Interview: Executive chef Poul Andrias Ziska of two-Michelin-starred KOKS

Fermented lamb intestines, anyone? If you are up for something new and exotic by Singapore standards, don’t miss the two-Michelin-starred KOKS residency at Grand Hyatt Singapore happening from now till 18 February 2022. The restaurant from the Faroe Islands is led by executive chef Poul Andrias Ziska, his core team of chefs and front-of-house staff.

Derived from a Faroese word, KOKS roughly translates into “flirtation”, ‘”loving care”, and “someone who fusses in the pursuit of perfection”. Keeping all three meanings as part of its ethos and mission statement, the cuisine at KOKS is both ancient and modern, earthy yet refined, a perfect representation of the unique identity of the islands and their culture. 

KOKS serves a maximum of only 26 diners a night and only opens for nine months every year from March to November. Since its bold opening in 2011 in Leynavatn in the Faroe Islands (located between Iceland and Norway),  the restaurant is typically booked out six months in advance.

At the heart of KOKS is the culinary coquetry of executive chef Poul Andrias Ziska. He serves up new Nordic cuisine inspired by the finest sustainably sourced Faroese produce while placing a strong emphasis on traditional culinary techniques.

Central to the survival of the Faroese is the practice of ræst, a form of wind-powered dry ageing, a unique combination of fermentation and ageing. The wind, heat, altitude, cold, level of humidity and salinity, as well as the microorganisms that are endemic to the island, make ræst taste unique to each practitioner. As pioneers of the New Nordic Kitchen movement in the Faroe Islands, KOKS is respectful of all these unchanging local traditions, namely wind drying, pickling, curing, smoking, salting  and above all, fermenting.

At the upcoming residency, diners can look forward to a fully authentic KOKS dining experience, complete with rare produce flown-in specially from Faroe Islands, as well as music and ambience. 

Special care and selection of ingredients from the Faroe Islands will be planned out in advance, taking into account the season and duration of the residency. The special menu includes some of KOKS fermented signatures, such as the Fermented Ocean Perch with Fermented Lamb Intestines and Cheese, and Cod Filet with Fermented Cabbage and Caviar. Other signatures include the star appetiser, Langoustine Roll. Large, succulent, and caught in lobster pots, the Faroe Islands lobster is considered first among all its ocean delicacies. 

Complementing the unique menu is a specially curated beverage programme by sommelier Karin Visth in collaboration with Park90, to complement KOKS umami-rich ingredients.

We caught up with chef Ziska before the start of the highly anticipated residency. 

Why choose Singapore as your first destination for an Asian residency?

I had cooked in Korea and Indonesia before so this is not my first time in Asia, but it is indeed a first for me and my team to stay this long for a residency. What is interesting about Singapore is the diversity and different cultures that are present here. I am very excited to get to know more of Southeast Asian culture and cooking techniques; I believe we will learn a lot from it and am really looking forward to it.

How would you describe the KOKS ethos and experience?

At KOKS, we try to source and utilise what we can from around the island, finding the best produce and then bringing it to the dinner table. For example, our langoustine dish is complicated and there’s a long process behind the preparation of the dish. Once it gets to the table, diners are greeted with a fairly simple presentation and is first and foremost, focussed on having a taste of what it is. 

At KOKS, we want to showcase the produce of Faroe Islands as much as possible. The 18- to 21-course tasting menu is where we serve the pure, clean flavours of the ocean while contrasting that to the traditional fermented meat that is quintessentially Faroese. 80 percent of the menu is from the sea, which is where our strengths are. Our uniqueness comes from the more traditional things such as fermentation which are very important to our identity and we serve fermented dishes to our guests – there are two or three such dishes on the menu. Basically, we stay true to Faroese cuisine and try to be as local as possible.

How would you describe your cooking style? Tell us a little about your journey to becoming a chef of a two-Michelin-starred restaurant.

