H O S T E D
The eloquent young chef who’s not even thirty years of age, draws heavily on his childhood memories in the Piemonte region in Italy for inspiration, specifically his beloved mama’s cooking, and uses seasonal produce married with Japanese influences to articulate his progressive style of Italian food at 28Wilkie.
Priced at $128++ and $198++ for the 5 and 7-course menus respectively, I consider them genuine value-for-money considering how most if not all of the ingredients @matteo.chef incorporates into his cooking, are imported from Italy and Japan. With the exception of the caviar as that’s from Singapore-founded @caviarcolony, whose CEO and Founder Benjamin Goh also happens to own 28Wilkie.
I had the privilege of trying the 7-course menu that evening, and it was enlightening to learn of the backstory of every dish as well as all the components that went into it, as they were presented by Chefs Matteo, @marcustky and @chef_shanelim.
Here is a quite overview of what I found the most appealing about the food:

1. Snacks - All three were enjoyable but the smoked ricotta cannelloni well and truly stunned me.
2. Seven-Cereal Bread - Good aroma and a pleasant chew, this I enjoyed a lot with Bordier butter and Maldon sea salt flakes.
3. Ancelin Oyster - Gorgeously creamy with a sweet-salty profile, it would have been wonderful naked but the Japanese-forward dressing worked nicely too.
4. Rosso di Mazara prawn and Trombetta zucchini - This course stood out for me. As Chef had learned from young about extracting sustenance from every ingredient, he applied those lessons very creatively on the deep sea prawn and the zucchini to stellar results.
5. Chawanmushi - Never had I met one with two levels of flavour till this. A bold concept that translated to solid satisfaction.
6. Tagliolini - It seems to me a few Italian restaurants around town do a version of this uni pasta dish too but Chef Matteo cleverly differentiates his with housemade Tajarin, a rougher type of pasta, and and the addition of acidic components of the rare light-sour butterfly cress from local company @farmdelight and pickled chanterelle mushrooms (done in the way his mama taught him) to counter the rich zabaione of uni and butter.
7. Trout - Hailing from Mount Fuji in Japan, the fatty fish with lardo tasted remarkably moist and soft. I liked how all the other elements on the plate provided a lovely contrast to it too.
8. A4 Ohmi Wagyu - There‘s no faulting the perfectly done beef from Shiga Prefecture in Japan. The smoked bone marrow and four textures of Roscoff onion it came with were positively ambrosial.
9. Strawberry Granita - It was great to have a not-so-straightforward pre-dessert, especially since I am very fond of that 25-years-old balsamic from Il Borgo del Balsamico.
10. Persi Pien - Chef Matteo’s contemporary take on his school lunch treat of “stuffed peach” had a lot happening but they harmonised pleasingly.
11. Petit Fours - Enjoyed the chocolate with caramel and praline most but the Super Mario-like E.V.O. Sable with white chocolate and raspberry bonbon and Torrone (Italian Nougat) were good too.
12. Lorenzini cantaloupe melon - What a treat it was to have a sweet slice of Sicily‘s summer.

To top it off, Sommelier @elginvincent chose a wonderful bottle of Amarone for us.