Pizza Ria Restaurant at Bali Hyatt - Sanur

It is always a pleasure to make the acquaintance of someone who really loves food. It is a bonus when he is a chef in a nearby hotel. FRV has lunch with Mario Caramella, the new Italian Executive Chef at Bali Hyatt and find he is something more than your simple everyday, hotel chef.

Mario Caramella’s been at his game for over 30 years. “I first learnt to cook from my mother at the age of 12,” he says as he passes me a piece of Pizza Napolitana. “I knew from a very young age that I was interested in food. I would taste something and knew straight away if it was right or wrong. Of course, later I learnt what the actual difference was when I learnt how to cook.” We were sitting in the Pizza Ria restaurant on the beach at the Bali Hyatt, and he was explaining to me his first years as a chef. Caramella trained first in Milan, near his birthplace, had his own restaurant for a while, but then decided the better of that. I was too young, 24 years old, and concentrating on everything except the restaurant,” he quips. He later cooked in kitchens all over Asia. For the past 20 years he had worked in Hong Kong, Australia and Thailand but, because his children are now at school age, decided to move from the Hua Hin Hyatt to Bali earlier this year.

Bruschetta

So what makes good food? “Keeping it simple is one important factor. Freshness and the combination of ingredients is another.” Caramella even gets excited about his bruschetta, “You see, whole garlic is rubbed into the bread before the topping is put on; not chopped and mixed with the rest of the topping. The flavour of the garlic is subtle, not overpowering.” Or the simple Napolitan Pizza. “I use fresh pulped tomato as the base, not pre-cooked tomato paste. The pizza should always be cooked in a very hot oven at 400 degrees. At this temperature the pizza and topping are cooked in a flash and as a whole. This lifts the freshness and flavour of the pizza.” It’s true, the thin-based pizza came out of the oven super-hot, super-tasty and the tomato topping base mixed with the herbs, spices and cheese fusing together lifted the flavours above the ususal. The 30-year-old wood oven probably helped too.

Pollo

The Pizza Ria restaurant that faces the beach at Bali Hyatt may have a touch of old world neglect right now but it does have a classic wood-fired oven. The oven looks like an old pottery kiln, made from red brick and sits proudly right in the middle of the kitchen. The chef is focusing on the wood oven for many of the dishes from his just-released new menu for the beachside restaurant. For example, his roasted chicken with all the trimmings is cooked in a cast iron fry pan banged straight in the oven and cooked as a whole. The steaming, juicy and fragrant dish that comes out is a succulent delight. With the new Director of F&B, Philippe Mauron, having arrived recently, he and chef Caramella are now focusing on the decor of the Pizza Ria restaurant. Its ideal location on the quiet shores of Sanur beach has been long overlooked and the first thing they propose is to open it up more to the beach. Clearing the foliage and bushes, and releasing the view to the white sands and blue waters will undoubtedly alter the whole atmosphere of the restaurant. Phillipe’s experience as manager of Kudeta at the beginning of this decade may have had an influence on that.

The Milanese influence in quality and style that Caramella brings to Bali Hyatt should have a resounding effect. The new Caramella menu, the Pizza Ria restaurant being upgraded and with the humour and the Italian way, the new chef appears to have the staff and guests at Bali Hyatt metaphorically eating out of his hand.

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