Chef Jaime Ortolá introduces the raw power of fire cuisine to Hong Kong, searing meat and vegetables on an open-fire grill with maximum aroma.
At Fireside steakhouse in Central, not one singular food culture is presented at the forefront – not even the adored dishes of chef Jaime Ortolá and the Alicante region of Spain, his birthplace.
Yet, the restaurant is not-cuisineless. A menu of charcoal-grilled vegetables and wood-fire-touched beef cuts, fish, lamb, and pork render a pungent scene. At play, the cuisine is open fire, a form of cooking as old as humanity itself.
Jaime is a rarity: a chef that enjoys cooking more than eating. “The best result for me as a chef is when I see people smiling with my food. That’s the reward,” he says inside the steakhouse. During an interview with Foodie, Jaime admits of an aching desire to serve perfection to people, “I live to make people like my food.”
Until 12 years old, the Hong Kong-based chef was a terrible eater, pizza, pasta, and food with no onions was the protocol. Taking from his father, “an old countryside man from Alicante, a hunter and a fisherman,” Jaime created a path to enter into the food industry, enjoying a less cookie-cooker career to be practical with his hands and food.
The Spaniard joined a four-star hotel on the southeastern shores of the country, studying the basics, before he began work at a Michelin-starred restaurant featuring open-world Spanish contemporary cuisine. “We created dishes from Alicante, recipes lost in previous generations.”
In Hong Kong, at Fireside, Jaime neither takes inspiration from the procedural cooking standards of hotel work, nor the precision of the Michelin-starred dining, but adopts a way to cook that feeds his boundless craving for experimentation. Yes, the restaurant has four walls, operates a booking system, delivers ample service, and has a wine list. But for Jaime, experimentation comes in the form of his play on fire cuisine.
The engine of Fireside’s open-fire dining concept is powered by a central Binchotan charcoal grill located in the restaurant. It roars with smoke and radiating heat from the burning applewood, lychee, and almond firewood – the wood imparts a classic charcoal taste and smell onto proteins, starch, and vegetables.
“We don’t cook steak French-style with a lot of butter,” Jaime asserts. Fireside is a departure from the classic steakhouse template, and unique to Hong Kong. No Japanese wagyu can be found on the menu either, “it is too fatty and burns too quickly on the grill.”
12 country-origin steaks are served at Fireside, dry-aged or served wet and fresh. The familiar Australian steaks feature – American USDA steaks are not preferred by Jaime – but steak cuts from lesser-known-steak purveyors of Sweden, Finland, Poland, Italy, and Portugal are available to sear and savour.
The steakhouse imports steaks from more countries than any other restaurant in the city, plus all the beef is halal too.
“We aim to distinguish ourselves from American-style steakhouses, where a single variety of steak often comes with béarnaise sauce. Instead, I source a wide variety of beef based on its provenance, focusing primarily on fatty cuts such as ribeye and striploin, alongside secondary cuts. These steaks are then dry-aged to perfection, enhancing not only their essential umami flavours but also the crispness of the grilled skin.”
Open fire cuisine at Fireside is practised with not just steak, pork, lamb, chicken, and fish also meet the grill to present a true versatility for the cuisine. “Fire cooking has so many possibilities, everything is open. We are not just a steakhouse with only steak, sides, and starters.”
This type of cooking, Jaime says, can only be learned through doing, “I am not reading a book [on fire-cooking]. Nobody can teach you. You need to experience it yourself.” Education is also key to teaching customers about steak from countries they have never tasted before. Finnish, Swedish, and Polish steaks are rare in Hong Kong restaurants. The menu changes weekly and keeps the restaurant fresh with ideas and new steak cuts.
Beyond the eight steaks found on the a lá carte menu, an abundance of root and garden vegetables meets the charcoal for strong-scented appetisers and side-dishes. Dishes like the burnt eggplant with feta cheese, grilled artichokes, smashed crispy potatoes, and piquillo peppers complement the meaty, salty steak mains. Sweet honey and woody notes flow through every vegetable thanks to the Binchotan grill.
“Sometimes we have a table of 10 people dining here, with one vegetarian, and the vegetarian is more happy than the rest.”
As fire is the cuisine on show at Fireside, Jaime is ambivalent about introducing Spanish elements or a central Spanish cuisine to the menu. “I don’t want to be a Spanish restaurant. As a chef, I am limited with the cuisine of Spain. Making croquetas, garlic chilli prawns, and suckling big is boring.”
In late May, Fireside was ranked 70th place in this year’s World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants, a testament to fire cuisine that sets flavour and aroma apart from other Hong Kong steakhouses. “It is an unbelievable honour,” Jaime says.
Visit Fireside today by booking you and your guests a table on their website here.
