Room4Dessert

Dessert as a full dinner

Room4Dessert began in New York in 2005 and has spent about a decade in Ubud, where chef Will Goldfarb, known beyond the food world from Netflix’s Chef’s Table, turned dessert into a full dinner. The current format is a 15-course tasting menu in three parts: five savoury snacks at L’hort, five desserts in the dining room, and five petit fours on the terrace.

The cooking relies on Indonesian ingredients and bold medicinal herbs, with minimal refined sugar and salt, and a circular approach to waste. Drinks pairings can be non-alcoholic, alcoholic or natural wine. Guests begin in the garden and then move to a counter, which gives the evening a theatrical rhythm.

It is also the centre of a wider ‘experiential banjar’: Powder Room, a pastry shop, a ten-room boutique guesthouse called Shelter Island, the R4D Academy cooking school and a Food Forest that composts restaurant waste. Menus change, so treat the courses described here as one version of the format.

Sources: Chef Will Goldfarb blends food, hospitality and learning (What’s New Indonesia); Elite Traveler: Best restaurants in Bali. Check the official websites for current information.