Good Eats for Good Cause at Ritz-Carlton
They say that food is the language of love. Well, it is true. Many of us remember the healthy and delicious dishes that our mothers put on the table to nourish the whole family. And many of us, in latter years, cook similarly wholesome dishes for the people we love.
This coming Thursday, April 9, the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta Pacific Place will present a charity dinner reflecting the love for Indonesian food and ingredients, as well as the love and compassion for our disabled brothers and sisters.
Themed “Indonesian Culinary Experience,” the dinner will present five courses by five top chefs in Indonesia: Arimbi Nimpuno, Sandra Djohan, Petty Elliott, Sean Macdougall (the Ritz-Carlton’s executive chef) and Andrian Ishak.
Each course will be paired with wines from France, Italy, Chile and Australia.
All the proceeds from the dinner will go to Yayasan Wisma Cheshire (Cheshire Home Foundation), which is based in Cilandak, South Jakarta.
The foundation is a member of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance, a movement by a London-based nongovernmental organization that operates 257 homes worldwide.
“There are currently 20 people [with disabilities] living in our home now,” says Petty, who is also the chairwoman of Yayasan Wisma Cheshire. “We give them vocational training so that they can participate in the community.”
Petty has held similar charity dinners at the Ritz-Carlton every year since 2012.
“We do this because it’s in our core values and represents us as a company,” says Samir Messaoudi, the director of food and beverage at the Ritz-Carlton. “And we take pride in doing this.”
The dinner will take place at the Pacific Restaurant & Lounge on the sixth floor of the hotel.
“It’s all about Indonesia, with Indonesian chefs offering Indonesian culinary delights,” Messaoudi says. “Not a lot of people know about Indonesian cuisine. That’s why we want to focus on that.”
The evening will open with a round of cocktails in the restaurant at 6:30 p.m. The dinner will start at around 7:30 p.m. with an appetizer served by Arimbi.
“I’m so happy to be able to participate in this charity dinner,” she says. “Actually, [disability] is a cause that’s very close to my heart because my brother was also born with a disability.”
For the appetizer, Arimbi plans to serve seared scallops with coriander pesto and butternut squash puree.
“We’re so lucky to live in Indonesia,” she says. “There are so many exotic ingredients that we can’t find abroad.”
All the ingredients used in the dish are found in-country, including the scallops from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, the squash and the coriander for the pesto.
“Pesto is usually made from basil leaves, pine nuts and olive oil,” Arimbi says. “For this dish, I’m using coriander leaves, roasted almonds and coconut oil.”
The spicy and savory flavors of the coriander pesto marry well with the sweetness of the butternut squash puree.
Serving up the next course — the curiously named “Donut Soup” — will be Andrian, the chef-owner of the Namaaz Dining restaurant in South Jakarta.
“It’s actually neither donut nor soup,” he says with a mischievous smile.
Instead, it consists of the traditional lamb stew tongseng served over a pastry, using sophisticated molecular gastronomy techniques.
“The vapors of the soup are distilled into this,” Adrian says, pointing to a jug of water. “It’s just plain [hot] water, but you’ll smell the tongseng in it when you sniff the water.”
Guests will each be served a bowl with the donut pastry, into which the hot water will be poured. The guests are then supposed to stir the pastry until it dissolves, freeing up the filling of diced lamb and tomatoes and shredded cabbage in a thick, chestnut-hued soup, with all the rich flavors of tongseng.
Chef Sandra will then serve Indonesian barramundi woku en croute for the following course.
“It’s a combination of French and Indonesian cuisines, because I’ve lived in those two countries,” she says.
The barramundi is served within a roll of puff pastry. A dash of Hollandaise sauce and woku, a traditional Manado sauce, highlight the juiciness of the fish.
“When Petty e-mailed me and asked me to participate in the charity dinner, I said yes immediately,” Sandra says. “For me, charity is a must. We have to give back to the community what we’ve received all this time.”
Petty will then serve the main dish, veal cheek rawon. The meat, cooked over a low heat for seven hours, is beautifully tender and succulent and is served with thick black keluwak sauce.
“We can promote keluwak as an Indonesian gourmet ingredient,” Petty says.
The keluwak seed, from the poisonous fruit of the Pangium edule tree needs about six months of processing until it is safe to consume. It gives meat dishes a unique savory and slightly tangy flavor.
The dinner will close with the presentation of kaffir lime white chocolate, melon mochi and pandan jelly by the Ritz-Carlton’s Macdougall, served with sugar-glazed kaffir lime leaves.
“It will be an intimate dinner, in which the guests can enjoy the food and the conversation,” Petty says.
There will also be a silent auction during the evening, with accommodation and spa packages at hotels in Jakarta and Bali up for grabs. All the proceeds will go to Yayasan Wisma Cheshire.
The dinner is priced at Rp 1.5 million ($116) ++ per person.
“I hope the event will improve the awareness of disability issues in Indonesia, as well as the delicacy of Indonesian cuisine,” Petty says.
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