Exclusive dinner at the luxurious Banjaran

Lee and Yap will team up to cook a special dinner on July 22.

THE Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat in Ipoh is collaborating with two talented Malaysian chefs for a one-night only dinner.

The Four Hands Dinner features Gooddam Kuala Lumpur co-owner and head chef Daniel Yap and The Banjaran’s executive chef Lee Choon Boon.

Lee hails from Ipoh and is passionate about local produce.

He sources ingredients from the Sunway Organic Gardens, a 8.1ha working farm, to craft rotating menus at the resort.

Yap graduated from La Scuola Internazionale di Cucina Italiana in Parma, Italy, and went on to work at top restaurants in Italy before moving to the Michelin-starred Stud!o in Copenhagen, Denmark.

At Gooddam, he uses fresh produce to showcase his “new style” of Italian cuisine, inspired by the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany.

Together, they will treat diners to an innovative tasting menu melding modern European and local ingredients.

This dinner will highlight a new set of ingredients including house-cured and smoked tongkol hitam or katsuobushi, nasturtium hot sauce, Lee’s own aged rice wine and a bountiful harvest of fruit, vegetables and herbs from The Banjaran’s gardens.

Yap’s creations for the dinner include Art of Yeast (Ipoh coffee-glazed Parker roll with roasted yeast butter), Game Ice Cream (Australian truffle ice cream with smoked duck bone caramel terrine, gooseberry relish and pucuk paku), Raviolo (with heirloom zucchini, fried sweetbread in emping padi) and Surf and Turf (wagyu rump cap aged in koji, glazed Borneo lobster, breadfruit and caramelised pepper jus).

Lee’s dishes will include Kohlrabi (veloute with coconut, Amur caviar from Tanjong Malim and pickled kohlrabi with jungle wild pepper), Tanah Kita (organic vegetables from the resort’s farm with confit guinea fowl and fresh truffle) and Ikan Keli (dry-aged catfish with fermented ginger flower, sorrel and crispy bone).

This multi-sensory experience will be staged in Jeff’s Cellar, a subterranean dining destination where guests are surrounded by stalactites, stalagmites and rippling water, beneath a landscape of mountains and rainforest.

“We are thrilled to team up and cook a one-night only dinner,” said the chefs in a statement.

“To break out of our comfort zone, we will apply a new set of ingredients, technically driven and with inspiration from each others’ backgrounds.”

The Four Hands Dinner is available on July 22.

It is priced at RM990nett per person.

For reservations, call 05-210 7777.