and again. That is the toughest part of making ricotta – coming up with a consistent product,” he says.

The ricotta at Cotta is made using all local ingredients – the milk is sourced from a farm in Johor while the lemons are from an orchard in Perlis.

“My ricotta cheese contains just two 100% local ingredients,” says Chong.

Chong strengthened his value proposition during the lockdown this year when he collaborated with various other brands, which is how he gained an organically grown social media following.

The ricotta is made fresh daily using all local ingredients.

He also found fans in other restaurants, who have been making large, regular orders, something he hopes to expand on by getting his house-made ricotta into more eateries, dessert spots and supermarkets.

At Cotta itself, Chong has stuck to his guns and aside from the freshly-made ricotta (RM36 for 300g), sourdough bread and some drinks, he basically only has three permanent dishes on the menu – all with ricotta at its heart.

To get a true idea of what Cotta is all about, indulge in the Classic Ricotta Toast (RM18) which is essentially house-made sourdough bread topped with Cotta’s ricotta cheese, walnuts and imported honey. It is a simple, unassuming assemblage but one that hits all those requisite high notes.

The ricotta is the undisputed diva of this stelliferous showcase with its creamy, velvety texture with light tangy nuances that meld fluidly in the mouth and confer both richness and freshness on the palate. The nuts add crunch and the honey adds a soupcon of sweetness but this is ultimately an undisguised homage to the virtues of the humble ricotta.

You could also opt for the seafood variant of ricotta toast in the form of the Smoked Salmon Ricotta Toast (RM26), composed of sourdough, ricotta, Norwegian salmon smoked locally, nori flakes (or “the MSG of the sea” as Chong calls it), lemon zest and a sous vide egg.

This is a beautifully constructed, thoughtful concoction that extracts flavours and evokes pleasure from all sources. The sourdough bread acts as a lovely doughy canvas that props up the ricotta, which is the star of this show and exudes its charming creaminess like an all-enveloping blanket. This is countenanced by the salmon, which has lovely briny undertones. The nori flakes add an aquatic quality to the meal and that wobbly sous vide egg brings the whole show to a standing ovation when it is prodded apart to reveal soft albumen goodness that spreads its cheer to the rest of this dream team.

The final cog in this tripod is the Chuck Mooris (RM25). Here, sourdough and ricotta are heaped with six-hour slow-cooked Australian beef, which is topped with homemade chimichurri and that oh-so-familiar and delightful sous vide egg. The beef takes the meal to a carnivorous new land, where meaty overtures are juxtaposed against the creamy qualities of the ricotta. The chimichurri inserts an herbaceous quality to the meal, which is then elevated further by the magical allure of the sous vide egg.

The Smoked Salmon Ricotta Toast is a sumptuous delight from start to finish.

Cotta’s dishes are few and far between and their formations aren’t built on fancy-schmancy techniques or witchery in the form of foams and mousses and deconstruction and abstraction. Indeed, the meals here are the opposite of that – a solid foundation furnished by ricotta lays the groundwork for dishes that are simple but oh-so incredibly satisfying.

As for Chong, Cotta is now his life and he credits the restaurant with bringing him out of the slump he found himself in at the start of last year.

“This is what I needed – I needed to get my confidence back and to talk to people again. Cotta is doing just that; it allows me to talk to people at the restaurant.

“And the look and feel of the space is a physical embodiment of who I am – that’s why it is so important to me. I think ultimately Cotta has given me a whole new purpose,” affirms Chong.

Order online from Cotta on Beep Delivery.

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