How Our Ideas Become Edible
The life of a dish at NXT
Our tasting menus don’t appear out of thin air. Before a dish makes it to the table, it lives a hundred lives—sketched, scrapped, reimagined and discussed into existence at our creative food laboratory and playground, LabX.
This is a little story told from two different perspectives on how a new tasting menu comes to life. From start to finish: the inspirations, the dead ends, the quiet breakthroughs and the big “aha” moments, told in the words of the ones who shape it, The Designer (Chef Eelke) and The Inventor (Head of LabX, Chef Alfonso).
The Beginning
The Designer
Chef Eelke
“Being in Bali with a broad mix of international guests, with our current Nature’s Compass menu, we aimed for something a little more dialled in—flavours that are clear and approachable, but still layered underneath. Let’s just say it’s simpler to eat, not simpler to cook.”
“For the new Season 4 menu, we’re sticking with the ‘accessible yet complex’ direction but pushing to see how far we can perfect the idea. More attention and finesse to presentation.”
The Inventor
Chef Alfonso
“I’ve been really interested in how patterns show up in nature, how things grow, the shapes they take. I want to bring some of that into the dishes, a bit of geometry, a bit of structure, but still let it feel natural. It’s about making the dishes not just taste good, but look beautiful too.”
The Middle
The Designer
Chef Eelke
“The first month is all about getting out there: travel, try restaurants, visit regions and farms, and explore the myriad of new ‘unknown’ ingredients we’ll use. That’s where the inspiration comes from, and where we start shaping the bones of the menu.”
“We’ve synced up the beverage and food development more tightly now. Shay and her team are working alongside LabX, using the same ingredients, even the scraps, as the starting point for drink pairings.”
“We’ve got this big, bold mushroom dish in the works—with rice that’s not rice, and truffle that’s not truffle. It’s turning into something really rustic and tasty. We’re excited about it.”
The Inventor
Chef Alfonso
“With Nature’s Compass, we’re digging deeper into how humans and ecosystems are linked. Our earliest diets came from the wild—roots, leaves, fish, insects. Food was shaped by the land, the seasons, the animals. A lot of that still shows up in indigenous foodways, and we’re tapping into that thinking.”
Fail Again?
The Designer
Chef Eelke
“Funny enough, we’ve been pretty much failure-free so far—which is rare. The big surprise was our non-dairy cheese... it turned out way better than expected. Might even sneak its way onto the menu.”
The Inventor
Chef Alfonso
“That’s how it goes. Some things work straight away, some need a few rounds, and some just sit on the shelf until the right moment comes.”
Anecdotes
The Designer
Chef Eelke
“The plan was to have the menu ready by April, one month ahead of launch. That kind of flew out the window when Alfonso got hit with dengue. We’re a bit behind, but thankfully the LabX team has grown, so there’s more hands on deck now.”
