In the middle of dining service at Locavore NXT, a server arrived tableside to introduce the next dish: Blue Swimmer Crab. Cutlery was swiftly arranged, and for a moment, it was easy to picture the briny sweetness of its succulent morsels one expected to savour mere seconds away.
But when the dish appeared, there was no hint of said crustacean. Instead, pieces of grilled baby squid took centre stage in a ceramic bowl, arranged in a way that resembled a miniature Kraken. While river tamarind beans and neat cubes of pickled jicama encircled the ‘sea monster’ in a careful arc. The dish looked stunning, and yet the question lingered—where was the promised morsel, as the name suggests? As it turned out, it had been clarified into a translucent amber consommé, which was poured into the bowl as the final touch.
This penchant for subverting expectations and rebelling against established conventions has always been emblematic of Locavore. When Co-founders and Chefs Eelke Plasmeijer and Ray Adriansyah launched their intimate 14-table restaurant in Ubud in 2013, they were amongst the first in the nation’s fine dining scene to champion local ingredients. It was almost unheard of. Good, consistent supply was harder to come by then and the dominant belief was that anything harvested on these shores wasn’t fit for fine dining—most chefs leaned on imported luxury ingredients instead to impress Bali’s worldly crowd. Even so, driven by concerns over the environmental footprint of imported food, Eelke and Ray stuck to their guts and resisted the common practice of the local dining scene back then.
“Indonesia is obviously a very diverse country, so why not put it in the spotlight a bit more?” said Eelke. “We know that our concept is not for everybody and that it can be challenging for some people. Coming here, you need to keep an open mind and be ready for a surprise. Wagyu, scallops, truffles and caviar are all beautiful, important ingredients. But for us, they’re not the reason people travel to Bali.”
A culinary rebellion
Today, as culinary players across Indonesia increasingly explore the rich potentials of local ingredients, Locavore continues to be ahead of the curve. Over a decade since its inception, Eelke and Ray have expanded Locavore into a full-fledged culinary group, encompassing a casual eatery (Locavore To Go), butcher and grocery outlets (Local Parts, Peggy’s Grocery), bars (Club Soda, Night Rooster), and more concept-driven dining spots (Nusantara, Peggy’s Brass Knuckles and Herbivore)—each with its own unique expression of the group’s founding philosophy: a commitment to eating (and drinking) local.
In late 2023, their movement took a bold new turn with the opening of Locavore NXT, boldly announcing its presence with the motto “More than a restaurant. A localised rebellion.” It’s a process that began with the uprooting of the original Locavore restaurant from its prime city centre spot, moving the entire operation to a tranquil site on the southern edge of Ubud. Here, surrounded by serene paddy fields, they’ve settled into a space 47 times the size of their former location.
And it wasn’t an empty claim after all—their new place definitely measures up to the literal definition of being “more than a restaurant”. Housed within a concrete, tropical brutalist structure designed by Jakarta-based firm Budi Pradono Architects, Locavore NXT features a network of facilities built to expand and further evolve the kitchen team’s creative process.
The sprawling complex’s extensive backstage includes multiple kitchens with distinct purposes; there’s one reserved for a fermentation room, while across it, Lab X serves as the team’s R&D lab where the early stage of conceptualisation happens.
If the process behind each creation sounds like a sudden eureka moment, it’s anything but.
Meanwhile, down in the basement, a dedicated eight-metre-long mushroom chamber houses a wide variety of edible fungi, ranging from the more common oyster mushrooms to highly coveted types such as cordyceps (typically used in traditional Chinese medicine) and hen of the woods (a meaty delicacy treasured by mushroom enthusiasts). Stretching across the rooftop, a plot of ‘forest’ is inhabited by a growth of edible plants accompanied by a colony of black stingless honey bees.
“Our focus on using local produce means that we’re working with a lot of simple and humble ingredients, and we need to make them shine,” Eelke pointed out. “It demands a lot of technique, time and thinking about how to make something like, say, jengkol (dogfruit) delicious. You can cook it the traditional way, but that’s not what we do. [Our creative process] is definitely a big focal point behind NXT’s concept.”
