The squid ink pasta is topped with a hefty portion of ikan patin, an unusual choice but one that Jay pulls of quite successfully. — Photos: ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
There are times in life when the odds are against us, luck isn’t on our side and we are plunged into a dark, dark abyss. Crawling back to the surface can seem insurmountable but for the people who triumph over adversity, it is often testament to their strength of character.
This is exactly what talented chef Jay Chang faced when things went south at his former eatery, Back Alley Pasta.
“That was, I think, probably the lowest that I have been in my career,” he says, reminiscing about that moment not too long ago when he left the eatery he helped build.
Jay – as he is better known – says it was prayers and the support of his mother, fiancée, investors and the entire former team at Back Alley Pasta, who quit and followed him en masse, that emboldened him to open his latest venture Base Pasta Bar & Bistro in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.
“As cliche as it sounds, I prayed a lot. And then, also a big part of it (coming out of the tough situation) was the responsibility I felt towards my team.
“I tell everybody that this kind of thing – having the whole team follow you – is one in a million. So it was my responsibility from the start to get things started. More important was the responsibility to look after my team because they made the biggest sacrifice. They could have gone anywhere else and got paid more, but they chose to stick around and open this place with me,” says Jay.
When the chips were down, Jay’s team stuck by his side and together they built Base Pasta Bar.
Jay is an incredibly passionate chef who grew up in a family of cooks. His mother and grandfather were both newspaper editors who turned out delicious family meals in their spare time. This heavily influenced Jay, who decided to take up a career in culinary arts.
After completing his diploma, he honed his skills at famed French chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurant in Singapore before eventually coming back to Malaysia, where he worked at restaurants like Zenzero.
At Back Alley Pasta, Jay’s reputation took off almost entirely through word-of-mouth and off the strength of his handmade pastas.
At Base, his pastas are back in action alongside his love for all things local – incidentally, 80% of the menu is made up of local ingredients.
“I use pasta as a canvas more than a dish, because it’s familiar so it’s easier for people to familiarise themselves. But my food itself is influenced by my philosophy of using as much local produce as I can find. And also working with contemporary ideas and trying something new,” he says.
The eatery is perched along a quiet stretch of shop lots and has a long, sprawling open kitchen, dotted with bar stools for maximum viewing opportunities. Tables are interspersed throughout the space, which is minimalist but exudes warmth and charm in spades.
The eatery has a casual charm underscored by the long open kitchen that offers a bird's eye view into how Base operates.
The menu traverses the pasta universe – in ways both familiar and unfamiliar; while small plates and big plates pay homage to the cornucopia of roots, shoots, greens, seafood and meat in the land.
Start your meal with the Base Focaccia by Kerwin with Nori and Roasted Garlic Butter (RM20). The focaccia was developed by aforementioned team member Kerwin after Jay showed him a YouTube video and asked him to “go make some bread”.
Kerwin certainly came up with the goods, because this is fight-worthy bread. A crusty carapace on the outer core meets its diametrical opposite in the pillowy-soft, tender-as-a-lover interior of this baked good.
This too-good-to-be-true configuration is given an epiphanic “Eureka” moment once you slather the nori and roasted garlic butter onto every inch of the bread’s hollows. The garlicky, buttery, umami richness of the butter pools into the crevices and veins of the bread, giving it a component no amount of money can buy: unforgettability.
Up next, try the Charred Cauliflower with Pesto Diavola and Pecorino Romano (RM24). This is an homage to the rustic, unvarnished beauty of cauliflowers. The charring has given this cruciferous vegetable a sexy, smoky overcoat, turning it from Clark Kent to Superman in one fell swoop. This is intensified by the snowy blanket of cheese scattered prettily atop and the pesto diavola which adds rusticity and a sharp underbelly to the meal.
Grilled tomatoes balanced against homemade ricotta cheese and house-made pesto make for a wondrous exploration through vegetarian terrain.
It is high praise when you can say a cauliflower made you smile, but this is the sort of cauliflower that will have just that effect upon you.
The vegetable gods smile yet again upon the appearance of the Grilled Tomato Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette, Homemade Ricotta Cheese and Market Pesto (RM28). The Cameron Highlands-sourced tomatoes have been treated well – blistered on the surface, yet yielding to sweet, tender insides. The ricotta cheese is soft and adds a dairy richness to the meal while the market pesto – made up of bits and scraps of leftover roots, shoots and leaves from other dishes – offers a fresh, herbaceous overlay to the meal.
From the pastas on offer, try the Tagliatelle Pasta with Roasted Vegetable Caponata, Pomodoro Sauce, Grana Padano and Market Pesto (RM35). Built for those of the vegetarian persuasion, the tagliatelle has a delightful pull and spring and a firm, yet succumbing bite. The roasted vegetables add a slight char and succulence to the meal and this is juxtaposed against a tomato-riddled backdrop that is rich and flavourful. It’s a meal whose trump card lies in simple ingredients executed exceptionally well.
The Spanish Squid Ink Tagliolini with Aglio Olio Base, Grilled Shoyu Patin and Romesco Sauce (RM48) highlights Jay’s commitment to using the bounty in our own backyard. Picking the local river fish patin over the oft-used, much-hyped salmon is a bold, bold move but one that ultimately pays off in spades.
To ameliorate the muddy connotations so often associated with patin, the fish has been brined in soy sauce and galangal for over 12 hours. This gives it a flavour profile more akin to unagi.
The fried catfish offers a crispy outer skin and firm, yet tender flesh within.
The squid ink tagliolini holds all the flavours of this ambitious meal together, while the patin adds substantial heft and volume. The addition of bunga kantan imbues the meal with a lovely floral canopy that instantly harks to the tropics.
Overall, this is an incredibly euphoric confluence of flavours that is the reel-to-meal equivalent of watching an unusual pair fall in love.
Up next, savour one of the eatery’s big-ticket items: the Cornmeal Coated Fried Whole Catfish with Spinach and Ulam Salad with Tomato Relish (RM58). Catfish is the poor man’s seafood in Malaysia, yet here it has been elevated with a cornmeal crust that elicits ASMR-ish crackling and snapping auditory enhancements. The fish delivers a pleasant crunch when you bite into it, although there are some bits that are a tad hard on the teeth, especially if your canines, molars and incisors are middle-aged – like mine. The flesh of the fish however is incredibly supple and this is supplemented by all the accoutrements that tie it together, especially the ulam which gives it lovely herbaceous undercurrents.
End your meal with dessert in the form of the house-made Tiramisu (RM25). Jay says this is the only dessert he knows how to make but sometimes it pays to have mastered a single thing very well. His tiramisu is very, very good – coffee-saturated with a light sponge base, this is an oozy, creamy squidge of perfection.
Tiramisu is the only dessert on the menu but it's the only one you'll need because it's very, very good.
It is clear that Jay has put together a winning formula at Base – combining a loyal team with his own dedication to his craft in what is sure to edge him past the competition in the long run.
“Running, owning and building a restaurant is really a team effort. So if you have a core team that’s strong, it’s one of the winning recipes to success,” he says.
Base Pasta Bar & Bistro
B-1-13A, Aurora Place Bukit Jalil
Persiaran Jalil 1
Bandar Bukit Jalil
57000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 010-350 7022
Open Tuesday to Sunday: 5.30pm to 10.30pm
