Indoor, outdoor, at the table, on the floor

The joy of Khmer dining can sometimes take time to reveal itself, but a Cuisine Wat Damnak experience is more than unlikely to be one of those times. Frenchman Joannes Riviere’s seasonal degustation menus are constantly changing to showcase the very best locally sourced ingredients, some of which he grows himself, and the names of which even the most sophisticated Khmer connoisseur may never have heard. The result is lip smacking fare like pork shank with star anise, fresh bamboo shoots and crispy trotter, and chocolate and holy basil ganache with rice praline. The lush bites are served up in equally lush Siem Reap surroundings, an utterly charmant indoor/outdoor garden villa with traditional wooden furny, floor mats and cushions, ceiling fans and a garden packed with home grown herbs. Simply delightful.

Wat Damnak Village. T: +855 63 965 491. W: cuisinewatdamnak.com

Backyard-sourced ingredients are the freshest

For more on the best bites in Cambodia, check out our Cambodia & Laos guide!

Just opened AMMO resto looks like a futuristic fete

If a restaurant is called AMMO, we naturally expect it to blow us away. Luckily, the new restaurant located in Admiralty’s Asia Society Hong Kong Center does indeed come out with a bang. While the restaurant name is an allusion to the centre’s heritage as a former explosives magazine compound for the British army, it also stands as an acronym for “Asia, Modern, Museum and Original”, its keywords as the culinary face of the East-meets-West Asia Society experience. Within its futuristic and super mod walls, which were conceptualised and designed by Joyce Wang and local celeb chef and restaurateur Tony Cheung, the restaurant offers an Asian-meets-Mediterranean menu by Chef Roland Schuller (of The Drawing Room), and an extensive wine and cocktail list at the bar. Feeling trigger happy? Go on and click through for photos.

Angel hair pasta with uni, and slow cooked egg with toro

Tropicality cocktail and Kiwi Basil Martini

AMMO at Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Hong Kong. T: +852 2537 9888. W: asiasociety.org

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Paris' Beef Club Ballroom looks like our new favourite watering hole

Welcome back to our weekly LUXE Links, in which we source some of the week’s best reads from around the web and around the world. This week, behind the scenes at the Met Gala, a ‘Theatre of Nature’ in the Netherlands, and an extensive look at Paris’ The Beef Club. Get clickin’, chickens!

Burgers and cocktails at Paris’ Le Ballroom du Beef Club, from the owners of LUXE fave ECC. [HiP Paris]

More than 1,000 artists showcase at the 3-day Frieze Art Fair pop up on Randall’s Island, NYC. [Guardian UK]

A unique and ‘Modern Australian’ menu that wows at Cumulus Inc in Melbourne. [E-ting Food]

A behind the scenes with Olivier Theyskens and Caroline Trentini before this year’s Met Ball. [Into The Gloss]

Seven million square feet of flowers at the once-in-a-decade ‘Theatre of Nature’ in Venlo, southeast Netherlands. [New York Times]

Moscow's leading molecular maestro, Chef Anatoly Komm

Hailed as one of the 100 best contemporary chefs by Ferran Adria, and with a restaurant ranked number 60 on the 2012 world’s best restaurants list, Chef Anatoly Komm has an impressive resume. Considered the pioneer of haute cuisine in Russia, Chef Komm reinterprets traditional Russian food with a modern and molecular take at his award-winning Moscow restaurant Varvary. This month, he brought his menu to Hong Kong’s Landmark Mandarin Oriental, taking part in a series of unique pop-up showcases, and we sat down with the chef for a quick chat about his passions and inspirations.

Juicy tidbit: Varvary, in English, means 'barbarians'

At Varvary, normally your dinners are 9-15 courses, but your Hong Kong pop up will serve an 8-course menu. How did you narrow down your menu and pick the courses?
I try to choose dishes from my menu that are more or less similar with the national taste of that country because it’s very important to be relatable. I want to present shock, but when I make the first step in a foreign country I want to be understandable to people.

You’re one of the few Moscow chefs who source local ingredients. Will you be using local Hong Kong ingredients or are you sourcing from Russia?
It was easier to take a direct flight from Singapore (his last stop) to Hong Kong, but we went back to take almost 500 kilos of Russian ingredients before Hong Kong. Now from Hong Kong we go back to Moscow to take new ingredients before Switzerland, then back to Moscow before Italy. So it’s a shuttle because there are a few real Russian local ingredients which unfortunately we can’t find in foreign market, like beetroot and silver cod.

The first course, Spring Lawn, with truffle-injected egg and herring and cod caviar

Before you opened your restaurant, you had a career as a geophysicist…
I cooked from my childhood, my first dish was created when I was 3 years old. But in that time, to be a chef was to to be a poorer man. So I took a higher education, that’s why I’m a geophysicist, it was my first education. But in a parallel way I continued to cook.

So then how did you get into molecular cuisine?
It’s cooking evolution. Like in music, the first few steps, you play because you have a musical parent. Then you go to school, to understand the notes of the music, then you play and you get better. So in this kitchen it’s exactly the same. Or if you’re a painter, you start by painting the face of mama, then a house with a sun. But if you have talent, you eventually paint a good picture and can sell it in Sotheby’s.

