Salted & Hung is an ode of respect to ingredient and produce; and the embodiment of a personal ethos. Chef Owner Drew Nocente (main image) has crystallised the values of his growing-up years, and the inspirations of his culinary journey, into the bedrock of his contemporary gastronomic restaurant at Purvis Street.
He calls his philosophy ‘Zero Food Waste Dining’. The methods and approach he uses in the kitchen to make this happen he calls ‘Minimal Waste Cooking’.
Eager to plumb the depths of his convictions, his ethos evolved. Drew re-looked and rethought menu and technique with an eye to maximising every ingredient – and finding new ways to use the under-valued and often-discarded.
Drew replaced the existing a la carte menu with a tasting menu that revolved around the creative use of the ‘whole animal’ — be it pig, cow, bird or fish — from protein to innards, skin to bone.
The signature dish on the menu is the epitome of Zero Food Waste Dining. Every part of the Aged Turbot pictured below, from fin to innards, is fully utilised in the three elements of the dish -- ‘Turbot’, ‘Turbot Tea Broth’ and ‘Turbot Liver Vin Jaune’ sauce.
The turbot fillet is aged for 5 days in a chiller to enrich its flavours, then rolled and slow-cooked to perfection. The skin and turbot trimmings are fermented into a garum that is later used to season the vegetables.
The dish is then finished off with a sauce made from the Turbot liver and Vin Jaune. Lastly, the turbot bones are hung and dried for 14 days in preparation for making dashi broth, along with local herbs and flowers lending an aromatic flavour to the dashi tea.
The Vintage Beef pictured below presents a sirloin steak grilled over coconut husk charcoal and Japanese Binchotan, and paired with carrots. The cuts come from matured breeding stock that freely roam the pastures for retirement. Fed only grass, the animals live in idyllic conditions and are not processed until they are at least 60 months old – more than twice the age of regular cattle
Not a single by-product went to waste. Each dish was made from scratch using traditional techniques like curing, ageing, pickling, fermenting, smoking and grilling. The trimmings were used to make broths, sauces and seasonings that enhanced and deepened flavours.
In the kitchen all single-use plastics -- cling wrap, garbage bags, disposable packages -- were switched to their bio-degradable versions. Coconut-husk charcoal was introduced.
From young boy on a farm, where his core convictions were born, to consummate consumer of produce through profession, to advocate of Minimal Waste Cooking and Zero Food Waste Dining, Drew Nocente’s personal and culinary journey has come full circle.
At Salted & Hung, restaurant and chef work in symbiosis to spread the message of reducing food wastage through recycling, up-valuing, and upcycling to diners and the public at large, sparking awareness and stimulating conversation. It is philosophy, objective, and hope for a new generation, served in the most palatable way imaginable.
The 7- and 10-course menus -- A Taste of Sustainability ($148++) and The Art of Sustainability ($198++) -- showcase Chef Drew’s clever manoeuvring of ingredients, and his culinary approach of Minimal Waste Cooking.
a. 12 Purvis Street, Singapore 188591
s. www.facebook.com/SaltedandHung
t. +65 6358 3130
