Sadler charms Jakarta with Italian cuisine

Jakartans had an opportunity to taste modern Italian cuisine from Chef Claudio Sadler, an award-winning international chef who presented his wonderful Italian dishes at Hotel Mulia's Italian restaurant Il Mare earlier this month.

Serving both lunch and dinner, Sadler offered five course set lunch menus and seven course set dinner menus, with a wine-pairing service provided by Il Mare to complement Sadler's superb cuisine.

During Sadler's visit to Jakarta, The Jakarta Post tried the lunch menu, which opened with a prawn salad with cucumber spaghetti, tomato granite and melon carpaccio. The salad seemed innocent at first glance, but there was a tinge of spiciness coming from the tiny maroon flower petals.

A similar thing happened in the second course, which was stingray and organic broccolini soup with spicy thin spaghetti. The tender texture of tomato and broccolini blended well with the succulent taste of the stingray and spicy spaghetti.

"I know Asians have a penchant for spicy food, so I used the spices," the chef said.

The third course was handmade ravioli Milanese style filled with cheese, topped with mushroom trompette de la mort, black truffle and veal sweetbread croquettes. As ravioli is usually stuffed with coarser fillings, such as vegetables, it was an eye-opening experience to see melted cheese spurting out of the pasta pillows.

The main course was veal tenderloin with braised savoy cabbage and bettelmatt cheese fondue with white Alba truffle. The cheese mixed well with the veal, while the cabbage complemented the whole menu.

To close lunch, Sadler offered surprises through the dessert, chocolate Sicilian cannoli stuffed with cassata and chopped pistachio, limoncello foam and coffee sorbet topped with lemon sorbet. It was an eclectic experience for the taste buds created in one dish as it had sweet and sourly tender overtones, while being tasty and refreshing.

"I like to surprise people with my cuisine," Sadler said.

Sadler is one of the most renowned chefs in Italy, of certain competence and of rational application of the rules, but also of great joy and spontaneous creativity. He is one of the founders of Jeune Restaurateurs d'Europe, an organization that promotes young chefs with exceptional talent. He was also the president of Milan-based "Soste", an exclusive association of elite restaurateurs.