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West Australian
10-08-2025
- West Australian
Culinary adventure in Singapore inspired by nature
Singapore is awash with Michelin-recommended restaurants, from hawker stalls to fine diners in five-star hotels. The Michelin Guide website has 288 listings for Singapore and surrounds, 39 of which hold one to three coveted stars. However, only one offers an experience that starts and ends with a buggy ride through a tropical garden with views of the city and the Singapore Flyer. Marguerite, located in the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay, won its first Michelin star in July 2022, just eight months after opening. At the helm is Melbourne-born chef patron Michael Wilson, whose nature-inspired menu follows the European seasons. Disembarking from our buggy, my sister and I are greeted by the friendly team and swap humidity for cool air and Scandi vibes. On the way to our window seat, we pass three immaculate kitchen stations where chefs are calmly tweezing and plating. It reminds me of MasterChef, minus the chaos. Marguerite's seven-course tasting menu starts with a series of seven snacks, meaning we end up with 14 dishes packed with flavour and technique, plus bread. Dry-aged Australian kingfish is finished with a layer of sliced dwarf tomatoes and chive flowers. Each snack looks like a work of art, almost too pretty to eat. 'Everyone works very hard to make the experience very unique,' Michael says when he stops by the table. Lettuce gazpacho is made from 10 herbs and vegetables, topped with Alaskan king crab and Amur caviar from the natural cold spring water of the Yunnan-Tibet plateau. Tail meat from Obsiblue prawns from New Caledonia is turned into an all prawn, no starch pasta, joined on the menu by Basque mullet and Dorset lamb from New Zealand's Hawke's Bay. Some of the celery and herbs are sourced from specialty growers in Singapore. When Michael says his ingredients aren't bound by borders, he's not kidding. He's passionate about the provenance of his produce and employs techniques that result in each bite being a new adventure in flavour. Before leaving Melbourne in 2012, Michael worked at restaurants including Grossi Florentino and Cutler & Co. He earned his first Michelin Star five months after opening Phenix in the Puli Hotel and Spa, Shanghai. If there was any positive from the COVID pandemic, Michael says it was the chance to move to Singapore and build Marguerite, where he can focus on his own style of creative cuisine. There are two desserts, including speckled pink rhubarb with ginger and celery. 'In the UK, they call it forced rhubarb, they pick it early, put it into a barn and because it is trying to reach for the light it grows, so it isn't red, it's pink,' Michael explains. Michael also oversees Hortus, the Flower Dome's all-day dining space celebrating Mediterranean sharing plates. Both are part of Unlisted Collection hospitality group which in Singapore includes Burnt Ends and Cloudstreet. A wooden trolley has been making the rounds and when it reaches us at the end of the meal, it reveals a collection of single-bite mignardises including a chocolate ganache shaped like a Nespresso pod, Tasmanian mountain pepper bonbons, and in a cheeky nod to Michael's Aussie childhood, a tiny Iced VoVo-inspired shortbread. While each course is a showstopper, there's plenty to catch the eye in and around the 10-table restaurant. Two striking carved boulders are used as counters and white marble tabletops provide the backdrop for each dish, many of which are served on handmade ceramics from local and international artists. Michael says Marguerite's clientele is 70 per cent locals, 30 per cent tourists. 'If you look at our reservation sheet if there's a cake it's a birthday, if there's a rose it's an anniversary,' he says. Marguerite offers a complimentary cake, personalised menu and Polaroid for special occasions. Marguerite is possibly the most accessible restaurants I've visited. The toilets have handrails and something I've never seen, a fold down small/child's toilet seat, as well as low basins designed for wheelchair users or children. Every booking includes entry to the Flower Dome, which brings us to the restaurant's name. 'Marguerite is French for daisy,' Michael says. 'It brings joy and happiness; it's a very positive flower and sounds nice too.' Marguerite is open for lunch from Thursday to Sunday and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday. The four-course lunch-only menu is $177, and the signature menu available at lunch and dinner is $345, including still or sparking water, excluding taxes. Michael Wilson will be in Perth for the Good Food and Wine Show from July 18 to 20 at PCEC. He will be demonstrating a handmade Sardinian gnocchetti with pork ragu in his session, Michael Wilson's Perfect Date Night. + Sue Yeap was a guest of Marguerite. They have not influenced this story, or read it before publication. fact file
