Category: Indonesia

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Revival

Clarity comes at the strangest of times.

My body was jostling vigorously in the back of a 4-wheel drive Landcruiser barreling through the Sea of Sand at the base of Mount Bromo, an active volcano in East Java, at 2 o’clock in the morning. In true local style, our driver was using the moon to track our direction towards a viewpoint where my travel companions and I would witness one of Indonesia’s most iconic sunrise vistas.

As I was bouncing up and down with nothing to hold onto but my excitement, my eyes surveyed the view outside. Although it was night, the orange-red light cast from the oversized moon crept onto the mountainous ridge and revealed the crevasses that snaked from top to bottom. Beauty.

I turned to my travel mates only to see their eyes closed in an attempt to sleep. “Open your eyes!” I wanted to exclaim. How could one want to shut themselves off at this very moment?

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Mbok Crystal

The first leg of my travels have officially concluded.

It’s unbelievable that after two months I could be so attached to a kitchen staff, but that’s the nature of a professional kitchen. When working under pressure with a group of people for ten hours a day, six days a week, a family forms. There’s no option but to be close to one another.

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What lies beyond the kitchen

Gaya Ceramics. Started by an Italian husband and wife team 13 years ago. The majority of R4D’s plates come from them.
Underneath Gaya’s production tent. The natural light that filters through is beautiful. What a place to work in.
Ceramic artisan at work. Their skill and proficiency is incredible.
The craftmanship is stunning. They supply to clients all over the world.
Big Tree farms. What started as a small, organic farm has exploded into an immensely successful company supporting the local community and economy. R4D uses their cocoa butter and palm sugar nectar.
Its entire factory is constructed entirely of bamboo.
Inside a fresh cocoa pod. The white pulp is edible and tastes quite delicate. The seeds inside are what make chocolate.
The stages of chocolate making.
Salt crystals. If you look closely enough, you can see they’re shaped like pyramids.
Visiting Pepe Vesdacchi’s home and business of bread and chocolate making. He moved to Bali over 20 years ago.
Pepe’s handmade wood burning oven.
Fresh grissinis.
Pepe talking about his baby, a cocoa bean grinder, also self-constructed.
R4D uses Pepe’s cocoa paste.
Potato Head Beach Club. Where people go to drink and be looked at.
The Bali you imagine.
View of the beach from Kudeta, one of the oldest and most popular beachfront resorts in Seminyak.
The open kitchen at Mejekawi in Kudeta. Look at the view!
Is this a kitchen lab or what? Mejekawi’s science lab—brainchild of Chef Will.
Willpowder—Chef’s additional business on the side.
Executive Chef Ben Cross of Mejekawi preparing our tasting menu. One of the most flavorful and well-thought out food I’ve had in a long time.
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Bathroom or bottom?

The first day at a stage is undoubtably the hardest. You’re always in the way because there’s never enough room, you never know where to find anything, and no one knows you. Mentally it’s a lonely day.

Now compound this with being in a foreign country where there are language and cultural barriers. I was treading new territory and feeling a bit of trepidation.

I should have known better in Bali.

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