July 2013
If KL has Shangri-La's Lafite as a fine dining institution, Penang has Feringgi Grill in Rasa Sayang. This restaurant has earned its stellar reputation for refined flavours and a dining experience that punctuates a celebration. While the few chefs that have helmed its kitchen shaped the personality of the place, today, Chef Matthias Tretbar simply accentuates it with his incomplex flavours brought on by freshness and quality of ingredients.
By keeping a light hand with the salt, Matthias brings a hint of sea with his starter of Seafood Delights, rustic richness with his Oxtail Ravioli, silky butter with his Butternut Cappuccino soup and cheerful textures with his Poached Halibut coupled with blanched yet crisp vegetables, to the dining table.
Although he sticks to the traditional style of cooking which he trained in for more than a decade, a touch of contemporary haute cuisine does settle onto the dishes from his 5-course degustation menu. For instance, taking the lead from the visually exciting molecular gastronomy style, a layer of vanilla air foam skims the top of the cup in which the aromatic butternut soup is served, lending it an enigmatic look and taste while mushroom dust adds earthiness to the halibut main course.
Then he gives the familiar taste of old school with his braised oxtail meat wrapped in ravioli that holds lovely gamey, beefy flavour that beef should while the thick, gently sharp shiraz gravy gives it a long finish. On the other hand, he surprises you with a dash of exotic in his delicate slice of tuna from his starter of Seafood Delights by adding a pinch of cumin and chilli.
If all that isn’t enough, to further enhance the RM185++ degustation menu, a simple merlot will purge out chocolaty accents when coupled with the oxtail dish while a chardonnay becomes rather creamy with bites of the poached halibut and its accompanying vegetables, hence prolonging your dining experience and turning it into a rather remarkable one. Su Aziz