Located within the historic grounds of the Botanic Gardens, the Corner House is named after the botanist E.J.H. Corner. He is not just the motivation for the name of the restaurant, but his work as a botanist in the gardens serves also as an inspiration for the chef Jason Tan, the restaurant’s menu, and the entire experience at the Corner House.
“It’s more like a walk in the park. The discovery on the plate is always a pleasure for me to learn a lot about flavours and the ingredient itself”, says Jason Tan, who is the chef patron of the Corner House.
The way E.J.H. Corner used to explore and examine the various specimens in the Botanic Gardens, the same meticulousness the Corner House applies in the creation of every dish.
Corner House Singapore | Heritage meets Creation
Already the house itself and its colonial heritage are a spectacle. Walking into another world when entering the restaurant, the house’s simplicity and grace is reflected in the sophistication and beautiful presentation of the food.
“The idea was to treat the customer like a friend visiting a house. This house used to be occupied by the assistant director of the Botanic Gardens, E.J.H. Corner. So we decided to kept the whole place more like a house.”
The colonial building offers an ideal place for gastronomic dining, using French cooking techniques, global influence, and botanical focus.
Corner House | Gastro-Botanica
The chef’s inspiration and guiding principle behind the Corner House is Gasto-Botanica, which is a contemporary cuisine that highlights the quality and refinement of each single ingredient in a dish. Created by chef Tan himself, his cooking focuses on seasonality, ranging from the preparation to the garnishing of every dish.
“My approach to cooking is actually very simple. First and foremost it has to be tasty. Different animals to make it more unique – it is just about perfecting the dish,” says Jason Tan.
The culinary highlights on his menu include Carabinero prawns with variation of best seasonal tomatoes, or the Japanese A4 Toriyama Beef with horseradish, macadamia, black radish, shallot and soy caramel. Eating at the Corner House is more than going to restaurant, but rather a guided exploration of nature with the help of a menu.
Chef Tan’s determination for freshness and creativity of an ingredient may result, for example, in the exploration of the oignon doux des Cevennes, creating in turn a whole baked onion that is stuffed with sous-vide egg and black truffles, onion tea, as well as thinly sliced and crispy onion chips.
Corner House @ Singapore Botanic Gardens | Design Experience
The Corner House doesn’t offer a traditional menu with separate dishes, but rather offers several menus with different courses to choose from. As each menu has received detailed and refined attention, the menus are designed to be enjoyed by all the guests at a single table, in order to optimise and enhance the dining experience.
Travelling, eating, and drinking his way through life, Peter is continuously hungry for more. Always looking something new and exciting every single day, his day starts before the sunrise and ends longer after the sunset.