Case in point, a piece of tempeh can take on an almost unrecognisable form. Gone is the familiar firm texture of this Indonesian staple; instead, at Locavore, their version of tempeh—which swaps the traditional soybeans for kenari nuts and pigeon peas—is brined, steamed, glazed and grilled to achieve a consistency that falls in between tofu and purée.
Sliced into trapezoid strips, the tempeh is plated in a wide-brimmed ceramic bowl, gently dipping into a creamy pool of mocha-coloured cashew milk sauce alongside brushes of black garlic purée and caps of mushroom. Still, the pleasing visual barely hints at the painstaking process behind its creation: the team experimented with 40 different variations of fermented legumes—ranging from sorghum and corn to petai (stink bean) and jengkol—just to perfect the recipe.
A similarly elaborate process shaped The Whole Banana Tree amuse-bouche, or ‘snack’, as they call it. In their quest for a recipe that would incorporate not only the fruit but the entire banana plant (even the curry, which utilises the banana trunk), the team exhaustively examined 19 banana varieties before deciding on pisang susu—a short, plump type of cavendish banana—and pisang gancan—a local variety with the appearance of slender, curved fingers. Where one would expect the snack to cave under the slightest pressure of the tongue, it defies expectations with its firm and springy texture that mirrors a mochi.
If the process behind each creation sounds like a sudden eureka moment, it’s anything but. Inside Lab X, Head R&D and Noma graduate Chef Alfonso Cocinero pours out his vision into a series of elaborate and expressive colourful drawings, mapping out the ideas and flow of each dish in the tasting menu.
“He’s quite the artist,” said Eelke as he unrolled Alfonso’s sketch for their second seasonal menu, Nature’s Flux. In it, the aforementioned blue swimmer crab consommé can be traced to an image of rain droplets gently trickling into a pool on a wide lotus leaf. Above it, a giant squid hovers like a terrestrial guardian.
At first glance, the collection of drawings might suggest that the menus spring purely from Alfonso’s whimsical, almost psychedelic imaginings. In truth, they’re grounded by the team’s deep knowledge and research of local ingredients, which is strengthened by Locavore’s close ties to Bali’s rural communities—villagers who subsist on the land as their ancestors have for centuries, carrying with them the island’s old agrarian knowledge.
A lean on ancestral knowledge
About an hour’s drive up north from NXT, into the winding foothills of Buahan Kaja Village, smack in the middle of Kintamani and Ubud, lies the ancestral land of farmer Ana Agung Putra Semara, known to his neighbours simply as Pak Agung. He has worked with Locavore since he inherited the land from his father a decade ago, regularly supplying the restaurant with harvests from his land.
“It’s definitely challenging, but I enjoy it a lot. I feel cared for [by the team]. We’re already like family at this point,” he shared, breaking out a bright smile that deepened the colour of his sun-weathered skin, a living proof of the years he had devoted to the farm.
Whenever Locavore has guests interested in learning more about their approach to local ingredients, Pak Agung is the appointed partner for foraging trips that are led by the restaurant’s Sous Chef and Head of Foraging, Ida Bagus Yana Gede Kasida, better known as Kasida.
“Even the same type of plant can have different taste notes depending on where it grows, influenced by factors like temperature and soil type,” explained Kasida at the edge of Pak Agung’s farmlands, which were newly planted with fresh stalks of corn. “That’s why we work with a lot of people from different villages across the island—from the seaside to the highlands—to source the best and most distinctive harvest that is unique to the landscape.”
Guided by ancestral knowledge, Pak Agung navigated the semi-wilderness like an open-air backyard pantry.
Pak Agung’s village sits somewhere in between. At this elevation, there was a subtle chill, intermingling with a light pouring of rain and short bursts of sunshine. Trees provided canopies overhead, while the rhythmic clucks and crows of chickens amplified a sense of ease in the atmosphere. Some of the land had been cultivated for rice and various crops, yet much of the area remained a wild orchard that melded into the surrounding forests, dotted with small makeshift stables sheltering brown cows native to the island. In the absence of gates, neighbours freely passed through with warm greetings, carrying harvests on their heads while their loyal Kintamani dogs tagged along.
