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Feasting with Fantin

Chef Luca Fantin brings his Michelin-star quality cooking to the Il Ristorante at Bulgari Resort Bali.

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Chef Luca Fantin and resident head chef Fabrizio Crocetta at Il Ristorante in Bali
Chef Luca Fantin and resident head chef Fabrizio Crocetta at Il Ristorante in Bali

At Bulgari Resort Bali's open-walled Il Ristorante, Luca Fantin, sister concern of Chef Luca Fantin's Michelin star flagship restaurant at Tokyo's Bulgari Ginza Tower, dinner is best enjoyed with a view facing pretty little lanterns bobbing around in a pond. It's a tropical paradise and the menu is a modern Mediterranean feast inspired by the environs and the local ingredients crafted by Fantin along with resident head chef Fabrizio Crocetta.

The menu is sectioned into three-Bulgari, contemporary and traditional. Part of the 'contemporary' menu, gorgeous pink tuna tartare is served in the shape of a medallion on a bed of avocado cream with smoked vegetables and batter-fried zucchini flowers decorating the custom-made Kevala ceramic plate Fantin has carefully selected. Although this is a dish specially crafted for the Balinese restaurant, the Bulgari menu includes a cold squid ink spaghetti, an unforgettable encounter between the strings of pasta and beads of caviar-decadent and luxurious, charcoal black against the ivory crockery-a signature dish from the Tokyo outpost.

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The Japanese influence

Since 2009 when he first moved to Japan to take up the position of executive chef at Il Ristorante, Fantin has been making an effort to rethink Italian cuisine by using the freshest produce from the island nation in the Pacific. He spent years travelling through the country, scouring the wilderness looking for the best seafood, meat or vegetables, meeting farmers and fishermen in the remotest parts of the country. In the freezing cold northern countryside, Fantin found the sweetest carrots growing under thick blankets of snow. At his Tokyo restaurant, he serves the extra-large carrots in an assortment of textures and calls the dish Variations of Carrot. "To make someone happy with my food, that's what motivates me to cook. To create magic. This is the beautiful part of the job," says the chef.

He looks at cooking as an act of love, something he says he gets from his grandmother. Born and raised in Treviso in northern Italy, his family was a very traditional one. Watching his grandmother cook would fascinate Fantin even as a little child, but she did not appreciate him hovering around. As a father though, Fantin makes sure his three-year-old son Nico feels part of the 'game' while he cooks. "His job is to hand over the ingredients. When I say something is hot, he knows he has to stay away. It's 'hot, hot, hot' Nico will repeat," says Fantin.

Lamb with pumpkin textures

Ingredients speak

In Japan, his focus on local ingredients helped him develop a new cuisine. "If you're realistic, the carrot is always a carrot. It's only how you see the ingredient and how you experience it that changes, everything else remains the same. And depending on how you see the carrot it can be used to create different dishes," the chef philosophises. And so even the 'traditional' menu at Il Ristorante, although making use of ingredients that remind Fantin of his childhood in Treviso, are styled and served in innovative ways. Fantin's approach in the kitchen discourages know-it-alls. The point is to start from scratch each time they're developing a dish. Of course, the challenge of setting up Il Ristorante in Bali has ensured that the chef was kept busy for the better part of early 2017. Working with Crocetta, the first step for them was to understand which ingredients could be consistently available to them locally. Although consistency is something that Fantin could take for granted in Tokyo, it is proving to be the biggest challenge in Bali. "The big point here will be to get the supplier to understand the quality and the consistency we need at the restaurant.

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The Japanese already understand that very well. Locally in Bali we've found that corn is very good, as is zucchini and eggplant. Tomatoes, pasta, rice and olive oil are imported. Unfortunately only 20 per cent of what we need is available to us locally," he says. The hard work the team put in for four grueling months before the May launch of the restaurant have allowed them to "achieve reasonable standards". "But we still have a lot of work to do in terms of sourcing right," the chef rues.

Ristorante Luca Fantin, Jalan Goa Lempeh, Banjar Dinas Kangin, Uluwatu, Bali Tel +62 361 847 100 0; Dress Code Resort smart casual. Children under five are not allowed in the dining room. Families with young patrons aged five or under can enjoy Il Ristorante's menu at alternative venues at the resort. Seats 36; Website: https://www.bulgarihotels.com/en_US/bali/bar-and-restaurant/il-ristorante; Meal for two Rs 10,560 plus taxes

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Cold spaghetti with caviar

Quick take

How has the world of chefs changed since you first began?

When I first started working in the kitchen, no one wanted to talk to the chef. You came into the kitchen and it was a safe place. Now it's changed completely. Chefs need to know about accounts, nutrition, about talking to the media. I think it's important that the curriculum at culinary school is changed.

What are you like in the kitchen?

I'm kind of strict, but in a nice way. I like to share my knowledge with my team, share ideas. But I'm very particular about the final product. When I was younger, I had a chef who pushed me a lot. He'd just throw stuff around and if he didn't like something he'd say it was shit but never explain why. I remember thinking when I'm chef I wouldn't be that way.

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What inspires you to create new dishes?

The seasonal ingredient is the biggest inspiration to create a new menu; and the visual image of what the season suggests I should use.

You cook at home?

Yes, I have two children and I try to find the time to cook for them. I take my son Nico to kindergarten every morning and prepare a bento box for his lunch.