At Kaum in Bali’s Desa Potato Head, Wayan Kresna Yasa brings ancestral recipes from over 600 Indonesian islands to the table – and shares one with us. Here, the celebrated chef talks tradition, technique and how a spicy pomelo salad can carry the soul of a celebration
On a humid afternoon in Bali, I take a seat at a long central table, stretched beneath warm timber, natural light, and some very welcomed air conditioning. Sunlight filters through a geometric grid of tall glass windows, catching on the fronds of potted palms and broad-leafed plants that skirt the room, reminding myself and other visitors of the tropical landscape beyond the glass. Plates pass by with colourful salads dusted in herbs, rice layered with aromatic spice pastes, and soup finished with coconut cream and Moringa leaves. The scent of turmeric and galangal hits my nose, while wood smoke drifting from the kitchen sets me wondering what’s on the grill.
This is Kaum – its name meaning “clan” or “tribe” in Indonesian – set within Desa Potato Head’s beachfront complex in Seminyak. The restaurant is rooted in Indonesian food and flavour, with a menu drawing on generational recipes from over 600 islands, brought to life using techniques like bamboo grilling, fermentation, slow cooking, pit roasting and hand grinding. At the heart of Kaum is Chef Wayan Kresna Yasa, who was born in a fishing village on Nusa Penida, the small island off Bali’s south-east coast. His early life was shaped by the immediacy of what was caught, picked or grown that day. Meat was a rare treat, reserved for ceremonies, while seafood and vegetables formed the base of everyday meals. At 28, he took a leap across oceans to train in the US, working in Michelin-starred kitchens like Acadia in Chicago and Blue Hill Stone Barns in New York. There, he developed a precision that would later graft onto the abundance of Indonesian food.
Now back in Bali, Wayan brings that experience to Kaum, marrying fine-dining discipline with the richness of Indonesia’s regional cuisines. He does this by honouring the country’s complex geography through the menu, which spans the creamy, spice-laden dishes of Sumatra, with its Indian and Arabic inflections, to the tangy, sambal-bright flavours of Bali and the simpler, sea-forward cooking of the eastern islands. Roughly half the menu is Balinese, while the rest draws from other islands, stitched together through his knowledge of spice, smoke and texture. Many of the dishes he recreates at Kaum trace back to offerings made during religious ceremonies, including meals that, until now, tourists would never have the chance to taste unless invited into someone’s home.
As well as a recipe on how to make Kaum’s Rujak Pomelo – a refreshing and zingy Indonesian fruit salad – what follows is a conversation with Chef Wayan, drawn from a long afternoon at Kaum and a discussion around the delectable dishes on the table, traditional Balinese flavour, his time abroad and the joy of turning a ceremony into a meal.
The freshness of Moringa
“On the table, you’re eating Moringa soup with coconut cream. The combination of the cream and fresh Moringa makes it like a superfood. Not many chefs put this on the menu – mostly they dry it into a powder. For me, the fresh one is better; you can see it, taste it and it’s different.”
Blending techniques from the US with Indonesian flavours
“What I brought back from my time in the US was mostly cooking technique. Indonesian food is usually deep-fried, grilled or steamed, but here I also play with a wood-fired grill. It’s about texture. For example, you can’t really cook fish until it’s chewy and well done. All the flavours are still original from Indonesia, especially Bali. Around 45–50% of the menu is Balinese, and the rest comes from Sumatra, Java, Sumba, Maluku and the Sulawesi Sea.”
Understanding Balinese spice
“Balinese food is rich in spice. For example, the pork dish uses a lot of root spices such as galangal, ginger and turmeric. All the heat comes from the spices, not chilli. Normally it would be very intense, but I make it medium. If you want something lighter, there’s the salad which is more spicy, tangy and fresh.
Ceremonial ingredients and palm sugar
“We have a type of snack that normally uses shrimp paste, but here it’s fresh. The sugar is special, made just by us chefs with no artificial ingredients. It comes from the palm tree. The sap is taken and fermented for 24 hours and we call it tua. You can drink it, or cook it down, reduce and caramelise it until it becomes solid with a caramel texture. We use it in cocktails and for cooking. It’s completely pure.”
The geography of Indonesia
“Rendang, the beef dish, is from Sumatra. The Moringa soup is from Central Java or Bali – but this one, because of the bold use of coconut flesh, I’d say is more Central Java. The fish soup is from West Nusa Tenggara to Sulawesi. The further east you go, the simpler the food – just celebrating the product. The further west, the more complex, using more spice and cream, influenced by India and the Middle East. Central Java is sweeter. In Bali, you have fresh sambal, spicy like sambal matah, and fruit salsa with grilled fish – that’s more eastern.”
Cooking with inspiration from the road
“This rice is usually used for offerings during ceremonies, served with condiments like crab, fish, tofu, fried peanuts and coconut. I take inspiration from that rice and think about how to serve it with meat or fish. I add dishes either because I like them, or because I’ve seen them while travelling around Indonesia and they’ve caught my eye. I change the menu regularly, not because I have to, but because I want to introduce dishes from other islands.”
From everyday to ceremonial feasts
“Growing up, I only ate chicken once every six months, at a ceremony. We’d save money for celebrations. Day to day, we ate a lot of vegetables, and we were almost vegetarian, though we didn’t call it that. Everything we needed was grown behind our house. I was born and raised on the beach, so I ate seafood every day and didn’t even know what bad seafood tasted like.”
Cooking in bamboo
“Only one region in Bali, Tabanan, cooks with bamboo – it’s called timbungan. We season and marinate the protein, put it inside bamboo, and stand it upright to cook over a fire for two to three hours, depending on the protein. Next week we’re doing a Saturday barbecue focused on cooking in bamboo.”
Launching the menu
“Next week I’ll launch the new Balinese Journey Menu, which will be a taste of Bali. The inspiration is a particular ceremonial dish that’s only made after preparing offerings. Once the offering is complete, everyone sits down together to celebrate. This happens at weddings, temple ceremonies, children’s birthdays, or a baby’s six-month celebration. There are seven dishes, usually served on the floor rather than a table. Pork and chicken are the main proteins for celebration in Bali.”
Kaum’s Rujak Pomelo by Chef Wayan
Serves 6
“This is a really fast and simple rujak. The Pomelo is cool and fresh and pops nicely against the sweet, hot, tangy sauce. I haven’t included terasi, but you could throw in a teaspoon for a more pungent dressing. This recipe calls for two chillies, which depending on the power of your peppers, provides a nice consistent burn. For milder results, just use one. The finer the jicama is sliced, the better. You might want to use a mandolin.”
175g palm sugar, very finely shaved
40 g tamarind paste/ Tamarind water
2 birds-eye chillies, crushed 6
2 tsp sea salt 6 tsp
100 ml water 300
20gr lime juice
600gr red pomelo pulp
200gr shredded green papaya/ Jicama
100gr cherry tomato
60gr red radish thinly sliced
60gr peanut (fried or roasted)
“Combine the shaved palm sugar, chillies, tamarind, and salt in a mixing bowl. Squeeze them together using your fingers until they form a rough paste. You’ll need to give the chillies a little extra attention to make sure they break down completely. Remember not to touch your eyes. Then, add the water bit-by-bit and keep massaging the ingredients together until all the sugar chunks and tamarind have dissolved and a watery sauce has formed. Add the Pomelo, green shredded papaya, tomato cherry, fresh mint, additional baby romaine if needed, mixing it and tossing it through the sauce lightly, being sure not to squeeze or crush it too much. Make sure all the ingredients are nicely dressed and serve top with fried peanut or cashew.”
