After the meat-fuelled revelry of the festive season, it isn’t only vegetarians who desire the soothing presence of healthful greens. Thankfully, a growing crop of top toques in Singapore are heeding the zeitgeist, turning out exquisite, creative multi-course menus that place the humble vegetable on the culinary pedestal. From watermelon carpaccio to gardens on a plate, these menus eliminate – once and for all – the long-held myth that healthy food can’t taste all that good.

 

Halia at Singapore Botanic Gardens

Set within the lush Ginger Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Halia is the perfect antidote to carnivorous excess. Executive chef Peter Rollinson’s responsibly sourced vegetarian menu salutes both the artisanal and the local, resulting in creations like pearl barley ‘risotto’ (wherein the rice is substituted for the healthier grain) with egg, black winter truffle, and French and local organic mushrooms. The starter of ‘broken tartlet’, too, sees feathery Meredith goat’s cheese – sourced from a sustainable boutique farm in South Australia – set upon a crumbly tart base. The colourful pop of heirloom beets and carrots add a crunchy, earthy bite, while the delicate sweetness of caramelized onion draws everything together nicely.

1 Cluny Road. Tel: 8444 1148

  

Tippling Club

We won’t spoil the surprise by going into detail here. Suffice to say, Chef Ryan Clift displays the same creative aplomb in his usual tasting menu as in his vegetarian one. A 6-course Classic Menu and 12-course Gourmand Menu showcase Clift’s theatrical and culinary dexterity, resulting in tromp l’oeil dishes that present familiar ingredients in wildly creative, unexpected ways. Simple vegetables such as cauliflower, parsley root and celeriac are transformed and elevated via mad-scientist techniques – vacuum distillation, natural enzyme harnessing, freeze clarification. Of course, quality isn’t compromised, with some of the world’s best produce – think wild French mushrooms, hand-picked radishes and fennel from Hokkaido, and artisanal burrata cheese from a Japanese dairy farm – showing up on plates.

38 Tanjong Pagar Road. Tel: 6475 2217

  

Saint Pierre

From your second-floor perch at Saint Pierre, the purple-tinged view of Quayside Isle’s yacht-lined marina at sunset is a sight to behold. So is, incidentally, Chef Emmanuel Stroobant’s food. His Japanese-influenced modern French cuisine boasts an almost Nordic aesthetic of lyrical naturalism, replete with perfectly placed petals, manicured micro-cress, and the best that nature has to offer. The 10-course vegetarian degustation menu (advance order of three days required) relies on the freshest produce of the day, featuring dishes such as watermelon carpaccio served with vegetable ‘rocks’, sorrel and burnt orange segments; or organic field mushrooms, paired with nutty Comte cheese, buttery feuillete pastry, and a dusting of black truffle.

#01-15 Quayside Isle, 31 Ocean Way. Tel: 6438 0887

 

Olivia Cassivelaun Fancourt (OCF)

Guided by the seasons and the purity of his ingredients, Chef Jonathan Koh at the deliciously named OCF presents pristine set menus that reflect nature in its simplest form. The 5-course ‘Carte Blanche’ dinner menu is an exercise in creative spontaneity, wherein Koh’s classical French training and love for the earth’s produce is translated onto the plate. Vegetarians will be happy to know they are not excluded from the experience, as Koh is happy to customise meat-free (and even dairy-free) menus. For an idea of what to expect, look to a previous dinner menu that highlighted the colours of France in springtime. ‘Le Jaune’ saw the sweet pop of Cevennes onions layered on a buttery tart, dressed up with the runny delight of a 63-degree poached egg and umami-rich roasting jus. Crunchy young carrots, too, were the centerpieces of ‘L’Orange’, while orange-infused foam and the fragrant flagrance of saffron added the requisite acidic tang.

#02-02, The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane. Tel: 6333 9312

JAAN

Chef Julian Royer delves into the world of vegetables as naturally as a morel takes to soil, which makes his 5- and 7- course vegetarian menus at JAAN virtual green-hued masterpieces. The season’s best produce, sourced from small farms and gourmet producers in France, are showcased in gorgeous creations such as the Winter Garden. The dish is an artist’s palette of ‘forgotten’, unusual vegetables – parsley roots, chervil roots, crosnes – treated in various ways to highlight their individual flavour, and anchored by the earthy crunch of hazelnuts. Other highlights of the menu are Royer’s signature 55’ Smoked Organic Egg, surrounded by the comforting trio of smoked potato, black truffle and buckwheat kernels, and Pumpkin ‘Musquee’, which sees chestnut pasta paired with light-as-air buffalo ricotta and black trumpet mushrooms.

Level 70, Swissotel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road. Tel: 6837 3322