Medio Mundo

Placed squarely in the middle of Ando's dinner tasting menu is Medio Mundo, a dish whose name translates from Spanish as "half world". It's named as such for the hemispherical fishing nets that chef Agustin Balbi and his father would use to catch fish from the Atlantic Ocean, during summer trips from their native Buenos Aires.

"For him, it was a very casual activity, but he never imagined the impact it would have on a kid," Balbi recalls. "I'm 33 years old today and I still remember [those trips] back when I was 8 or 9."

At Ando, the chosen fish is the kinki, prized for its high fat content. A fillet is seared 'a la Plancha' for crispy skin on one side and succulent meat on the other. It's then plated atop two concentric circles—the larger one consisting of smoky romesco sauce made with piquillo pepper, and the smaller one a black olive-based version—creating the illusion of a fish eye. A minute bushel of nanohana, a Japanese broccoli-like spring vegetable, peeks out from under the fillet.

Though his father remains in Argentina half a world away, Balbi, now a father of two, is undergoing the same trials and tribulations of parenthood—his weekly ritual consists of bringing 4-year-old son Lucas to Ando every Saturday morning to help out with kitchen prep. "He'll clean some peas or cut some mushrooms—just silly jobs, but for him it's work and he's having fun, so he says his whole week is [spent] looking forward to coming to Ando," says Balbi. 

Oca and Carabineros prawn "ceviche"

Within our lifetimes we will consume tens of thousands of meals, but few if any among us can remember the very first food we ate. Fewer still can boast of a father who would commemorate that moment in a dish worthy of a restaurant on Asia's 50 Best—such is the case with Mono's Ricardo Chaneton and his 5-month-old son, Adrien. 

Tasked with creating a dish inspired by fatherhood, the Venezuelan native naturally gravitated to a milestone in his baby's gastronomic development. "The actual first solid that my son ate was oca. I wanted to create a dish that he might not be able to eat right now, but hopefully will be able to in the future," he tells Tatler Dining. 

Hailing from the Andes region, the oca (Latin: oxalis tuberosa) is a colourful, yam-like root vegetable that naturally falls into Mono's remit of modern South American cuisine, and forms the basis of Chaneton's dish for Adrien. Like an autumnal forest floor, thin slices of red and yellow oca—some cooked for starchy sweetness, others left raw for a refreshing crunch—overlap atop dollops of shallot sour cream, half-spheres of avocado flesh, and supple, cardinal-red Carabineros prawns. Drizzles of cider and cherry vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice brighten with effervescent tang, while caviar provides a grounding kick of umami. A final garnish of redwood sorrel leaves (which grow from the same plant as the oca) furnishes the dish with a handy metaphor for fatherhood.

Though the dish's complexity far exceeds the palate of any toddler, Chaneton has always approached the presence of children—and even dogs—in his fine dining restaurants with humility. "We always say that the kids are the guests of the future, so if they eat properly, in the future they're going to be the ones that set the bar very high in the world of gastronomy."

Even more importantly, however, is the matter of Adrien's formal induction into the world of South American cuisine. "He's going to be so lucky because he'll tell everyone that the first solid food he ate was Peruvian oca while he was in Hong Kong!" Chaneton says.

See also: Why Asia Is The Future Of Caviar