Finding Araya inside the Mondrian Singapore Duxton is a bit like playing a round of ‘Where’s Wally?’, its entrance hidden away in a blink-and-miss-it corner of the ground level and its accessibility further complicated by a none-too-obvious doorbell on the side of the heavy, locked, dark timber door. But like the remote, picturesque Aconcagua Valley in central Chile where owners and head chefs Francisco Araya and Fernanda Guerrero were born, the effort is amply justified by the destination.
Emma Maxwell designs Araya, at Mondrian Singapore Duxton
Similarly to its neighbouring restaurant, the Kengo Kuma-designed Suzuki Omakase, Araya delivers an intimate dining room designed by the Australia-born, Singapore-based designer Emma Maxwell.
Deftly mining stints in the kitchens of elBulli, Mugaritz and Alegre, Araya and Guerrero’s multi-course dinner menu is a quietly confident fusion of the colours, textures, ingredients and flavours of their native Chile, as well as the Arabic and Japanese diaspora in South America.
To whit, a remarkable ceviche of scallops cured with shio koji and paired with a milk sorbet of ginger and green apples; tender slivers of smoked Pyrenees pigeon scented with aged Ecuadorean cacao; and tiny empanadas stuffed with wagyu.
The dream-like quality of the dining experience equally matches Maxwell’s interiors – a bravura homage to Chile’s landscapes, the colours evoking its sunsets and its southern mountain ranges in which Araya and Guerreros made many road trips in their youth.
And if there is a hero moment in the dining room to match the menu, it is the dining counter and chef’s prep bench, created by Maxwell out of a monolithic slab of rose quartz. This one runs along the entire room’s length and showcases luminosity and hues inspired by the topography of the Atacama desert.
‘Briefs are always great when they come from chefs who have passion and soul,’ she says, explaining her use of blue granite and black marble, natural vegetable-dyed Italian leather on chairs, hand-beaten copper finishes on doors, and bronze hardware to tell the stories of Araya and Guerrero’s memories.
‘For a long time now, we’ve wanted to open our own restaurant together,’ the chefs say, ‘a space where we can share the flavours from our part of the world with diners. Singapore’s dining scene has always been one of the most culturally diverse in the world, and we’re happy to work in a community that embraces new cuisines and traditions.’
