For the Indonesian restaurateur and hotelier Ronald Akili, the idea of food extends beyond simple notions of taste and presentation to embrace larger, almost existential koans of ‘Where does our food come from? How is it made? How does it connect us?’
These questions loom large in his latest Singaporean venture Air – an acronym for awareness, impact and responsibility – which aims to be not just a restaurant, but also a circular (read sustainable) culinary campus and cooking club. Aiding the cause is a crack team comprising long-time architecture collaborator OMA, which also worked on Akili’s Katamama, and powerhouse chefs Matthew Orlando (ex-head chef at Copenhagen’s Noma and Amass) and Will Goldfarb (Bali’s Room4Dessert).
