Dine for Sarongbali

Sarong threw open its doors in May 2008 to international fanfare and hasn't showed any sign of slowing down since. Twelve months down the line we took a trip to the kitchens to get down and dirty with the team and discover the multiple complexities that is the mechanics of a kitchen so rich in cultural diversities and culinary techniques. After a hectic evening service it becomes clear that the chaos is orderly, the mayhem organised to an almost military like operation and the personalities behind the plates as fiery as the Asian spices that bind the winning formula of this highly successful restaurant. Sitting down with Will Meryick (ex Longrain, Sofitel and Blossom front man) to dissect the team behind his Sarong venture leads to some unusual findings, from a knife-wielding maniac old timer to the latest addition to the Sarong family from the stable of one Kylie Kwong. Enter, if you dare…

"So, I'm looking for an Indian Chef and I'm given five or six numbers to call for guys in Bombay and Kathmandu. I call them up and every response is positive, I tell them I'm sending out an email and the selection process will begin thereafter." Will pauses for a moment, "I was actually really starting to ponder how I was going to choose only one chef from the list, they were all so good, but I needn't have worried, only one replied to the email and he got the job by default." Rana arrived a week later to Sarong, mocked up a sample menu and was in the kitchen working full time a couple of days later. "Rana brought with him a solid knowledge of both Northern and Southern Indian cuisines, really traditional dishes though – like you'd find on the streets of Delhi or Mumbai. There's not too many contemporary Indian restaurants in those quarters so you are getting a real taste of Indian street cuisine with Rana's cooking, his understanding and balancing of spices and flavours is second to none, even if he does change the damn ingredients every five seconds. His Buttered Chicken is a standout."

When it came to finding an Indonesian chef for the Sarong kitchen Will didn't have to look much further than the back streets of Legian. "There's a whole undiscovered world in existence back in the kampungs (villages) off Jalan Legian, and that's where I stumbled across Juwita." So the story goes Will met Juwita through his babysitter who used to bring back bungkus (takeaway) from a hidden home kitchen somewhere in Legian. On further investigation it turns out that Ibu Juwita was single-handedly responsible for feeding the best part of the local Legian community. "I literally employed her as my home cook whilst Sarong was being set up, I wanted to learn as much as I could about regional Indonesian cuisine from a chef that wasn't westernised in the slightest, who wasn't confused about how traditional Indonesian dishes should taste." Will reveals that it wasn't easy for Julita to grasp the concept of cooking in a professional kitchen, he ended up giving her a crash course in proper cooking techniques whilst trying to make sense of her 'cut and paste' approach to preparing Indonesian dishes.

"Nothing, and I mean nothing, was prepared the same way twice. It would drive me insane." Juwita brings a Malay inspired taste to the Indonesian cuisine served at Sarong that compliments the fresh local produce used throughout the restaurant. If you've ever complained about Indonesian food being 'too bland' or 'overly spicy' then you have yet to experience the Sumatran style of dining where more fragrant spices such as Cardamom, Cinnamon and Nutmeg compliment the raw flavours of Chilies, Galangal and Turmeric more commonly used in Javanese dishes. Naturally, Juwita is extremely protective over her spice pastes, "God only knows what's in those pastes", Will confides, "I think she's utilising traditional plant roots from Aceh that she's sourcing from the markets in Denpasar, but I know better than to ask." At 47, Juwita is the eldest member of the team and has forged a close working relationship with both Will and the other members of Sarong. Suresh, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer to the Petitenget restaurant. Originally of Indian/Chinese heritage, Suresh was raised in Australia and apprenticed under Kylie Kwong, eventually rising to the position of Junior Sous at Billy Kwong in Sydney. "Not that it makes an ounce of difference to his peers at Sarong", Will chuckles, "They christened him 'Tuan Putri' (princess) on the second day of service."

"It was hard for him at first, the melting pot of cultures and languages at Sarong, the constant hustle and bustle of a confined kitchen area, he was way, way out of his comfort zone. So we threw him in the deep end to see if he was a floater." Evidently Suresh was buoyant enough to float, straight to the top as it happens, as he now at the helm of the restaurant, bringing with him a taste of Indo Malaysian cuisine mixed with strong Chinese influences. "You can expect to find more Chinese dishes on the menu at Sarong in the upcoming months, Suresh is killing it with his San Choy Bow that is going on the menu real soon." Subagio is the second youngest team member in the restaurant and is something of an anomaly in the Bali dining scene. "He's in charge of two departments and specialises in Martabak - the thick savoury or sweet pancakes more commonly peddled by street vendors on the busy roads of Denpasar and Jakarta but originating from India during the 13th Century." Although popular throughout Yemen, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia, it is rare to find a chef whose primary focus is only on one dish in a restaurant on the scale of Sarong. "I always wanted to cook Martabak", Will concedes, "but the process is unbelievably complex, you simply cant learn it overnight and even after heaps of attempts I decided that it was wiser to simply bring in a professional and leave it to him." Subagio has been with Sarong since the beginning, he couldn't speak a word of English and had no former professional kitchen experience prior to joining the team. "He's still a very non-confrontational individual", Will smiles, "the archetypal Indonesian male, very humble, meek and really easy to get along with - the complete opposite to the blood snarling beast that is Sirsa."

At 43 years of age Nyoman Sirsa is the second oldest on the team and the very proud homegrown Balinese element to the kitchen and most definitely not to be crossed. "This is the guy you really don't want to screw with", Will looks uncomfortable even talking about Sirsa, "I did try, a long time ago, to steer his direction but I've since learnt that a 'Blue Steel' glance from Sirsa means it's time to get out the way." Evidently Sirsa's as cold as they come, a killer in the kitchen that has absolutely no grasp of how to manage the front of house staff. "It's better we just contain him in the kitchen and give him his own mini empire to run, then get the hell out of his way." Will isn't shy to admit that he just lets Sirsa do his own thing and head up the team of Indonesian chefs. "We've had a long relationship since way back when I was at Husk at The Sofitel. He understands the way I think and I respect him for being the glue that binds, he controls the back of house staff, I pay him accordingly."

Which leads us onto the final member of the team, the one person that has stood by Will since his days in Thailand. It's been a seven-year relationship between Will and his second in command Palm. "He's pretty much my right hand man", Will declares proudly, "he's put up with me for so long now that he deserves to be up there running his own restaurant. He's one of the few that can keep up to speed with me." There's clearly a well-developed bond between the pair of them, a mutual respect and understanding that they need one another mutually in order to be successful. Will has done the hard yards at the hotplates over his time and has moved to front of house with a firm understanding of what happens in the kitchen, something that many restaurateurs are lacking in today's age. "Palm runs the show in the kitchen and implements the decisions I make on a managerial level. On a creative level he's the Mr. Whippy of South East Asia – the sticky rice ice cream concoctions he comes up with are just phenomenal." It's clear, as the interview with Will comes to an end that there's plenty of steam left in the Sarong pressure cooker but there's hints at new ventures aplenty in the upcoming months, but Will's tightlipped with the details. "I'm not in the habit of giving much away ahead of time, but I will say that there's so much that can be achieved over here in Bali in terms of pushing regional South East Asian cuisines on many levels, not just in the same way that we took hawker food and translated it to a fine dining environment as with Sarong."

One thing is for sure, with the commitment of such a cosmopolitan team of chefs, a unilateral vision of a forward thinking restaurateur and the global desire for Asian influenced cuisine, Sarong will remain at the cutting edge of the Bali dining scene for some time to come.

Jl Petitenget, T: 0361 737 809, Sarongbali