You’re doing a gastronomic tour called ‘Around the World with Borscht and Foie Gras’. Are there certain areas of the world that you’re focusing on bringing your cuisine to?
There’s a big difference between Hong Kong, for example, and Moscow. All the world wants to come to Hong Kong. But Moscow, unfortunately, is not as touristic, so no one comes to Moscow. And there are a lot of reasons why it is like this, because it is very expensive, because you need visa, because it’s a long flight… And so we decided that maybe we’d better present Russian haute cuisine to the world.

Oh, honey... with ice cream, caramel, beeswax and essence of strawberry

You’ve had great success as a chef, with numerous awards and accomplishments. Who are the chefs you respect, who inspire you?
Music inspires me. Because in my opinion, it’s not good if a chef is inspired by another chef. There are a lot of chefs who I respect, but to be inspired means something special. And these chefs, all of them [are] my friends and we speak quite often about what inspires us. For Massimo Bottura, for example, it’s painting, for me it’s classical music. You are looking for something which can really touch you.

You have said that every meal you serve is akin to a performance. Can you explain?
Our job, it’s like theatre. It’s the difference between cinema and theatre, because in cinema, it’s shot just one time and then everybody around the world can watch. But in theatre, if it’s a good spectacle, it’s evening by evening, and the actor takes his soul outside and gives it to customers, and it’s exactly the same for a cooker. Evening by evening we have to be in front, we have to take our soul and give to our customers.

Curtains up at Varvary, 8A, Strastnoi Boulevard, Moscow. T: +7 495 229 2800. W: anatolykomm.ru

They don't call it Island of the Gods for no reason

Spectacular doesn’t even begin to describe Latitude Villa, a 5-bedroom private getaway in beachy Bali where your living room view is as deceptive as it is jaw-dropping, with no discernible break from front-yard infinity pool to out-there blue ocean. If you were raised on some exotic island and that scenery isn’t enough to sell you, villa facilities include an outdoor Jacuzzi, a home theatre, a snooker room, and a fully equipped kitchen with an in-house chef to cater to you. Right then, now that’s settled, you’d better start saving for the ultimate special occasion vacation.

1 Karang Kembar Estate, The Bukit, Bali. T: +62 0361 733 320. W: latitudebali.com

For even more of the best of Bali, check out our LUXE Bali guide, or download the app. And if you’re travelling with the tots, peep our brand new Little LUXE Bali guide and go glam with the fam!

Sawadee to our trendy Bangkok-bound friends, this one's for you: The recently-opened Sofitel So Bangkok and its element-themed rooms await. The 30-storey design diva, located next to Lumpini Park in the biz district, boasts jaw-dropping vistas and all mod cons, plus Park Society rooftop resto/bar and infinity pool. Each of the 238 rooms come equipped with iPads and free WiFi, and the spa is outfitted with hammam, pool, and sauna, while the downstairs entertainment centre turns into a night club after sunset. Gastronomes will be happy with a table at trad market-style Red Oven restaurant, and a visit to the ChocoLab, which is indeed as indulgent as it sounds. If you're after a pretty n' pampered stay in BKK, all you'll have to decide is: are you metal, earth, fire, or water?

An earth-themed room boasting aquatic ambiance

Go platinum in this mod, metal-themed room

A soak in the tub while enjoying that view? Wow-worthy water-themed room

Market fresh ingredients and live cooking stations at Red Oven

Stellar views and sultry ambiance at Park Society, rooftop resto & bar

Sofitel So Hotel. 2 North Sathorn Road, Bangkok. T: +66 2624 0000. W: sofitel.com

First look at Anna Dello Russo for H&M

Welcome back to our weekly LUXE Links, in which we source some of the week’s best reads from around the web and around the world. This week, a first look at the Olympic Park art, a tantalising tour of Tel Aviv, and a new Parisian cocktail club to get in line for. Get clickin’, chickens!

Our fave cocktail creators at Experimental Cocktail Club open new Paris speakeasy Le Ballroom du Beef Club [Travel + Leisure]

The Savoy London’s bartender heads to The Fairmont Beijing to teach ‘Master Class’ (hint: cocktail mixing and drinking) [Beijing Boyce]

A preview of the 26 installations at the Olympic Park’s ‘Art in the Park’ programme in London this summer [Creative Review]

First look at more-is-more connoisseur Anna Dello Russo’s accessories line for H&M – purses out [Refinery 29]

The seven must-sees of Tel Aviv, the NYC of Israel, from boutique hotel to retail haven to hipster hangout [Cool Hunting]

Horsing around with a twilight amble on the beach

Dear globetrotting hearts, it’s that time of the month again! Our May travel column for Singapore Airlines’ silverkris.com website and their inflight mag is now viewable in its entirety online.

This month, our 24 hour spotlight highlights Bali romances with sandy beach frolics, galloping equestrians, spa treats, sunset cocktails, and much more to get you grooving to the island rhythms. Add a dash of spice to your courtship on one of the hottest island destis in Southeast Asia!

For our lucky lovelies, silverkris.com readers get an exclusive promo code to score 15% off LUXE guides and box sets. Get ready, jet set, go!

These movers and shakers will soon be headed from London's Guildhall to Singapore...

LUXE lovelies, have you seen the just-announced winners of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2012? Time to refresh that must-eat-before-you-die checklist… But wait, there’s more. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the World’s 50 Best academy has just announced the exciting news that next year will see the launch of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards, sponsored by S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, to be held in Singapore at the end of February 2013. More details to come, but best get your chopsticks ready!