3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Food Picks: Hearty French cooking at La Table D'Emma
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SINGAPORE – On the day I visit La Table D'Emma, the ice-cream machine is broken. Workers come in towards the end of service to tinker around with the air-conditioning vents, which ostensibly also require some tender loving care.
The kitchen, perennially short-staffed, is running on a skeleton crew.
'Just what I needed – more drama,' jokes chef Michael Muller, a kitchen veteran who meets whatever curveballs restaurant life flings at him with dry sanguinity.
His response to the staff shortage has been to scale down the menu to focus on the few French dishes he does best at the restaurant, which opened in April 2024 and is named after his wife.
One staple that remains, however, is the warm hospitality the restaurant continues to dish out. It is hard not to feel welcome when the chef shakes your hand like he means it and sets down a piping hot crock of French onion soup ($26++) covered in a golden dome just begging to be shattered for the love of Instagram.
The other soup option equally invites interaction: a mushroom 'cappuccino' that has to be assembled by pouring shiitake broth into a bowl of mushroom foam ($22++). Do not be put off by its frothy creaminess – it tastes far more delicate than it looks.
The creative presentation is a nice touch, but this is not a restaurant that needs to rely on visual gimmicks. It prides itself on unpretentious cooking that honours tradition, but not too rigidly.
The Non-Classic Bouillabaisse ($44++), for instance, is served in a pan instead of a pot, soup and ingredients combined only at the table. This gives the prawns, squid and fish some time to brown, acquiring an added dimension of flavour before the saffron broth is tipped in.
Another standout seafood dish is the French raviole ($42++), stuffed with scallop mousse and served in a sizzling pan, a glistening lobster tail tossed in for good measure. Everything is blanketed in a tarragon-infused lobster sauce so rich and robust, I start hoarding pieces of bread meant to accompany other dishes, just to have something to sop up every last drop.
Kaya Mon Amour from La Table D'Emma.
PHOTO: LA TABLE D'EMMA
There are also nods to chef Muller's personal history. To start: Flemmakueche (from $24++), a pizza-like dish from his home town of Alsace. And to end: Kaya Mon Amour ($16++), his version of kaya toast, made with Kougelopf, housemade gula melaka and pandan mousseline cream – a delectable tribute to his current home.
