If you’re even the slightest bit into food, you’ll know Simon Rogan’s name. It was Rogan who, primarily with his industry-shaping Lake District restaurant L’Enclume, helped put the concept of farm-to-table dining on the world stage.
From under L’Enclume was born Aulis – another Lake District restaurant that invited curious diners behind the scenes to discover Rogan’s precise processes. But while Aulis initially started as a test kitchen, the concept has grown and adapted into a restaurant in its own right. Following the success of the first spot, a London restaurant opened in 2017, Hong Kong launched in 2019, and now, the newest destination: Aulis Phuket.
Officially opened on Thursday, December 7, Aulis Phuket is nestled within the grounds of Iniala Beach House – a luxury villa rental complex overlooking the Andaman Sea – and marks Rogan’s first venture in Thailand.
[See also: Aulis London: Simon Rogan’s Test Kitchen Revived]
Although some 6,000 miles away from the Lake District, Aulis Phuket maintains the same principles as the original: Intimate, creative fine dining with a steadfast focus on native, carefully grown ingredients.
“Achieving our three Michelin stars at L’Enclume last year, 20 years after first opening, felt like a long-held and hard-earned dream come true,” said Rogan. “More than anything it has ignited our drive and ambition further.
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“It feels exciting to find new ways to challenge ourselves, and one of the ways we are doing that is by exploring new countries and adapting our refined farm-to-table ethos which we have honed in Cartmel, to these new climates, terrains and cultures. Following on from recent pop-ups in Australia and Singapore, as well as our successes over the last few years in Hong Kong, when the opportunity in Thailand presented itself it seemed a perfect fit.”
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Menu
Like at the previous iterations of Aulis, Rogan’s latest offering will be tasting-menu only, with just 15 guests per sitting served a precise number of dishes. While the Cartmel and London restaurants use ingredients from the group’s own Lake District farm, Aulis Phuket has had to think outside the box.
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Rogan and the team have worked hard to highlight native Thai ingredients and interpret them through the group’s signature styles. While a few dishes are fresh from the thought box for Aulis Phuket, some crowd-pleasing favorites re-emerge.
A savory bread and butter snack, made with croissants and showered in black truffle, that I loved during a recent dinner at the London restaurant appears to be re-imagined in this menu, this time with the addition of caramelized banana molasses. Rogan’s signature caviar – made by Petrossian and seasoned to the chef’s exact tastes – also crops up in Phuket, served with a sweetcorn custard, clams and sea grapes.
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Chef
Despite Simon Rogan’s plentiful restaurant empire, with locations dotted around the globe, Aulis impressively remains very much entwined with his personal culinary style. Rogan’s flagship is naturally the three-Michelin-starred L’Enclume in the Lake District but the petite Aulis group has become a beacon in its own right too.
Rogan has once again worked with his trusted executive chef Oli Marlow in developing Aulis Phuket’s menu, but day-to-day operations have been entrusted to head chef Giacomo Primante.
Primante brings with him a wealth of experiences from the highest echelons of fine dining, including Benu in San Francisco and Mauro Colagreco’s South of France icon, Mirazur – both of which have three Michelin stars.
[See also: How the Prestigious Michelin Star System Really Works]
Interior
Despite their very different locations, each Aulis restaurant manages to capture the same energy: Dark, low-ceilinged and metal-heavy. Each is incredibly exclusive, with a highly limited number of seats wrapping their way around a no-holds-barred chef’s kitchen.
Aulis Phuket is the same, but different. There’s still plenty of those design-forward metal surfaces, true to the group’s test-kitchen origins, but here that small but mighty kitchen opens out onto a scene of verdant palm trees – quite the contrast to London’s Soho setting.
Thailand-based architectural designer Ckori Pena was tasked with bringing the immersive space to life and, wherever possible, has utilized local materials in her process.
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