Michelin star chef heads new restaurant in Seoul

Sardinian chef Roberto Petza assembles an amuse-bouche, starting with a base of carrot soup, layering it with slivers of bamboo, adding thin, short wands of almonds before topping it off with slices of raw oyster.

Careful, deliberate and exacting, Petza is busy at work in the kitchen of his latest gastronomic adventure, Harmonium.

“I like Korea,” Petza, 45, explained why he decided to helm a new restaurant in Seoul. “I like the ingredients from Korea.”

Korea is familiar territory to Petza, who first visited the country in 1993.

“I stayed here for two months to work and look and discover,” he said. 

While here he dined on Korean food, developing an understanding of the cuisine, the ingredients and the culture, a foundation that now seems to be of great use nearly two decades later.

After he returned to his native Sardinia, he opened a restaurant in 1998, christening it S’Apposentu.

In 2002, after four years, he moved his restaurant to a new location in Cagliari. That year S’Apposentu was awarded a Michelin star.

Until that moment, it was an uphill battle for Petza, who said, “When you make something new it is not easy to explain.”

Now, however, he seems to have plenty of diners who understand his approach to cuisine.

“People come to eat from everywhere in the world,” said Petza, who moved S’Apposentu to Siddi in 2010 and also currently heads a food academy.

From his perch in what he describes as a quiet Sardinian village, Petza spins out food from ingredients foraged from the wild.

“This is food from the country,” said Petza, who takes great pride in using locally-sourced ingredients unique to his homeland.

“My food is fresh and very simple. There are no special effects.”

At Harmonium he intends to apply the same philosophy.

“I want to mix my food with the ingredients from here,” he said. “This I think is interesting for me.”

Petza revealed plans to keep almost everything locally sourced.

With a little over a week left till the restaurant officially opens on June 1, Petza seems at ease with how everything is coming along, with the location in Hannam-dong and with the company Harmonium will be keeping.

“People from around the world come here to open restaurants,” said Petza of Seoul’s vibrant, global dining scene.

Harmonium

682-8 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul/ (02) 792-3972

Open noon to 3 p.m., 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily

Prix fixe courses start at 150,000 won, reservations necessary

By Jean Oh (oh_jean@heraldcorp.com)