Always a welcome addition to any meal, bread can be enjoyed in a myriad of forms and ways. Whether it's a rustic French baguette served with decadent smoked butter or fluffy sourdough dipped in fruity olive oil, here are some unique and interesting styles that MICHELIN-Starred restaurants in Singapore serve the humble staple with a touch of finesse.
Potato Bread with Ground Coffee Beans and Oats
Alma
One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
"For me, bread in a restaurant, especially in a fine dining restaurant, is extremely essential," says Haikal Johari, executive chef of 1 Star Alma. "While a diner waits for their food, they first break into the bread, and this first impression will have a profound effect on their perception of the overall dining experience! A very delicate thing to have, I chose to go with this signature potato bread that represents my style and Alma as a whole," he says. "For restaurants, breads have to be good — it doesn’t matter if they're homemade or purchased from a local artisan. Recently, there seems to be plenty of restaurants serving sourdough, and I thought it would be nice to do something different and serve a bread that I take pride in and will set me apart from the rest!"
Johari serves a potato bread that comes with a unique recipe. According to him, he has been making it this way for the past 12 years, and the secret to his potato bread is that the dough is steamed first before the potato flour is added in order to enhance the overall flavours and amp up its aromatics. Once done, the potato bread is served with ground single origin coffee beans and oats, and to accompany it, some unpasteurised smoked butter.
"The richness of the unpasteurised butter’s milk enhances the flavour of the potato and imparts a slight smokiness, while balancing out the bitterness of the coffee. In addition, the oats lend a lovely character to the the bread," says Johari.
Sourdough, Puglia Olive Oil, "Vitel Toné"
Art
One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
According to executive chef Daniele Sperindio, bread, in its various interpretations, is the backbone of an Italian meal. He shares: "to sit at the table for a lunch with family and friends without a basket of fresh bread would most certainly trigger an uproar. To me, that last bite of toasted bread soaked up in leftover pasta sauce is arguably more satisfying than the pasta itself! Bread is the humblest product and there is a form of it that's present in every culture, all the way back to ancient times."
“The ‘breaking of the bread’ is one of the most recognisable signs of communion, of sharing a special intimate moment with others, and to me, that is what food is all about.”
At newly minted one-MICHELIN-Starred Art in the National Gallery, bread is served at the start of the meal in a course called the Pane e Poesia, which translates to "bread and poetry" from Italian.
This bread course at Art comprises an artisanal loaf of sourdough, extra virgin olive oil from Puglia, and, to complete the course, is Sperindio's interpretation of a Vitel Toné. "It is a nostalgic preparation straight from my childhood, transformed into a bold paté made from veal and tuna, finished with a layer of black onion caviar, and mustard seed flower," he shares.
As a child, Sperindio recalls being fed bread day and night, and he was beyond content with it. He fondly recalls: "I would look forward to running into the kitchen during a late afternoon, where my mother was preparing some basil pesto for the following day. I would steal a couple of spoons of the fragrant sauce, and I would make a panino (sandwich) out of it. The daily morning trip to the bakery was the highlight of my day, where I would experience the soothing smell of baked bread and caramelised pastries, and the chatter of everybody waiting in line for their turn. The baker would always give me a small slice of Focaccia Genovese to bear through the wait; it was like edible poetry."
Rye Sourdough, Mini Baguette, and Milk Bun
Basque Kitchen by Aitor
One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
Head chef Aitor Jeronimo Orive explains that in Basque country, bread has always been an important part of its culture and is typically served on the side so that one can nibble on it throughout the meal, or scoop up sauces from the dishes to come. He says, "even in earlier times, Basques would consume talo, which is similar to a thick corn tortilla. Talo is still consumed today, but mainly only during special festive days and fairs. Wheat flour breads were introduced and were consumed more with the influence of Spanish and French cultures."
At Basque Kitchen by Aitor, three types of bread are served: rye sourdough, mini baguette, and milk bun. The breads are freshly baked daily by artisan bakers, and they are served with smoked French butter that is churned and smoked in-house with apple wood chips. Accompanying the breads is also a side of Arbequina olive oil. This olive oil is made specially for Basque Kitchen by Aitor by a small French Company called Alexis Muñoz, which sources its olive oil from a small production in La Rioja, which very close to the Basque country.
Sri Lankan Stout and Liquorice Bread
Cloudstreet
One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
At new 1 Star restaurant Cloudstreet, a Sri Lankan stout and liquorice bread is glazed in molasses and served with sea salt and a house-made butter — a nod to chef-owner Rishi Naleendra's heritage.
"I just love a good bread. It's welcoming and such a simple thing, but when done well, it can be amazing," says Naleendra. "Bread, for me, also invokes feelings of home and comfort, and we always want our diners at Cloudstreet to feel like they are sharing a meal at one of their friends' homes — with friendly banter and rich conversations."
