Some restaurants, when they first open, need time to mature. Too often, restaurants open before they’re actually ready for public scrutiny. The food disappoints. The service is slow and inefficient. Sometimes, even the decor isn’t properly finished. But when an experienced, successful and talented restaurateur decides to open a new signature restaurant, chances are high that he will make darned sure that before his first paying customer ever steps foot into his new place, every single detail would be perfect.

Such is the case with Forlino, the new stunning Italian restaurant opened by Beppe de Vito and Chef Osvaldo Forlino. My always hungry wife S and I had the great pleasure of dining at Forlino on opening night and, well, quite simply, we were blown away. Forlino is stunning. It is easily one of the sexiest and chicest looking restaurants in Singapore. The floors are clad in a classic, polished black and white diamond-shaped pattern. The wood-panelled and ornately decorated walls are a warm bluish-grey. The furniture is rich and elegant. The overall space exudes power, sensuality and elegance, a rare thing for restaurants here today.

The food is equally stunning. When Chef Osvaldo cooked at Il Lido, S and I were fans. But we always felt that he wasn’t quite the right chef for what was being positioned as a very modern and contemporary Italian restaurant. Here, surrounded by his family and cooking the food his own way, i.e. more traditionally, he’s finally proving why and how his family restaurant in Northern Italy was able to earn a Michelin star. The food at Forlino is traditional Italian fine-dining. And it is beautiful.

S and I enjoyed a fabulous meal. We started with a cornmeal cake with 36 months aged parmesan, topped with egg confit, and shaved summer truffles. The second course was both S’s and my favourite dish of the night: Piedmontese veal ravioli with shank ragu (and of course, topped with some more summer truffles). This dish was sensational. You could taste the hand chopped veal inside each savory and delicate raviolo. Our main course was grilled rack of milk-fed goat with Spring vegetables and a small portion of risotto. To round off our meal, we had two desserts. The first was Volpedo white peaches in moscato gelee. The second was a gorgeous Renette apple tarte with barolo chinato gelato. Everything was delicious. Considering that the restaurant had been open for only a few hours, we were truly and deeply astounded.

As mentioned, helping Chef Osvaldo run this very impressive restaurant is his family. His whole family. Having closed their family restaurant in Tortina, the Forlino clan has moved en masse to Singapore. Chef Osvaldo’s mother is in the kitchen, baking bread daily. His wife Patrizia is chef de cuisine. His daughter Serena is also working in the kitchen. His sister Laura and another daughter Gaia — a trained sommelier — are in charge of wine. Cousin Simone is the restaurant’s manager and Simone’s wife is also cooking in the kitchen.

I have no doubt that Forlino, situated on the second floor of the 1 Fullerton building and perched overlooking Marina Bay, will be a success. It may even become Singapore’s very best Italian restaurant — it certainly is the sexiest.

Some restaurants, when they first open, need time to mature. Too often, restaurants open before they’re actually ready for public scrutiny. The food disappoints. The service is slow and inefficient. Sometimes, even the decor isn’t properly finished. But when an experienced, successful and talented restaurateur decides to open a new signature restaurant, chances are high that he will make darned sure that before his first paying customer ever steps foot into his new place, every single detail would be perfect.

Such is the case with Forlino, the new stunning Italian restaurant opened by Beppe de Vito and Chef Osvaldo Forlino. My always hungry wife S and I had the great pleasure of dining at Forlino on opening night and, well, quite simply, we were blown away. Forlino is stunning. It is easily one of the sexiest and chicest looking restaurants in Singapore. The floors are clad in a classic, polished black and white diamond-shaped pattern. The wood-panelled and ornately decorated walls are a warm bluish-grey. The furniture is rich and elegant. The overall space exudes power, sensuality and elegance, a rare thing for restaurants here today.

The food is equally stunning. When Chef Osvaldo cooked at Il Lido, S and I were fans. But we always felt that he wasn’t quite the right chef for what was being positioned as a very modern and contemporary Italian restaurant. Here, surrounded by his family and cooking the food his own way, i.e. more traditionally, he’s finally proving why and how his family restaurant in Northern Italy was able to earn a Michelin star. The food at Forlino is traditional Italian fine-dining. And it is beautiful.

S and I enjoyed a fabulous meal. We started with a cornmeal cake with 36 months aged parmesan, topped with egg confit, and shaved summer truffles. The second course was both S’s and my favourite dish of the night: Piedmontese veal ravioli with shank ragu (and of course, topped with some more summer truffles). This dish was sensational. You could taste the hand chopped veal inside each savory and delicate raviolo. Our main course was grilled rack of milk-fed goat with Spring vegetables and a small portion of risotto. To round off our meal, we had two desserts. The first was Volpedo white peaches in moscato gelee. The second was a gorgeous Renette apple tarte with barolo chinato gelato. Everything was delicious. Considering that the restaurant had been open for only a few hours, we were truly and deeply astounded.