The Age
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Richmond's Love Letter is an ode to Yorkshire puddings, gravy and chaos
Perry and Bellamy go to Vic Market three times a week to see what their favourite vendors have put aside for them. They turn the spoils into good-value feasting for the $49 feed-me menu on Wednesdays, and steak nights on the Thursday and Friday when you might find a fancy surf'n'turf with wagyu eye-fillet and exquisite Skull Island prawns, or porterhouse with Moreton Bay bug. The approach is over the top, exuberant and generous. Drinking is adventurous and accessible. I love the Campari served in a mini frosted-glass 1930s bottle for pouring over ice and an orange slice. There's a wine blackboard with weekly glasses, carafes and bottles listed by colour and weight, which is a nice way to stretch and learn. Most wines make the list after a local winemaker brings them in and chats the team through a tasting. Service is eager and caring, a love letter enacted for every table. The very idea of fine dining can feel exclusionary, something that other people do, but Love Letter rewrites the template. The restaurant is down-to-earth, personal and cheerily obsessed with making people happy, a fine formula for dining indeed. Three more restaurants redefining fine dining Cutler It opened 13 years ago as Cutler & Co, and chef and co-owner Andrew McConnell has given his flagship a few rethinks over the years. Now it's simply Cutler, with a poised bistro menu and an all-class no-fuss feeling. Wednesday Cellar Nights mean $30 corkage and shared dishes that match well with Bordeaux and Burgundy. 55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Regale Cafe empress Sutinee Suntivatana owns Humble Rays and matcha specialist Tori's, and now also has Regale in the Old Carlton Brewhouse at the top end of the city. The Asian fusion menu includes chicken rigatoni with gochujang vodka sauce and smashed olives, and sticky rice and white chocolate mousse with corn relish. 555 Swanston Street, Carlton, The Roe A backstreet warehouse is now a temple to sea urchin. They're served raw, rolled up in spring rolls, infused into broths, tucked into fried rice and arranged in colourful bowls with other seafood. An invasive and feral species, eating sea urchins is also conservation.
Sydney Morning Herald
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Richmond's Love Letter is an ode to Yorkshire puddings, gravy and chaos
Perry and Bellamy go to Vic Market three times a week to see what their favourite vendors have put aside for them. They turn the spoils into good-value feasting for the $49 feed-me menu on Wednesdays, and steak nights on the Thursday and Friday when you might find a fancy surf'n'turf with wagyu eye-fillet and exquisite Skull Island prawns, or porterhouse with Moreton Bay bug. The approach is over the top, exuberant and generous. Drinking is adventurous and accessible. I love the Campari served in a mini frosted-glass 1930s bottle for pouring over ice and an orange slice. There's a wine blackboard with weekly glasses, carafes and bottles listed by colour and weight, which is a nice way to stretch and learn. Most wines make the list after a local winemaker brings them in and chats the team through a tasting. Service is eager and caring, a love letter enacted for every table. The very idea of fine dining can feel exclusionary, something that other people do, but Love Letter rewrites the template. The restaurant is down-to-earth, personal and cheerily obsessed with making people happy, a fine formula for dining indeed. Three more restaurants redefining fine dining Cutler It opened 13 years ago as Cutler & Co, and chef and co-owner Andrew McConnell has given his flagship a few rethinks over the years. Now it's simply Cutler, with a poised bistro menu and an all-class no-fuss feeling. Wednesday Cellar Nights mean $30 corkage and shared dishes that match well with Bordeaux and Burgundy. 55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Regale Cafe empress Sutinee Suntivatana owns Humble Rays and matcha specialist Tori's, and now also has Regale in the Old Carlton Brewhouse at the top end of the city. The Asian fusion menu includes chicken rigatoni with gochujang vodka sauce and smashed olives, and sticky rice and white chocolate mousse with corn relish. 555 Swanston Street, Carlton, The Roe A backstreet warehouse is now a temple to sea urchin. They're served raw, rolled up in spring rolls, infused into broths, tucked into fried rice and arranged in colourful bowls with other seafood. An invasive and feral species, eating sea urchins is also conservation.
