If the Italian food you've been eating has no character, then the chef probably has no soul….or is it the other way around? I mean… how good can his food be when he comes around and ask why did you not finish your risotto or holds you by your upper arm, pulls himself closer to your ear and asks " You gotta problem wit the interior design?".

Actually, not too bad, especially if the chef happens to be Mr Gaetano Ascione . I am no long time friend of this man but I can smell his passion for life and people through his food. Kitchen odour aside, which comes with 25 years in the business, Gaetano is basically your regular friendly, sometimes too friendly, bloke. His mission, he discovered early in life, was to serve good food and collect good money - to make up for what his mother couldn't deliver in the kitchen when he was young.

At always 30 something years old, which means he started at about puberty, he has cooked for past American Presidents, taught, consulted, cooked in hotels and clubs. In fact it was at his stint at The Tanglin Club in Singapore that Gaetano developed somewhat of a following. He serves, on a regular basis, a string of corporate bigwigs, Ministers, the who's who of every industry, wannabes and don't wannabes. I suspect half come back for his food and the other, to be harassed. Good food and a regular impromptu monologue performance from the zesty chef are ingredients for a brew of regular customers.

To begin with, his smile…it befits the comfy baked yellow Mediterranean cheer interior, decorated with enough art to lure an artsy conversation into gear. The 1928 lovingly restored pre-war building along Club Street and Mohamed Ali Lane has a little quiet charm. It is also echoed in his (albeit louder) when he tells you not to order anything from the menu, but to devour his trademark off-menu, based on availability and mood, specialties like cheek of veal and lobster linguine and whatever nice fish that dropped by his kitchen for a visit that day…like the scallop linguine. It looks like nothing ( imagine mee-pok with sculptured fish balls on very expensive crockery). The texture is dry but lightly moist and marries well with the spicy herbs and olive oil, which blended with the scallops as the perfect mistress.

I enjoyed his lamb racks. Two thick double stacked racks…a mouthful. The provencale herb marinade did not kill the flavour of this tricky meat (try doing this yourself and see if the smell and texture will get to you). Medium rare and innocently pink, it tasted like…lamb. I also had the cheek to ask for a bite off Karen's order of cheek of veal. I never knew a calf had cheeks that big. The texture was an adventure, not unlike how garoupa cheeks compares with its own flesh. The sauce… it's memorable to me only because Gaetano forgot what it was. For a chef who changes his menu every Tuesday ( I think it's the usual high-spirited Italian weekend that makes him forget what he cooked the week before that inspires a weekly menu overhaul), there is no reliable sauce.

"Why you don't finish the food, is it not the good?", Gaetanos' voice will boom over the half consumed squid ink risotto. And as you recover from his thrusting inquiry while explaining that you need space for dessert, he lets you off with the warmest of warning and preps you for some serious dessert and wine. High on the list are the vanilla ice cream sabayon and grand marnier crème brulee. And if your moral standard insists that you pass on the sinful yet heavenly desserts, then come down to earth with a glass of the sommelier recommended dessert wines. I have not the slightest idea what he suggested but the honeyed wine that we eventually had was bliss.

In a nutshell, dining at Gaetano Restaurant is a fine experience. Fine by him if your experience is memorable but not when his experience is an unforgettable eight pax dinner that spent a forgettable $200 odd. To remind himself that all in life only sometimes fair, he kept a copy of the receipt and labeled it "the worst of the worst", and pasted it in the kitchen.

Where:	Gaetano Restaurant 36 Club Street tel: 325 3360
Food Rating:	Excellent

 

Picture essay and words by kfseetoh