Mauro Colagreco, the Italian-Argentine three-starred chef, is ready to inaugurate “Fiamma”, a new restaurant in Singapore located inside the Capella hotel.
The restaurant, designed by the André Fu studio, will occupy the 138 seats of the resort’s previous in-house restaurant, The Knolls, in a long crescent-shaped space that opens onto an incomparable view of the three-tiered lava stone pools, a line of trees with thick tropical foliage and the South China Sea.
Early in the design process, Fu asked Colagreco what his goals were for the menu:
“We talked about Mediterranean flavors, the honesty of the ingredients and the atmosphere in which he imagined the food would be served. The resulting design is a reflection of these conversations, which subtly follows Fu’s European coastal experiences and his intention to make diners perceive both the expected and the unexpected”.
To achieve this duality, Fu divided Flame into six layered experiences, each of which is unique in its design and function, but whose sum of parts is unified into a single cohesive experience. All the rooms, in fact, overlook the sixth “room”, a 30-meter-long terrace furnished with solid wood outdoor furniture. Covered by an awning whose shape follows the gentle profile of the elongated crescent of the restaurant.
The design of the restaurant is bewitchingly simple. It’s chic in a quietly understated way. There is no single color that dominates attention. Instead, the understated design palette reflects the hues and textures of the tropics.
The furniture and furnishings, in particular, are an eclectic mix that whispers of relaxed and intimate luxury: a custom-made cast bronze chandelier in the dining room, walls covered in rough stone and handcrafted plasterwork, floors covered in Portuguese yellow marble, and handmade terracotta tiles in the bathrooms.
For Fu, Fiamma represents a unique opportunity to show, both aesthetically and emotionally, the charm of the Capella hotel, an island retreat that, however, is located only twenty minutes from the beating heart of the city. Although known for the intellectual rigor and symmetry of his work, Fiamma’s ambience and menu allowed Fu to incorporate a touch of deconstruction and rustic modernism.
“Fiamma is the living room and dining room of the Capella hotel,” Fu explains, “I want people to see it as a place to stay all day. A bit like you might do in a luxurious refuge in the Mediterranean in summer. It is a place that is not too informal, nor too rigid. To this end, design is an amalgam of experiences, of individual moments stitched together with tactile materials and thoughtful colors. Each room quietly refers to the outdoor environment, first the vast terrace with the Balinese pools, then the layers of nature and finally the sky and the sea. This way the outside is no longer a background of the restaurant. Rather, it becomes something that diners constantly refer to.”
In every way, Fiamma is a snapshot of Fu’s evolution as a designer and his commitment to context: understanding what makes a project unique and then working hard to enhance this quality. For the general manager of the Capella hotel, Yngvar Stray, Fiamma, and especially its design, perfectly captures the atmosphere of the resort:
“It was really exciting for me to witness the construction of this restaurant. The design is completely in tune with Mauro’s food and his cooking style: it’s a little unstructured, a little loose and completely contemporary without being rigid or contrived. For me, it’s amazing how André has achieved this sense of escapism not only for Fiamma, but also for the resort itself.”
INFO/PHOTO COURTESY: www.camronpr.com
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