The Age
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
New restaurant Banksia opens in Caulfield North
After nearly changing careers, a former Society and Cutler & Co chef has rediscovered his love for cooking at an airy day-to-night diner. May 26, 2025 , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. When Aanya – the Jessi Singh-backed Indian fine diner that chefs Nishant Arora and Janos Roman were set to open in Collingwood – fell through, Arora was at a loss. 'Things really didn't go to plan so we had to walk away from it,' says Arora, citing a breakdown in his and Roman's relationship with their business partner. 'I was so burnt out that I almost left the hospitality industry. I started doing a finance course.' Banksia operators Nishant Arora and Adam Aflalo. Simon Schluter But an unsolicited LinkedIn message jolted the Indian-born chef back into the kitchen. The message was from Adam Aflalo, who comes from the tech world but was on the hunt for a chef to co-found a restaurant. Over a few meetings, including a boozy dinner at Hopper Joint, they clicked. And now they've opened Banksia, a neighbourhood restaurant in Caulfield North, where Arora's fine-dining cred makes a statement on Hawthorn Road. The chef grew up in the hinterland of northern India before moving to New Zealand, where he worked at celebrated restaurants Sidart and Cassia. He went on to stage at the three-Michelin-starred Frantzen in Stockholm - 'it opened my mind!' - then settled in Melbourne, serving on the opening team for Society and as a sous chef at Cutler & Co. Banksia's plum sorbet. Simon Schluter But he made most of a splash alongside Roman at their Aanya pop-ups, where innovative Indian cooking took centre stage at venues like The Hotel Windsor. Arora's goal is to create a globetrotting menu, largely powered by a binchotan-burning charcoal grill. There are several nods to his homeland. Loddon Valley lamb cutlets come with black-garlic-curry dipping sauce, while a southern-Indian-inspired coconut-and-galangal sauce accompanies John Dory. Taking inspiration from Italy's Puglia region is a 'myth-busting' entree that Arora says challenges the preconception that seafood and cheese are strange bedfellows. Delicately sliced raw tuna is served with stracciatella and a fragrant lemon-myrtle dressing. There's also a rice-less risotto that subs in barley and celeriac, crowned with a lion's mane mushroom steak that's marinated, cooked sous vide and finished on the charcoal. Raw tuna is served with stracciatella and a fragrant lemon-myrtle dressing. Simon Schluter Aflalo – who grew up in the area – says that while there are some great cafes around, this pocket of the south-east has long been lacking the night-time dining stakes. But that's not to say it's all dinner. A dedicated 'express' menu – running alongside the regular a la carte offering – makes Banksia a daytime destination as well, with dine-in and takeaway lunch options aplenty. Feeling fresh? Salads include green goddess and panzanella, with proteins to add on. Want a (made-to-order) sandwich? Go hefty with the Reuben. Its smoky beef brisket, sauerkraut and Russian dressing are all house-made. Banksia co-owner Adam Aflalo. Simon Schluter In a prime corner site opposite Caulfield Park, where Hawthorn and Balaclava roads meet, Banksia has reimagined the former Parkside Pantry. It's light and bright and gone are the deli fridges, replaced with an open kitchen and a stone countertop with bar seating. When the restaurant eventually gets its liquor licence, you'll be able to perch there with a local craft tinnie, perhaps by Huntingdale brewery Kaiju, but it's mocktails until then. Lunch, Wednesday-Sunday; dinner, Friday-Sunday . 98 Hawthorn Road, Caulfield North, Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up
