"It means I can do anything I want!” quips Sam Aisbett, the tattoo-clad Australian chef-owner of Whitegrass, when asked to define modern Australian cuisine.

At his fine-dining restaurant, which opened in January at Chijmes (01-26/27), the former head chef of award-winning Quay restaurant in Sydney creatively dishes out “mod‑Oz” food in a five- or eight-course dinner with a palpable—and palatable—Asian touch (especially Japanese, influenced by his two‑year stint as senior sous chef at Tetsuya’s in Sydney).

For example, the amuse-bouche could come as a bowl of refreshing ingredients, where pearls of savoury salmon roe sit on small cubes of mild-flavoured trout jelly, lightly pickled cucumber balls with a crunch and a base of creamy fennel puree.

^{Yellowtail amberjack sashimi}

For starters, the yellowtail amberjack sashimi is served with creamy horseradish and aromatic toasted nori oil, which brings extra zing to coax out its sweetness, further accentuated by nasturtium leaves, and thinly sliced cucumber and salted egg yolk.

^{Mangalica pork in seaweed and pork broth}

The Mangalica pork here is particularly unforgettable; slowly brined in chicken stock for eight hours, the fatty cubes of jowl melt in the mouth. They lay in a light, moreish broth—made by boiling the pork bones with seaweed—alongside chewy chunks of tiger abalone and pickled cabbage that boost the dish’s Asian flavours.

A course of butter-poached quail breast also stands out for the meat’s tenderness, although it offers more bite than the pork.

But what’s more noteworthy is the dish’s medley of textures, reinforced by crispy roasted milk skin (made by oven-baking it), dices of jellied century egg whites and a sprinkling of toasted nuts and seeds. The meal could end with another texture-driven treat, like luscious jackfruit ice cream with coconut mousse, shards of coconut meringue and chewy longan.

The dishes hark back to chef Aisbett’s longstanding desire to start his own restaurant in Asia. This saw him travel extensively within the continent until he met Malaysian power couple Sean and Karen H’ng in Singapore last March, and decided to set up shop here with their help. He likens Singapore’s food scene to Sydney’s: “It’s a melting pot of cultures and cuisine, making it an amazing place to be more experimental.”

Like its food, the interior of the restaurant has been furnished the way the chef likes it: classy, delicate and fun. All around, there are tell-tale signs of how much he adores animals (he’s a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society supporter), nature and diving: Drawings of birds in the kitchen; a quirky mural by illustrator MessyMsxi of a surreal underwater world where land and marine animals mingle, a man forages for fresh vegetables and tiny human divers ride the undersea currents.

Perhaps, this is what chef Aisbett means with his explanation of mod-Oz cuisine; that it’s all up to one’s imagination to define. 

Whitegrass | 01-26/27 Chijmes, 30 Victoria St, S(187996) | 6837 0402