PUBLISHED January 28th, 2013 01:13 am | UPDATED June 6th, 2016 05:01 pm
A tasting dinner at Buona Terra is like watching a loved one (whom you think you already know very well) go for an extreme makeover. The final result might look entirely different, but at its core, little has changed.
Take for instance a starter of cuttlefish salad. It wears a chic, modernist cloak. There’s squid ink that has morphed into a black powder that adds a sharp, exciting saltiness to the jardiniere of celery, cantaloupe and cherry tomatoes. There’re also purple microflowers and snow-like almond flakes which lend a dream-like quality to the presentation. However, make no mistake about the star of the dish that is the cuttlefish. Ribbons of cuttlefish are sous-vide until its delicate, tender bite is nothing reminiscent of its typical rubbery texture. The flavour is simple and pure.
At this intimate 26-seater, you will not get to indulge in heavily-sauced pasta carb fests like in other Italian outfits. A tagliolini pasta is half a mouthful’s work for an American footballer, but it’s a clear touchdown, packing nuance after nuance of flavours. A mist of olive oil and tomato broth is all it takes to lift the richness of the eggy, housemade noodles. The complements of sour lemon rind, salty caviar, sweet crab shreds combined with a hint of residual heat form a stellar testimony of Executive Chef Denis Lucchi’s masterful grasp of flavour profiles.
Equally well-conceived is a tortelli dish, where the oxtail filling makes a mockery of the robust pasta sheet it is wrapped in, by emanating an outrageously light gaminess tamed by a sweet braise. The barely-there, thinly rolled-out dough casing will challenge your Pastamania conception of pasta.
Two outstanding mains of turbot and lamb loin might seem shrouded beyond recognition. The parsley breadcrumb-coated turbot has foams of red pepper and honey mustard dotted in an arc around the fish, some frisée on top and a lake of red pepper marmalade beneath; the pistachio-crusted lamb has a potato gratin cake, a Jerusalem artichoke puree and a half artichoke fighting for attention. Still, the pan-seared fish gets the final nod for its firm flesh and slightly charred exterior, and the way it complements the tangy-sweet red pepper and spicy mustard to a tee.
The lamb, however, takes the cake with the meat redolent of red wine and brimming with savoury juices—a flawless match with the smoky Jerusalem artichoke puree. The lamb could have been a little pinker, but you have to try it to comprehend what lamb is capable of.
By now, with the lingering buzz from the wines handpicked by sommelier Gabriele Rizzardi for each course, you might feel like gobbling down your dessert, just like you wolf down fried chicken after a hangover. You’d be missing the point really. The nougat semifreddo in this degustation menu is as soft as nougat is hard, but as rich and nutty as nougat can be.
We were tricked into thinking that dessert was going to be an outstanding ice-cream at best, but realized that this was in fact nougat, nougat par excellence. This is exactly how Buona Terra impresses. It changes the look, texture and composition of food, but nothing’s changed—the ingredients are still your usual regional Italian specialities. Sometimes, made even better.
The 8-course degustation menu reviewed at Buona Terra is $138++.
Written by Mr Nom Nom.
On this occasion, meal and photographs compliments of Buona Terra.