As mentioned, helping Chef Osvaldo run this very impressive restaurant is his family. His whole family. Having closed their family restaurant in Tortina, the Forlino clan has moved en masse to Singapore. Chef Osvaldo’s mother is in the kitchen, baking bread daily. His wife Patrizia is chef de cuisine. His daughter Serena is also working in the kitchen. His sister Laura and another daughter Gaia — a trained sommelier — are in charge of wine. Cousin Simone is the restaurant’s manager and Simone’s wife is also cooking in the kitchen.

I have no doubt that Forlino, situated on the second floor of the 1 Fullerton building and perched overlooking Marina Bay, will be a success. It may even become Singapore’s very best Italian restaurant — it certainly is the sexiest.

I’m really sorry that I haven’t been posting for several months. While I do have two rather substantial excuses (first, S and I have been moving house and we really haven’t had access to a working kitchen for a while and second, we have both been ridiculously busy with work), I know for some of you that really doesn’t cut the mustard. To the readers who emailed me expressing concern, thank you very much. I appreciate your messages. And we will both try our best to update this blog much more frequently in the future.

What better way to revive this site than with an enthusiastic recommendation to try the food of one of Singapore’s hottest (in more ways than one) new chefs. Taiwan-born Andre Chiang is not just tall, slim and (annoyingly) handsome, he is also hands-down one of the most talented and skilled chefs working in Singapore today. Chef Andre prepares what he terms, “French Nouvelle Cuisine”, which essentially means that his food is exquisitely well-conceived, small portions of artfully plated and light French fare. I do have to admit that while I am a huge supporter and fan of what Chef Andre is doing in the kitchen, his food might not appeal to everyone. If you prefer big, hearty portions and fussfree fare, you’re not going to be happy. But if you enjoy trying really interesting, modern, inventive and well-executed food, you have to try Chef Andre’s food.

Now, here’s the kicker. Chef Andre is helming Jaan, a restaurant that until a couple of weeks ago, I honestly would never have dreamt of stepping into. This tiny space, parked in the corner of the rather monstrous Equinox complex in Swissotel the Stamford, has rarely (as far as I know) been known for good food. Good views maybe. Amazingly, however, in the three months that Chef Andre has been running Jaan, it has gone from nottie to hottie and is now (in my opinion at least) one of the two or three best and most high-end European / French restaurants in Singapore.

That said, I have only dined (so far) twice at Jaan, once two weeks ago and again this week. Both times, I and my dining companions asked Chef Andre to do whatever he liked. This week, I took my darling wife S to try the restaurant (my previous visit was a working lunch with two other blokes). Chef Andre wowed us with a lovely 9 course lunch. We started our meal with a trio of amuse-bouches: gambas with pear jelly (pictured above); peach jelly in a chilled earl grey tea; and lobster cornets. The fried gambas ball was delicious and delightfully presented. Second course was a foie gras sandwich. Third was a real treat: Alaskan crab rolled in a snapper carpaccio, topped with caviar and served with a spicy gazpacho sorbet. Yum.

My favourite course of the meal was next (pictured above). It was a pan-seared Hokkaido scallop with a pumpkin-cumin puree and a puffed wild rice carbonara. This was a delicious dish with really interesting textures. S loved the next course, a thin slice of smoked duck with a coriander coulis served in a spicy kaffir lime consomme. Our sixth course was pan-fried goby filet with tapenade and celeriac puree. The main course of the meal (pictured below) was a ridiculously good grade 9 wagyu beef filet served with a cheese pancake, Ratte potato and a pea puree. We ended the meal with a pre-dessert of goat cheese ice cream (gorgeous!) and a taste of three of Chef Andre’s signature desserts: artichoke creme brulee with tarragon ice cream; white snickers bar 2008; and red fruits minestrone with basil and sorbet. To round off an amazing meal, a delectable quartet of petit fours was elegantly presented on steel plates that bore Andre’s name.

Before coming to Singapore, Chef Andre worked for the Pourcel brothers. Shanghai-residents might recognize him as he used to helm Sens & Bund. While young (he’s just 32), he has already worked with many of the best French chefs on the planet, including Pierre Gagnaire, Joel Robuchon, Pascal Barbot, and of course the Pourcels. He has also been recognized as one of just 150 Relais Gourmand Master Chefs worldwide.

