Renowned chef Azizskandar Awang has crafted a host of new menus at luxury beachfront resort Meliá Koh Samui in Thailand.
Awang, the resort’s executive chef who won Chef Hotelier of the Year award at the Hotelier’s Awards Asia, has introduced degustation, vegan, afternoon tea and Sunday brunch menus celebrating contemporary, Western and Mediterranean cuisine.
The launch includes a five-course ‘Chef’s Tasting Menu’, served in the evenings at the Breeza Beach Restaurant and Bar with dishes such as sea scallop with cauliflower puree, nantua sauce, pickled grapes and salicorne’ and Wagyu beef with black garlic, parsnip puree and a red wine reduction.
Meanwhile, its counterpart, the ‘Taste of Thai’, features dishes such as salmon wrapped in betel leaf with light chu che sauce and pickled pearl onion and Australian lamb in massaman sauce with peanut puree, crispy onion and potato gnocchi.
Designed to tap into the continued appetite for sustainable, plant-based dining, Awang’s vegan offering boasts dishes from lentil soup flavoured with coconut milk, cumin and ginger, to saffron risotto with caramelised porcini mushrooms.
Elsewhere, dining options include afternoon tea serving sweets such as lemon and pistachio éclair and savoury plates including smoked salmon and grilled brie cheese and cranberry sandwiches.
Held once a month, Sunday brunch, a menu brimming with indulgent options and experiential culinary options, features a ‘raw bar’ dishing out French oysters, steamed white shell calms and poached local shrimps. While the various other dining stations add an additional level of luxury and variety with dishes including crispy fish tacos, nigiri sushi and black truffle ravioli with brown butter.
Commenting on the launch of the new culinary initiatives, Awang hopes that the menus will help signal his “ambitious Breeze Restaurant and Bar as Koh Samui island’s top fine dining restaurant.”
