To new levels of taste
It was a scene straight out of a wedding. A grand wedding reception for an intimate few, more or less 150 of the scene’s top movers and shakers, carefully selected and then invited to partake in a five course degustation prepared by celebrated Chef Carlo Miguel. The occasion? A union of two, not people but years~of youthful zest and fine, radical taste. It was Opus’ 2nd year anniversary.
The marriage of the dining room and lounge concept that is Opus was transformed into something totally different. A sea of white tables were spruced up with floral center pieces, multi- colored macarons, invisible Tiffany chairs and a whole bunch of hot people dressed for this season’s most special occasion. Captains of industry, nightlife luminaries, IT girls and boys all broke more than just bread together. The private dining room was converted into a tableau of a cheese buffet spread, beautifully accented with wild flowers. Opposite it, a photo booth area where guests hammed it up to get their souvenir photos for the night. Ham and cheese, across each other. Get it?
And then dinner was served. I gave the floor to Chef Carlo, he the embodiment of the taste of Opus. They say you can’t trust a thin chef. Then again, knowing what he went through in the reality show Biggest Loser Asia~you’ll know quite well that he means business, whether in his athletic activities or in the kitchen. Tonight he was gonna feed all of us, and how! The best thing about Chef Carlo is that his menu is constantly changing. He loves to challenge himself. So when you go back to his restaurant for seconds or thirds, there will always be something new, something fresh. His menu, just like him, is never staid. Molecular gastronomy is the new sexy.
Fine and fun mix
A worded roll call of Chef Carlo’s menu will never give justice to how good it tastes. Soup so rich and filled with crab meat and other stuff you’d think it could be a meal on it’s own, salmon so pink and soft it melts in your mouth. Beef so tender you can cut it with a fork. And so on. By the time it was time for dessert, I had eaten everything so fast I forgot to take a picture (although I spotted everyone snapping away at their food). The sweet seductress was bathing in caramel, indulgent at the least. Nothing less for people at their best.
And then all of a sudden the music changed. Multi-colored characters came in, almost alien-like. A stream of beats ushered their gyration, like foreign objects trying to assimilate in a planet not their own. Later on, they got some VIP guests to join them in movement, to the delight of the audience. The performers? The Sipat Lawin Ensemble all in artist Leeroy New avant garde attire, last seen performing at the phenomenal party for the MET Museum a few weeks ago. This was a reprise, but quite a fine and fun one!
An after party ensued with the second wave of revelers dropping in for the action. By midnight I quickly Frenched, but not without saying hello to the people from Moët Hennessy and Pernot Ricard.
Midnight was my cutoff and if I had stayed, as I was tempted to, I would have grooved all night to the music of DJ Karl Ty and the other superstar DJs lined up that night. But alas a new day awaits, and another year of pushing the boundaries of cuisine, bringing people together and expanding the concept of nightlife the way we know it. After all, that’s what we are here for.
We are all in a never ending quest to make our lives our very own masterpiece, our very own Opus. And we should never stop doing so.
(To the next level, tweet me at twitter.com/officialTIMYAP )
