Sashi brings his MasterChef magic to Adelaide
He wowed judges on MasterChef, but how does Sashi Cheliah’s new restaurant stack up? Simon Wilkinson visited to find out.
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Television loves its reality show contestants to have a compelling backstory, even if that requires using some creative licence with the facts.
Last year’s MasterChef champ, Sashi Cheliah, needed no such embellishment. He really was a devoted family man with two sons. He really was a prison guard with an interest in rehabilitation. And he really could cook. These elements all come together in his first permanent restaurant that has just opened on a prominent corner site in the CBD.
Gaja by Sashi has plenty going for it, not least its genial owner who seems equally as comfortable working the pass in the kitchen as he does giving diners their few moments of celebrity love.
For those that don’t know him, Sashi has spent most of his life in Singapore and his cooking is based on the Indian, Malay, Chinese and other Asian foods that collide at this cultural crossroads.
These influences also inform the fit-out for his narrow, deep restaurant that with floor-to-ceiling glass down one side is like a display case in the jewellery shop that the site once was. Gaja, the elephant that symbolises wisdom and prosperity, is portrayed in a mural near the door. Painted shutters above the open kitchen represent Singapore’s colonial shop-houses, while the scale-like tiles on the bar come from the city’s “Merlion” statue.
Gaja has been pinging around in Sashi’s head for some time. So, barely two weeks from opening, much of the restaurant and what it is serving seems fully developed. The achilles heel is service.
While manager Eshan Kaushal is terrific, others are still feeling their way and have some gaps in knowledge about what they are serving. Not that it’s easy. Sashi’s menu has few of the pan-Asian clichés seen elsewhere. His inspirations are widespread, the research detailed, the incorporation of local ingredients largely successful.
Otak otak, for example, is a prawn and fish cake fragrant with lemongrass and curry spices. Traditionally cooked over coals in a banana leaf, this version is steamed, sliced into small logs and grilled to order, then crowned with a salad that includes shredded banana blossom, finger lime and herbs.
A faithful rendition of the Thai snack ma hor brings pineapple slices loaded with a mix of pork and prawn mince, peanuts, fish sauce and palm sugar reduced down to a sticky, caramelised paste. Beef satays take you to a different hawker stall but could have spent a minute longer on the grill.
Batak introduces the flavours of northern Sumatra via a golden broth of fresh turmeric, lemongrass, galangal and green peppercorns – a potion with magical properties when poured over a large bowl of black mussels. Suck the chubby critters from their shells, slurp a spoonful of soup and it might be love.
The wrappers for a DIY cold roll platter are formed from a net of woven rice vermicelli, which looks brilliant but proves too fragile to be a complete success. The other parts rock. Marinated and grilled beef, green mango, pickled carrot, peanuts and the full repertoire of Vietnamese herbs are brought together by a decent dollop of mam nem sauce, a funky, hard-to-pin-down concoction that includes fish/anchovy sauce, clarified butter and grated pineapple.
The duck curry is based on a MasterChef challenge, the gravy part Thai, part Indian and finished with a lychee puree. More of the fruit is left whole to enjoy with the fall-apart meat from two legs, lotus root and cucumber ribbons. It’s a dish sized to share.
For dessert, Sashi’s gulab jamun replaces the traditional milk solids with ricotta, but these dumplings seem rather leaden and grainy. More appealing at this stage of the night is a plate of coconut parfait, blood orange sorbet and diced papaya that is reminiscent of sipping cocktails around a resort swimming pool.
Given its prices are more contemporary diner than Chinatown cheapie, Gaja will need to smooth over a few wrinkles as it finds its feet. However, I’d head back to try the spiced lamb shoulder or Burmese fish curry in a heartbeat.
Sashi looks like he has the makings of a winning restaurant … really.
GAJA BY SASHI
4/86 Pirie St, city
7073 9867; gajabysashi.com
OWNER Sashi Cheliah
CHEFS Sashi Cheliah, Miles Davis
FOOD Asian
SMALL $8-$24
MAIN $29-$69 (to share)
DESSERT $14
DRINKS Try cocktails using lemongrass, ginger and other ingredients from the kitchen or select from a brief winelist, mostly available by glass
OPEN LUNCH and DINNER Mon-Sat
SCORE 14.5/20