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Chef de Cuisine Dean Bush takes over the reins serving Modern Asian cuisine at iconic Ku De Ta, nestled on the top floor of Marina Bay Sands.
Perhaps better known for being an ultra-cool nightspot with dizzying views of the city, Ku De Ta also seats over 200 diners in its hip restaurant. After the departure of Executive Chef Dan Segall, Chef de Cuisine Dean Bush has taken over the kitchen. The London-based chef is no stranger to our shores though, having a Singaporean mom and moving to Singapore in 2009 to join Saint Pierre.
The favourites on the menu are still there - including the incredible ohmi-gyu from Takara Ranch, a 100 per cent kuroge-wagyu beef. Simply medium grilled with pickled garlic slices, the slices of ribeye were perfectly marbled and delicate with a good bite.
With a mandate to share food in the Asian style, the crispy-sticky baby squid disappeared quickly, with its addictive black pepper and lime drizzle accents. For the vegetarians, barbecued senryo eggplant, accompanied by sweet and sour plum miso, and roasted Kagoshima sweet potato with white ponzu butter, hit all the right, interesting notes. There is nothing predictable about the creations on the menu, even when it came to the familiar black cod. Here, the firm fatty fish is bamboo-roasted for sweetness and basted with whipped red miso.
The new items included Kurobuta pork belly ‘lollipop', cubed thick chunks of grilled pork belly on a stick, which again disappeared in a flash. The meat was redolent of smoked chilli, citrus and coriander oil. Replacing the previous hot oil Scottish salmon sashimi is hot oil Hokkaido scallop and sesame yuzu - balanced with young garlic, garlic and shishito pepper for a memorable Asian take.
For dessert, we stuck again to the signature dishes - in this case, Apple & Honey, a light and breezy medley of fresh green apple, milk and honey cremeux, green apple granite, comb honey crumble and green apple jelly. Those with a more adventurous palate would do well with the new creation of pistachio pain de genes, a pineapple soup with white chocolate and curry ganache. Like Chef Bush himself, much of the menu is a true fusion of East and West.
Ku De Ta is located at 1 Bayfront Avenue, Sands SkyPark, Marina Bay Sands, 6688 7688, www.kudeta.com.
