PUBLISHED April 12th, 2018 06:00 am | UPDATED April 14th, 2018 11:57 pm
In the one and a half years since its opening, Le Binchotan on the back of Amoy Street has changed quite a bit. Like its new logo – a take on the glowing embers of a binchōtan, Chef-Owner Jeremmy Chiam’s revamped menu is something fresh and extraordinary. Still, the restaurant’s trademark smoky richness continues to burn strong, and darn it if it isn’t hot.
To understand the food here, you must first know about binchō. The white wood charcoal, which sees its roots in Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture, burns at a lower temperature for a longer period compared to ordinary charcoal. Its ‘no-flare’ qualities mean chefs can achieve an unparalleled succulence and smokiness without burning their ingredients – well, not too much anyway. As I learnt from our friends at the likes of Burnt Ends and Fat Lulu’s, a little char can go a long way in flavour.
Le Binchotan, with its arching ceiling and ubiquitous use of wood, stone and metal, looks like a luxe cross of a cellar and the inside of a plane. Like the latter, the 36-seater space is much longer than it is wide – calling to mind Jeremmy’s earlier days as an air steward on Singapore Airlines. It’s here that the result of his training (including stints at Iggy’s and Jewel Box, where his mentor was Hiroki Yoshitake of the Michelin-starred Sola in Paris) come to fruition.
Jeremmy uses French techniques with Japanese grilling, the waft of the binchō permeating each dish – heck, even his desserts aren’t given a free pass. You might start with the Uni and Caviar ($25). It’s an age-old combination that’s plenty common in Japanese and fusion restaurants, which makes execution all the more important. Here, he cooks corn in bacon broth until tender to make a corn mousse, which he uses as the base of this dish. Atop, you get smoked sea salt flakes, caviar, housemade shoyu pearls, and a heaping of wild-caught bafun uni.
He does a nice broth with Little Neck Clams ($20), which, despite its name, is larger than the garden variety bivalves in Singapore. A creamy Vichyssoise is made with sauteed leeks and boiled potatoes, and served inside a clear broth of sake, enoki, and the clams. There’s the Binchotan Burnt Aubergine ($12), an exquisite cold dish of chilled Australian aubergine served with yoghurt, white sesame dressing, and fragrant Japanese chilli oil for a kick of piquance.
If there’s one dish you should order, it is the Edible Charcoal ($23), a long black roll with Angus beef short ribs that’s been cooked in sweet Saikyo miso and port wine for 16 hours, rolled in a spring roll, coated in fine bamboo charcoal, and then deep fried. Crisp and delicious. There are other meat dishes, like the Char-Pork Jowl ($35), marinated with dried chilli and curry powder, confit in duck fat, grilled on the binchōtan, and topped with a tart curry cream sauce prepared with mashed green apples.
The desserts are something else, and if you haven’t figured out by now, pretty complex. The Matcha Lover ($17) – which we learn was created for Jeremmy’s matcha-loving partner – comes in the form of a white chocolate and matcha mixture, and shaped like an apple, you can slice it open to find a ‘heart’ of red bean paste stuffed inside. This comes with some red bean ice cream. In the Smoked Chocolate ($15), 64% dark chocolate from Valrhona, is cold-smoked with applewood and made into a rich cake, which he serves with some tangy yoghurt sherbet.
Le Binchotan is located at 115 Amoy St #01-04, Singapore 069935 (Entrance via Gemmill Lane), p. +65 6224 1045. Open Mon–Fri 11.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 12am, Sat 6pm – 12am. Closed Sun.