As executive chef at The Viceroy, in Bali, Nic Vanderbeeken runs a uniquely personal restaurant that reflects his entire attitude to fine dining and the experience. In our last interview, which was 6 years ago, he was working like crazy on setting up Apéritif. The fine dining part of the Viceroy.
With 5 years of the restaurant behind him, he reflects on where he began, and where he moved to. It’s an ongoing, organic journey, and one that he loves passionately. We discuss Michelin, Bali, the restaurant business, and what makes him – and his flagship – tick.
In Nic’s words:
“We were initially worried about the fine dining scene in Bali. Was there a need still? And then when Covid hit, that changed everything.
“People come to us for a special occasion, and we make sure they’re treated very well, have this nice night out, a full luxury experience, fine food, the best quality of everything you can expect.
“But Covid hit, and we wanted to stay open for our staff, our belief in what we were doing. So during that time, we did co-operations with other popular restaurants, Japanese, Italian bistro, French Bistro, they were popular restaurants but happy to work with us. We were still open and open minded. For the menu, it was always close to our concept – borderless cuisine – which drives everything we serve.
“I don’t like to be put in a box, I don’t see it as fusion, more as a freedom from categories. It’s great for our customers to have something they recognise, but it’s different. When they eat it, it’s the surprise. We also want to showcase Balinese food, but the guest come first. If I feel there’s a demand for it, we serve it.
“We’re not stuck in a box, or looking to other people, we’re focused on our own concepts – it’s how we make an evolution – for instance in the south of Bali – woodfire is popular, we might do that with some fish, but it’s our take on it.
“When we started 5 years ago – we had this young guy who was passionate, motivated and wanted to work in the kitchen. I started him as a stager, (an unpaid kind of apprenticeship) and after 5 months, I gave him a contract. He was okay, but not great. But, he was still keen, and I wanted to recognise his contribution. After 1 year, he was stepping up, reading books, trying out recipes, even improving what I did. Then he left, went to get more experience and came back after 6 months with a ton more learning under his belt, and I made him sous chef.
“Then our head chef left, during Covid, and I made our young sous head chef. He created things. Our pastry chef started with us pre-opening and is still here. I believe we need to give our staff freedom, the room to explore themselves and their ideas. Everyone in the kitchen has a voice, it’s an incubator, and trust is a big part of it. For me, I found I need to have trust as well, but at the same time be ready to wheel them back a little when needed.
“I can see also from resumes where people step up the rank but change workplaces for every move up the line. For me, it’s important they move up in the same workplaces for some time at least. For a while, I had people moving around, and new places are opening up, offering jobs to people often before they’re ready. That becomes a big learning curve and sometimes they want to come back where they find a fit for their talents.
“But here we are, post Covid, and while the market is shifting, we’re still happy in the stratosphere we exist – we use foie gras, venison from New Zealand, the best of produce from all over the world. So we give value for money – in every way. We’re looking at how we can be more sustainable and our market is diverse – we attract foodies, tourists, special occasion locals.
“We have so many guests, who come to our restaurant, and the daily question is “Why don’t you have a Michelin Star?” I then have to explain how Michelin works. We cannot pay Michelin to come here and give us a star! For me still, if you get one, yes, it’s really helpful. I looked up to Michelin when I was 16 and I worked in my first restaurant, which was a Michelin restaurant. There was no Social Media then, Michelin was the gold standard.
“With our customers, at the moment, we are hanging between 1 and 2 stars – the young guys have the freedom to prove themselves, for the guests – if they come to us, they expect something. The best thing for me is that I don’t have to focus on the latest trends. With us, you get a full experience, you walk in, you feel a luxury you don’t feel anywhere else:
“I’ll walk you through the journey: First, you go to the bar, you have a cocktail, with canapés – you meet the chefs in the open kitchen. Then you go to the table, and by then we have a feeling we know the kind of guests we have. We serve the guest an experience to make them happy. We sometimes have to change their mood. That’s all part of our job.
“It’s all about the emotion: From the bar and the barman, the kitchen, the wait staff, and finally when they get the bill, we want our guests to feel it was worth it. During Covid, we had a lot of successful businesspeople from around Indonesia. We relaxed the dress rules and now? We’ve wound that back a bit, because the guest is part of the experience of other guests.
“Recognising the full importance of comfort, for everyone, we raised the dress code back, for the other guests to have the best experience. It’s like stepping into a movie, and you have to follow the characters. They are all actors and part of the script. We have so many Instagrammable spots in the restaurant and they love it. It’s a special experience, and the dress needs to match the quality of everything else.
“Of course, the main event? We have borderless food. I grew up with hard rules in the kitchen but I want to expand that – and our whole focus is on the guests – sometimes we test dishes that we think are worth being on the menu, but if the guest doesn’t really take to it, it’s off the menu.
“It’s a very big challenge – especially when we’re working with the spices from Indonesia – so we listen. Sometimes we get asked for certain foods, they might ask why don’t we have truffles? Then I do truffles for a week. At the request of the guests. I asked my sous chef to make a summer dish from his childhood, from his memories. So he created a Kuah Asam – with mushrooms and a piece of salmon on top.
“He asked me, “Do you want to taste the dish?” I said yes, but the salmon didn’t go for me. Then he tried Pomfret – and changed the dish a bit, it still had the memory flavour in there, but was next level and then he felt fantastic. Most guests don’t know the local Balinese flavours, and for my chefs, when they cook with their heart, they do their best. When the guest tries it, there’s soul in the food.
“In our place, we have a team and everybody has a voice. We have the luxury of being able to give the guests a full service – it’s the beauty of being in Bali, though that’s changing. We don’t have as much choice with staff anymore. That’s something in hospitality we’re aware of, reverberating around the world.
“The name, Apéritif comes from when I was young, and Sundays, family comes together, Dad had his drink, and we had our juice with a little splash of alcohol and we thought we were marvellous, so grown up! Then we went to the table and we ate.
“When our guests come into the bar, their first experience is there – right in front of the kitchen, interacting with the chefs, who explain the canapes, the waiters bring you to the kitchen, then their experience at the table starts with the sommelier, the wine, after dinner, the candies, they go back to the bar. They can have another cocktail, or something from the trolley, and in effect. It’s not all about the food, it’s all about the experience, the guests.”
Thank you Nic – it’s so good to see the restaurant become a landmark must visit for so many people who appreciate good food, and Bali is a big bonus. The Viceroy has always set the bar and continues to do so. And Apéritif absolutely hits the brief of fine dining in Bali.
There’s more to dive into, and that will come up in another post – Nic has an incredibly loyal and stable staff, which needs investigating just how he juggles that with all the demands that he must face daily. CMG.