A meal at Jaan, I should also say, isn’t cheap (a Feed at Raffles card is a very useful thing for dining here). But neither is a meal at Iggy’s, Les Amis, Caprice, Kahala or any other “super-top” (as a French friend of mine likes to say) establishment in this region. If Andre can continue to push Jaan in the direction he has already been able to set in just a few months, then there is no doubt that it will very quickly establish itself not just as one of Singapore’s best restaurants, but one of Asia’s best.

Jaan
Swissotel The Stamford
Singapore
Tel: +65 6837 3322

I’m really sorry that I haven’t been posting for several months. While I do have two rather substantial excuses (first, S and I have been moving house and we really haven’t had access to a working kitchen for a while and second, we have both been ridiculously busy with work), I know for some of you that really doesn’t cut the mustard. To the readers who emailed me expressing concern, thank you very much. I appreciate your messages. And we will both try our best to update this blog much more frequently in the future.

What better way to revive this site than with an enthusiastic recommendation to try the food of one of Singapore’s hottest (in more ways than one) new chefs. Taiwan-born Andre Chiang is not just tall, slim and (annoyingly) handsome, he is also hands-down one of the most talented and skilled chefs working in Singapore today. Chef Andre prepares what he terms, “French Nouvelle Cuisine”, which essentially means that his food is exquisitely well-conceived, small portions of artfully plated and light French fare. I do have to admit that while I am a huge supporter and fan of what Chef Andre is doing in the kitchen, his food might not appeal to everyone. If you prefer big, hearty portions and fussfree fare, you’re not going to be happy. But if you enjoy trying really interesting, modern, inventive and well-executed food, you have to try Chef Andre’s food.

Now, here’s the kicker. Chef Andre is helming Jaan, a restaurant that until a couple of weeks ago, I honestly would never have dreamt of stepping into. This tiny space, parked in the corner of the rather monstrous Equinox complex in Swissotel the Stamford, has rarely (as far as I know) been known for good food. Good views maybe. Amazingly, however, in the three months that Chef Andre has been running Jaan, it has gone from nottie to hottie and is now (in my opinion at least) one of the two or three best and most high-end European / French restaurants in Singapore.

That said, I have only dined (so far) twice at Jaan, once two weeks ago and again this week. Both times, I and my dining companions asked Chef Andre to do whatever he liked. This week, I took my darling wife S to try the restaurant (my previous visit was a working lunch with two other blokes). Chef Andre wowed us with a lovely 9 course lunch. We started our meal with a trio of amuse-bouches: gambas with pear jelly (pictured above); peach jelly in a chilled earl grey tea; and lobster cornets. The fried gambas ball was delicious and delightfully presented. Second course was a foie gras sandwich. Third was a real treat: Alaskan crab rolled in a snapper carpaccio, topped with caviar and served with a spicy gazpacho sorbet. Yum.

My favourite course of the meal was next (pictured above). It was a pan-seared Hokkaido scallop with a pumpkin-cumin puree and a puffed wild rice carbonara. This was a delicious dish with really interesting textures. S loved the next course, a thin slice of smoked duck with a coriander coulis served in a spicy kaffir lime consomme. Our sixth course was pan-fried goby filet with tapenade and celeriac puree. The main course of the meal (pictured below) was a ridiculously good grade 9 wagyu beef filet served with a cheese pancake, Ratte potato and a pea puree. We ended the meal with a pre-dessert of goat cheese ice cream (gorgeous!) and a taste of three of Chef Andre’s signature desserts: artichoke creme brulee with tarragon ice cream; white snickers bar 2008; and red fruits minestrone with basil and sorbet. To round off an amazing meal, a delectable quartet of petit fours was elegantly presented on steel plates that bore Andre’s name.

Before coming to Singapore, Chef Andre worked for the Pourcel brothers. Shanghai-residents might recognize him as he used to helm Sens & Bund. While young (he’s just 32), he has already worked with many of the best French chefs on the planet, including Pierre Gagnaire, Joel Robuchon, Pascal Barbot, and of course the Pourcels. He has also been recognized as one of just 150 Relais Gourmand Master Chefs worldwide.

A meal at Jaan, I should also say, isn’t cheap (a Feed at Raffles card is a very useful thing for dining here). But neither is a meal at Iggy’s, Les Amis, Caprice, Kahala or any other “super-top” (as a French friend of mine likes to say) establishment in this region. If Andre can continue to push Jaan in the direction he has already been able to set in just a few months, then there is no doubt that it will very quickly establish itself not just as one of Singapore’s best restaurants, but one of Asia’s best.

Jaan
Swissotel The Stamford
Singapore
Tel: +65 6837 3322