Special thanks to Chef Donny of FoodDNA for inviting me to this food tasting session to savour his delightful cooking and I also got to understand private chefs for hire better!
It's a very interesting concept really, to have a private chef over to cook anything to your palate's desire! In fact, my honest opinion is this might be a trending concept!
The initial impression would be that private chefs are for the rich and socialites but this is clearly not the case anymore. Private chefs can now be hired for small private dinners or big scale parties. The cost is reasonable. I mean, perhaps not everyday meals but for special occasions like birthdays, anniversarys, we do spend a budget for a good meal at a fine restaurant too. For that same budget or even less, for busy folks who want to celebrate at the comfort of their home, private chefs are a good option!
They can work on the menu according to your preferences! Most importantly, they clean up after too ;) you get your kitchen back in the same state you pass to them. But don't sabo and tell them you have a fully functional kitchen when your oven is not working or you are out of gas la! Haha
The meal was nicely set to welcome us....
Before every dish came up, Chef Donny gave a brief on each dish, explaining to us what we were eating and the choice of fine ingredients.
The amuse bouche...
It was very interesting that he replaced the common melon with Parma to watermelon with Parma. The juice from the watermelon oozed out and neutralized the salty flavour of the Parma ham. It was so good!
In the middle was the smoked duck, which was very nicely done too.
The cucumber skewer on the right was drizzled with some miso sauce, very refreshing!
Next up is the Hokkaido scallop!
Above each scallop is a bundle of mango and below the scallop is some ponzu sauce. The mango was really sweet but in my view overpowered the taste of the ponzu and the scallop. There were mixed reviews of whether each individual preferred it sweet or savoury.
Next up was the heirloom tomatoes....
The tomatoes were really sweet! There was a piece of grilled cheese that left us craving for more.
Next up was the very incredible pumpkin soup! The texture of it was amazing! Super interesting coz if I were to describe, I will say it's like egg yolk!
The grains on the side gave a good texture to the soup.
Finally it's the mains of a fish....
The most interesting of this has got to be the corn on the side...
Thank you Chef Donny for the invite!