I would say our cooking style is quite simple even though there is a lot of work behind each dish. We like to keep the presentation simple, and the flavours pure and delicate so that diners can taste what it is. It’s pure and honest style cooking at least in terms of flavours. Technique wise, we are a modern creative kitchen and take cooking techniques from all over the world. What’s most important to us is that there is a real thread throughout the menu, and one is never in doubt about where they are eating. We use as many local Faroese ingredients and Faroese style of cooking as possible; there are a lot of fish and seafood throughout the menu. 

I took over the restaurant that I am running now at the age of 23 in January 2014; the restaurant opened in 2011. I wanted to finish my apprenticeship and start working in great restaurants around the world in Copenhagen such as Geranium. The then-chef at KOKS called me and asked me if I would like to come back to the Faroe Islands to take over the restaurant. I said yes because I grew up in the islands after all. I wanted to work in the Faroe Islands and make sense of the islands and all it had to offer – this is what interests me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get this offer elsewhere so I said yes. Since then, I have been growing, developing, and evolving as a chef and as a person in my own restaurant instead of in other people’s restaurants.

Tell us more about the rare produce that you will be bringing in from the Faroe Islands.

One dish we are bringing from the Faroe Islands, which is important to us, would be the fermented lamb and fish. The ocean perch, for example, is fermented for about six weeks. At home, we boil them whole, and then serve with potatoes and fermented lamb intestines – we mince them and melt them due to their high fat content; it is very strong in flavour. At the restaurant, we make potato puree by gratinating the potato with the fermented lamb intestines. We serve some small potatoes and a little bit of grated fish where you get the flavour of the fish alongside cheese sauce, which we added as part of our creative process. This is a dish that everyone who comes to KOKS will be familiar with as we serve them, and is tied strongly to our identity as Faroese. 

Tell us some of the ways in which you will be incorporating Asian flavours into your dishes.

For example, we use soya sauce, mirin, or sake to cure our macros as a way of presenting them to diners. These are very Asian-inspired and I think they work well with the Faroese palate and raw materials found here in the islands. The focus though will always be, at the end of the day, about Faroe Islands. We will find local ingredients when we arrive in Singapore to substitute the ones we normally use in the Faroe Islands. Again, I think it’s easier to decide once we see, taste and smell these ingredients ourselves when in Singapore and I look forward to it.

What creation of yours is closest to your heart and why?

This is very difficult to answer because usually, for me, I am very excited about creating dishes. I really enjoy the process in the creation of a dish, I am super excited and usually want to bring it out to the guests and see what they have to say. After a while, I get bored of the dish and want to create new dishes. It’s difficult for me to point out one dish but there are different flavour combinations that I find very interesting, and this is something that I find cool because it hasn’t been done before here in the Faroe Islands, for example, taking traditional things such as fermented lamb intestines and mixing it with cheese, which is not traditional at all.

Most people would find the fermented lamb intestines quite challenging but pairing it with cheese would automatically invoke diners to think about blue cheese, giving them the connection to something they are familiar with. All of a sudden, it becomes a pleasant flavour. This is one of the flavour combinations that is very interesting to me; and I am very proud of it. We have done this flavour-combination in different ways; this includes one of the dishes that we will be bringing to Singapore where we burn the lamb fat on top of a potato puree and serve it with cheese sauce.

What advice do you give to younger, aspiring chefs trying to make their mark in the culinary world?

I still consider myself a young chef trying to make a mark in the world so it’s difficult to advise anyone else. I think that doing what you love to do, and doing it because it comes from you is very important. To me, it’s not about reaching a goal or the destination but the journey of it – one has to enjoy the journey, trust your own instincts to do the right things, and follow a set or chosen path. The important thing is not to reach the final destination, but the “how” in getting there. At least for me, this is how I ended up where I am. 

KOKS residency can accommodate 35 diners for lunch (from $228++/ plus $148++ for wine pairing) and 45 diners for dinner (from $458++/ plus $248++ for wine pairing). Book your seats here.