Chef Jordi Jou, of the restuarant Humo, offers Spanish-Japanese dishes in a omakase.
Chef Jou, brings influences from Barcelona, London, and Japan, to his latest offerings at Humo.
Humo is located at Keong Saik Road.
A globetrotting journey awaits the palate, with an omakase menu by Chef Jordi Jou at Humo in Singapore.
It takes a chef of a certain pedigree to introduce a menu influenced by a kaleidoscope of myriad cultures like an artist, with the use of the diner’s plate as his canvas. That is what Jordi Jou, head chef of Humo in Singapore, is proposing with his Sol Nami concept — a term that takes inspiration from the Spanish word for “sun,” and the Japanese word for “wave.” Aptly named, Jou’s latest for the restaurant is what one would imagine when tasting dishes that tap on the techniques and ingredients of both cultures in an omakase setting.
Having had a career that has brought him from Barcelona to London and Japan, his landing at Keong Saik Road in Singapore feels like a homecoming — having gathered the various lessons learnt at each stepping stone to Humo. Of his cross-cultural fare here, Jou says, “I realised the most interesting place to cook was in the tension between them — not blending them, but letting them argue on the plate.”
“Not fusion in the way the word is usually meant, but a cuisine with its own internal logic, its own grammar, its own identity.”
On the Sol Nami omakase menu by Humo, diners can expect Spanish-Japanese pairings such as smoked sardines with yuzu, black cod with miso, and a wagyu beef paella. But a dish that has been highlighted as a staple since the menu’s inception is the starter Argentinian Prawn Tartare, served atop crispy sushi rice and presented tapas-style, leaving diners to imagine what’s to come.
While the omakase menu is exclusively served from Sunday through to Thursday, a set lunch and à la carte menu are available for the other days of Humo’s operations. Here, other dishes not on the omakase lineup, such as a Japanese eggplant with fresh burrata, Iberico ham served with picos, melon, and lotus root chips, would leave the curious clamouring for more.
As with fusion cuisine, the most informed chefs steer clear of gimmicks simply intended for shock value. Jou’s offerings at Humo, on the other hand, come across as a study of two worlds written into a single story and lead diners on a journey through tastes that haven’t existed yet.
Where: Humo, Keong Saik Road, Tanjong Pagar, Singapore
When: Daily from from 12pm to 2.30pm and 5pm to 11pm
Contact: https://humo.sg/