According to Naleendra: "Not many places are serving soda bread, and a sweet one at that. So, it does set us apart in that way. The bread we serve as Cloudstreet has a good balance of flavours — liquorice, stout and molasses — and it is key that the liquorice doesn't overpower any of the other flavours. It has a crisp and crackly crust, with a soft, almost cake-like centre."
The bread's main components are rye flour, Sri Lankan stout, and liquorice. Naleendra explains that just like all soda breads, Cloudstreet also uses baking soda as the leavening agent. After baking and just before serving it to guests, the bread is glazed generously with molasses and finished with a touch of sea salt on top.
Pain d'Epi and Other Artisanal Breads
Saint Pierre
Two MICHELIN Stars, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
Two-MICHELIN-Starred Saint Pierre previously served their artisanal breads course by course, each to be paired with a different dish. However, after receiving feedback from guests, the complete selection of breads was served at the beginning of the meal instead.
Served with a variety of condiments including salted Brittany butter and a fermented black garlic butter that is made in-house by mixing an intense garlic paste and “beurre doux”, a non-salted French butter, each type of bread is recommended to be paired with a certain dish on the menu. For vegan and dairy free diners, Saint Pierre is currently working on a lacto-fermented cashew butter for them to enjoy.
Among the breads served at Saint Pierre, chef-owner Emmanuel Stroobant shares that the pain d'epi, or EPI for short, is one of his personal favourites. "The EPI is a classic fougasse bread, commonly known as the French cousin of the Italian focaccia, which is studded generously with black olives and rosemary. It is aromatic, savoury, and lightly dense. At Saint Pierre, we also serve a dairy free version upon request," he shares.
"Our EPI is prepared by mixing epi flour, sugar, butter, dried rosemary, black Kalamata olives, water, and yeast for about five minutes. After that, we let the dough proof for about an hour until it rises, then shape it into a wheat stalk using scissors before baking it at 180°C for about 13 minutes."
According to Stroobant, it is often said that bread, wine, and cheese form the holy trinity of French culture. "There is something magical in bread — from hand-kneading the dough to the aroma of freshly baked bread, it is almost mystical," he says. "Bread also represents the simplest form of food, and sharing it at the dining table has a lot of meaning, which is not unique to the French. Roti, chapati, mantou, and lavash are popular sharing staples in Asian cultures. To me, bread is an important part of the meal, from humble home-cooked breakfast to fine dining."
Onion Focaccia, Soft Roll, and Sourdough
Buona Terra
One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
"For me, a main consideration when it comes to breads is to keep the flavours simple so they make for a good accompaniment throughout the meal," shares resident chef Denis Lucchi. "To start, grissini is presented as a crispy snack upon arrival, and it serves as a prelude to the dining experience at Buona Terra. A basket with three signature house-baked breads: Onion Focaccia — my favourite —, Soft Roll similar to brioche, and Sourdough, follows after a set of canapés. A fun fact about the Sourdough is that it is a bread that we experimented on during last year’s Circuit Breaker period where dining out in restaurants was restricted due to the pandemic. During this time, I created a [sourdough] starter that we still use in the sourdough today," Lucchi shares.
At Buona Terra, the breads are accompanied by extra virgin olive oil from Lucchi's hometown of Brescia, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, as well as Beppino Occelli butter. "Beppino Occelli is a small artisanal butter and cheese producer from Piedmont that made a name for itself with their butter," explains Lucchi. "The butter is traditionally made with fresh, skimmed cream taken from milk of the day while it is still warm. This cream is usually the best part to make cheese, but Beppino Occelli uses it to produce their butter, resulting in a product with higher fat content and a creamy, milky taste."
"Bread is important to me as it is part of Italian culture. Every meal always has some bread to go with the dishes. It signifies sharing and conviviality as I have fond memories of breaking bread, usually a loaf, to have amongst family and friends during a meal. We will always have bread at home, and leftover bread can be made into a snack like bruschetta. After it becomes drier overtime, it’s best used in recipes such as bread gnocchi, or grated to use as a stuffing or coating for deep-fried foods," he says.
Smoked Sourdough
Burnt Ends
One MICHELIN Star, MICHELIN Guide Singapore 2021
"Bread is really important to us because good bread can only be made with good products, great skills, perfect technique, and a whole lot of love," says Dave Pynt, chef-owner of Burnt Ends. "At Burnt Ends, we serve our sourdough with simple butter and olive oil, and offer it with some of our dishes that have great sauces that you should mop up!"
With the new Burnt Ends opening soon at Dempsey, Pynt says that the team has just built a wood-fired bread oven at the property, which has been designed by one of the leading wood-fired oven builders, Alex Chernov. "The way it cooks and the flavour we can produce in that oven is the little magic from cooking with wood," he excitedly shares.