“Back in the days, most Balinese homes came with a paddy field and a wild orchard just like this. People subsisted on the land’s harvest, using the plants for food, medicine and, most importantly, religious ceremonies. This connection to ritual is a key reason why knowledge about these plants has been preserved by villagers like Pak Agung,” added Kasida. “And that makes our job of understanding local ingredients on the island a lot easier, as we’re able to consult with the villagers, especially the elders.”
Guided by ancestral knowledge, Pak Agung navigated the semi-wilderness like an open-air backyard pantry, swiftly picking out a cluster of tart mulberry fruits (naturalised here by the Portuguese centuries ago) as well as green peppercorns. The latter is usually transformed into pickles or infused into arrack for alcohol pairing at NXT.
But there are times when harvesting ingredients requires a more challenging physical undertaking; like the nira, extracted from a sugar palm tree perched over a steep cliff that saw Pak Agung carefully scaling a two-story bamboo scaffolding just to reach the sweet nectar.
He also drew the guests’ attention to the flavours in blooming flowers, young sprouts and even the tiniest, unassuming weeds. At Locavore NXT, these ingredients, often disregarded by most chefs, are given the main character task. Take for example the Every Edible Element Chayote dish, where parts of the small chayote plant—including the sprouts, flowers, leaves and fruit—are assembled into a miniature wall of garden hanging over a sunset-coloured pond of cured ayam kampong egg yolk.
“The whole community works together to gather these ingredients for NXT—it wouldn’t be possible with just Pak Agung,” shared Kasida. “Sometimes, it even becomes an after-school activity for the village kids. They learn to pay attention to which plants to avoid, gaining a deeper understanding of their uses and values. That way, the agrarian knowledge is passed down to the next generation as they see a future in cultivating these produce.”
Reframing the fine dining experience
Back at Locavore NXT, similar introductions to the local biodiversity are also being integrated into the dining experience. Right after the first two ‘snacks’ and cocktails by the bar—where the floor-to-ceiling windows reveal a vista of rice paddies painted in intense sunset—diners are ushered underground into a cavernous space offering a full view of the eight-metre-long mushroom chamber. Here, guests enjoy the next course of amuse-bouches while exploring Locavore’s B.I.O Library—an interactive 3D database that archives the group’s efforts in documenting the diverse pool of local ingredients.
“In the spirit of sharing everything we’ve learned about local ingredients and their culinary characteristics over the years, we thought—why not digitise it? And that led us to the idea of ‘research you can touch’,” shared David Sullivan, Founder and Executive Creative Director of Agency X, Locavore’s in-house multidisciplinary agency that worked with creative technologists Digital Nativ on the B.I.O Library project. “For the next phase, we plan to make the entire database available online and allow people to contribute.”
“We will never be a perfect restaurant—there’s no such thing. But trying to achieve it, that’s a very fun thing to do.” -Eelke Plasmeijer, Co-founder and Chef of Locavore.
“NXT is our way of communicating a positive reference point, a showcase of what’s possible in the dining scene when you choose to be creative with nature,” continued David, in a white Locavore tee emblazoned with bold ‘UNFUCK THE FUTURE’ lettering, over a video call interview in September.
Locavore’s rebellious streak clearly extends to its dining experience, constantly coming up with various ways to surprise diners and reframe their perspective on fine dining: from delaying the gratification of entering the main dining room—whisking diners underground for a hidden amuse-bouche of mushroom dumplings within the drawer of a terrarium—to pausing the dinner midway with a surprise course, where diners make their way to the other end of the open kitchen to imbibe on a refreshing soup of pickled marigold flower, harvested from their rooftop ‘forest’.
And each time, the journey is always tailored to the storytelling of each respective season. “In its operation, NXT is very modular. We’ve got lots of different paths of circulation and areas that can be activated as part of the guest experience,” noted David. “It’s been developed in such a way that our ‘backstage’ is a key part of it. We want them to see the mushroom [chamber], the waste centre, the staff canteen. It’s all part of the journey.”
What is clear is that it’s only just the beginning of a daring journey ahead for Locavore. “What is NXT about? Well, I think guests will have different takeaways from it, but it is definitely the next level of our approach. A more complete experience,” mused Eelke. “We will never be a perfect restaurant—there’s no such thing. But trying to achieve it, that’s a very fun thing to do.”
