Palazzo Versace’s newest restaurant offers unexpected cuisine

PALAZZO Versace has unveiled its new restaurant concept, which will be replacing Vie Restaurant in prime waterfront position. You’d expect it to be Italian, perhaps French, maybe the on-trend Asian fusion...well you’d be wrong...

Guess who’s moving in to Palazzo Versace’s prime waterfront real estate? Photo by Richard Gosling

MICHELIN-starred chef Manjunath Mural has landed on the Gold Coast to headline a new gourmet Indian restaurant at Palazzo Versace.

Replacing Vie Restaurant and Bar, Kokum will serve upmarket Indian fare in the exclusive waterfront setting.

Named after a native western Indian spice, it’s a joint project for Manjunath and Saffron Broadbeach’s Sridhar Penumechu, a team Palazzo Versace have complete faith in despite Indian cuisine not being the obvious choice for the designer destination.

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Palazzo Versace is one of the most iconic hotels in Queensland.

“Asian Indian fusion was different from other culinary offerings within the hotel and is one of the hardest cuisines to master when it comes to true flavours and techniques,” resident manager Alicia Denning says.

“With already having an Italian dining experience and an international seafood buffet, it gave our guests another option without being a conflict of interest for the hotel itself.”

The venue will undergo significant structural changes before its predicted opening in June.

Manjuneth comes to the Gold Coast after a successful stint as executive chef at The Song of India, Singapore, where he was awarded one Michelin star in 2016 and again in 2017, the only Indian restaurant in Southeast Asia to ever achieve this accolade.

Manjunath Mural - head chef for new Versace restaurant in the works. Photo: Richard Gosling

“In Singapore I learned how Indian food can be enhanced, look wise, flavour wise,” he says.

“Indian cuisine has a depth of history, tradition, ingredients and techniques, yet it is still considered ‘niche’ and often kept to the family restaurant in many parts of the world. I have often asked myself why.

“My dream is to share my style in presenting Indian cuisine in a way that is relevant to diners across the world, and that haute Indian cuisine will one day be as accepted as haute French dining.”

Crispy fish topped with lobster meat. Though this dish from The Song of India will not make the Kokum menu, it shows Chef Mural’s flare for presentation.

One way he’ll be doing that is by combining ingredients that are not typically common in Indian cuisine, including caviar, seafood and foie gras.

“One dish I will be doing is lemon, garlic and chilli pan-seared lobster with southern coconut sauce,” he says.

“I’ll also have sambal barramundi; Sambal tandoor spiced barramundi, cooked in tandoor style and served with avocado peanut chutney salsa and it will be topped with spiced masala caviar.

“For dessert I am doing a macadamia Bailey’s kulfi, a traditional Indian dish, but given a modern taste and look.

“There will be a lot of presentation and new dishes that people might not have seen before.”

But with a deep attentiveness to what local palates love and are accustomed to, there will also be a few classics.

Another example of the chef’s style from The Song of India: Tandoori marinated salmon in sambal and fresh pomegranate.

“I don’t want to make people unhappy, so I’m creating one or two choices if people really want curry,” Manjunath says.

“It’s called Curry Culture, it’s just a three compartment dish and three different sauces.

“We will have naans, but again done to suit where I am cooking.

“I’m creating a mushroom truffle naan and creating naan with sesame and saffron.

“It will be Indian, but less traditional. I really think that people will like the taste of the food and the presentation.”

Kokum at Palazzo Versace is expected to open mid year.