Silversea Tastemakers in Bali: Meet Locavore NXT

The way I see it, at the core of Silversea’s newly launched Tastemakers video series lies one fundamental question: What does it really mean to experience the world with taste? With so many luxury travel companies shifting their focus toward culinary programs, can we tell what’s authentic anymore? The word “authentic” seems to have lost some of its meaning: it’s so abused it’s become evanescent. It takes incredible resources, competence and vision to design experiences that deliver on the promise of using food as an entry into the cultures of the world and to do so in a transformative, unforgettable way. As S.A.L.T. (Sea and Land Taste, Silversea’s deep-dive culinary program,) expands, so does the need to plant the roots of adventure even deeper. This means two things: reaching for the innovative and visionary, and connecting with the sacred and traditional. –Laura Lazzaroni

Tastemakers does precisely that, across all the continents and destinations Silversea visits, following the most respected chefs, artisans, producers and scholars as they tell their stories on camera. The series is the brainchild of Silversea with Adam Sachs, Global Director of S.A.L.T. (with whom I’ve been designing all sorts of culinary adventures in Italy) and Nilou Motamed. Nilou is not only Silver Dawn’s godmother and a television personality, but also one of the most prepared, empathic and quick-to-pivot interviewers I’ve seen in action. She is particularly gifted at telling stories that weave food, travel and culture in powerful (and fun) ways.

Some of the stories that make up the Tastemakers series are already part of S.A.L.T.’s ecosystem, and some will be. All will serve as potent connectors between world-savvy cruise travelers and the people who are preserving, shaping and elevating the cuisines of the world. They’ll provide us with visually stunning images that feel luxurious and adventurous and pull us in through the screen.

Indeed, the two Bali episodes that launch Tastemakers easily could have stuck to the tried-and-true formula of sweeping aerial shots of beaches and succulent grilled fish and poolside cocktail crowds. Instead, the choice was to focus on the visionary future of Bali’s remarkable food scene and on its most traditional, regal and spiritually profound roots (with next episode’s guest, author Maya Kerthyasa.)

In this first episode we see Nilou trekking into the edible jungle, tasting honey from a hive of stingless bees, and walking into a massive brutalist space fringed by rice fields outside of Ubud, while Indonesian and Dutch chefs Ray Adriansyah and Eelke Plasmeijer of restaurant Locavore NXT explain the challenge and miracle of sourcing locally.

Shifting the focus from imported ingredients to the best ultra-indigenous, quasi-obscure ones has been their focus since their first encounter many years ago, which led to opening award-winning Locavore. A small restaurant with a cult following, Locavore is where they started experimenting with native-to-the-area ingredients (like the keluak nut, which local families ferment while the chefs play with its fresh version, reminiscent of a green almond) in dishes that have elements of Indonesian cuisine but also draw from the rest of the world.

The restaurant has entered its new chapter with Locavore NXT, a new, bigger dining space, housed in a hyper-modern campus, together with gardens, storage facilities and a cutting-edge research lab. Here, a team of international talents is busy unlocking the secret of seemingly humble ingredients that pack a punch of flavor and nutritional benefits. The campus runs on a regenerative water and soil system. (Sustainability is one of Bali’s most crucial issues, as development and the pressure of a growing population increase.) While the lab analyzes, distills, dries and ferments, the kitchen serves a menu of creative dishes that draw from the fruits of the Balinese land, its cultivated plots as much as its spontaneous growths.

Both chefs put it this way: We’re not going to spoon some caviar on things because we don’t have it. So to come up with delicious food, it always takes a bit more work and a bit more thinking, a bit more testing and a bit more errors, obviously. And then we need to just layer things more… Yes, we can put a beautiful mango on the plate, and we do that, but to have humble ingredients and to turn them into something really delicious and interesting you need to apply more technique.

René Redzepi and the whole Noma team would surely feel at home at Locavore NXT. Ray Adriansyah and Eelke Plasmeijer hope nature will reclaim the campus’ cement walls. And that, I think, would be perfect.