Last Call: Pizza Omakase, You Have Our Attention
According to the Michelin Guide, "Few formal dining experiences are as revered or as intimidating as omakase, a form of Japanese dining in which guests leave themselves in the hands of a chef and receive a meal which is seasonal, elegant, artistic and uses the finest ingredients available." Omakase is a front row ticket to see rock star chefs build gustatory masterpieces, which are photographed by enthusiastic diners and posted to social media to make them the envy of all their less fortunate friends. Typically, omakase refers to the dining experience offered by a sushi maestro, such as the legendary Jiro. But now, in Singapore, the greatest food in human history is about to get bespoke, bougie, and bananas expensive: Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to enter an age of omakase pizza.
From the mind of "food bro" (his words, not ours) Bjorn Shen comes Small's, a six foot-wide, four-seat chef's counter attached to Shen's flagship Middle Eastern–inspired restaurant, Artichoke. He will serve pizzas that will rock your world and get you pregnant.
The menu will change every night and will be based on Shen's hopes and dreams, and will feature fancier versions of pizzeria-esque things like garlic bread, meatballs, lasagna, hot wings, and Caesar salads. He tells The Robb Report that his overall inspiration is the pizza joints of his 1980s childhood; hopefully, he's picked up an animatronic band to fill the restaurant with some rockin' sweet tunes.
Some of the new and improved items Shen pointed to were maitake mushroom gnudi in a retro alfredo sauce as an homage to a sloppy aluminum container of meatball parmesan. If you guys were to gussy up your local pizzeria's menu t0 rip off amuse the palates of the obscenely wealthy, what would you make?