New celeb-chef restaurant: Salt grill & Sky bar scores high

It's dusk. Celebrated Australian chef Luke Mangan sips a glass of sauvignon blanc as his eyes wander down to the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road stretched out below the 55th floor perch of his Salt grill & Sky bar.

Currently the highest restaurant along Singapore’s Orchard belt, the newly opened restaurant at the top of ION Orchard commands a breathtaking view of the Lion City’s urban surrounds.

Salt grill & Sky bar is the sixth property in Mangan's growing restaurant empire, which includes Glass Brasserie in Sydney’s Hilton Hotel, The Palace by Luke Mangan in South Melbourne, Salt grill onboard P&O’s Pacific Jewel & Pacific Dawn, as well as Salt and the adjoining World Wine Bar in Tokyo.

Not bad for a guy from Forest Hill in East Melbourne who was asked to leave school at the age of 15.

With a dreary future in sight, Mangan begged chef Herman Schneider of the famous Two Faces restaurant for an apprenticeship.

He ended up staying at Two Faces for five years. After a two-year working stint with the legendary chef Michel Roux, of the Michelin-starred Waterside Inn in London, Mangan moved out on his own.

Today, Mangan's empire encompasses not just the restaurants and Luke Mangan Providores line of spices, condiments and gourmet produce -- he's also the author of four cookbooks, including "At Home And In The Mood” (2009) and an autobiography titled “The Making of A Chef,” published last month in Australia.

Mangan now counts, among others, Sir Richard Branson as a fan and a personal friend.

“One night, a group of English guests visited my restaurant in Sydney, and they requested to see me after the meal,” says Mangan.

“They told me that they were impressed with the food, that they worked for Virgin and that Sir Richard Branson was coming down to Australia.”

A month later, Mangan received a call from Branson himself, asking him to be the consulting chef for V Australia Airline’s business class menu.

It’s tough not to be bowled over by Mangan's reputation and his new restaurant's killer views, but it's the food, not the man behind it, that leaves the biggest impression at Salt grill.

At a recent private dinner hosted by Mangan -- with a meal prepared by executive chef Kathy Tindall, Mangan's longtime right-hand woman -- the food took center stage.

The meal opened with moist slices of Australian yellowtail kingfish sashimi crowned with a carefully curated heap of eschallot, ginger, laksa leaves and goat’s feta -- a Mangan signature. 

Next came miso-mayonnaise-enveloped slipper lobster ceviche served with nori-wrapped rabbit loin, shiso and puree of heirloom carrots.

The main course of Petuna ocean trout, precisely steamed till bright pink, moist and smooth, then smeared with salsa verde and served with a warm potato salad, was a personal favorite.

Salt grill also serves a terrific cut of Rangers Valley dry-aged 120-day grain fed strip loin that’s lightly scotched on the outside, cooked to a lovely pink hue on the inside and served with Café de Paris butter.

Amid the crop of celebrity chef restaurants sprouting throughout Singapore, how is Salt grill different?

The chef himself explains it best.

“Salt grill’s modern Australia cuisine is simple, light and fresh," says Mangan. "It takes the finest Australian produce and incorporates the best local ingredients. And, of course, our location at ION Sky is hard to beat.”