Chef Daniel's Kitchen, Singapore

27 April 2010

What happen when the East meet the West? What are you thinking of? I guess everyone thinks of Sino-American relationship. This is Allez Cuisine, we are not talking about politics here, and we are seriously talking about cuisines that do justice to the culinary world. Forget Sino-American relationship and think how cuisine has to do with the question.

If my memory serves me right, there is a chef in town who is specialized in East-West fusion cuisine. Proudly introduce our chef, Chef Daniel Kok, who is the head chef and the owner of Chef Daniel’s Kitchen. He is a Singapore's celebrity chef and culinary judge. He is famous for his award-winning dishes such as Wok Charred Salmon, Wagyu Beef and Enoki, Spring Chicken with Foie Gras. Recently he comes out a set lunch for S$10.50 only. It consists soup of the day with homemade onion and herbs bread, a main course with more than ten options to choose from and the dessert of the day. How can the food lovers resist the affordable and tasty set lunch?

Me, a hungry man-who-tried-to-"smoke"-his-answers-in-his-exam-answer-scripts decided to pay him a visit after my exam. The restaurant is located at 7-level of Iluma, Bugis. The friendly staffs of the restaurant greeted me and I was given the set lunch menu and the ala-carte menu to choose my dishes. Tempting to try his awarding-winning dish, I decided to go for his foie gras amandine as appetizer and his famous award-winning wok charred salmon.

First the friendly waitress served me the complimentary homemade onion and herbs bread. It was quite tasty. There was onion-taste of the bread was very gentle due to the herbs. Both onion and herbs were complement to each other very well. The aroma of the onion and the herbs was nice too.

Foie gras amandine was served. The presentation of this dish was very good. The foie gras was coated with garlic and flour and was deep-fried. The timing of deep-frying is very important. If the garlic is overcooked, it can taste a bit bitter. But the timing for my dish was prefect. I enjoyed the crispiness of this dish with a bit of garlic taste and the taste onion flakes. The oil from the onion flakes was giving a nice aroma for the dish. This dish was very tasty but I guess it was too oily if this dish was used for appetizer, in my humble opinion. Foie gras is an ingredient found in French cuisine, onion flakes and its oil are used in Chinese dishes and the dish is presented in French style. Chef Daniel really knows how to combine the East and the West cuisine techniques and ingredients very well.

The next dish would be the award-winning wok charred salmon. As what the name says, the outer lay of salmon was a bit charred. When I ate it, the salmon was very tender. I would say it almost melted into my mouth. Chef Daniel fried the salmon in the wok at high temperature at the shortest time to allow the outer layer of the salmon a bit charred. The interior of the meat is a bit raw in this way. Then he simmered it with leeks, tomatoes and garlic with the soup base till the salmon was fully cooked. This was how he cooked this dish in my opinion. The salmon absorbed the flavor of the soup base. The soup base enhanced the taste of the salmon yet not overpowered it. I still could taste the fats in the salmon. This dish was light but delicious. I enjoyed different combination for my salmon. I ate it with leeks, tomatoes, garlics and the ikan bilis (dried anchovies) flakes and they harmonized very well with the salmon. All the ingredients found in this dish can found in the East, the cooking techniques are the Chinese style, but Chef Daniel presented it in western ways.

After my main course, I ordered a set of S$5 tea break special, which consisted of a cake and a coffee. Great Bargain.

Dearest friends and fans, you should try Chef Daniel’s dishes. You will not disappoint.




Chef Daniel’s Kitchen
#07-02 Iluma,
201 Victoria Street
Singapore 188067

Opens: Mondays to Sundays, 11.30am to 10.30pm