Uniting The Flame and The Earth Through Flavours: Syrco BASÈ and Pipit’s Seductive Feast Beneath the Ubud Stars
There are few places in the world where food feels quite so spiritual as it does in Bali.
Here, offerings of rice, flowers and incense appear before sunrise on temple steps and roadside shrines; smoke curls through the humid morning air; farmers move through emerald rice terraces with a quiet reverence that borders on ritual.
On this island, flavour is not merely pleasure. It is prayer, memory, inheritance and identity. Perhaps that is why Bali’s dining scene has evolved into something far more intoxicating than tropical escapism.
The island is no longer sustained by beach clubs and sunsets alone. Increasingly, travellers arrive hungry — hungry for provenance, for artistry, for the visceral thrill of discovery on a plate.
And nowhere captures that shift more seductively than Ubud.
During this year’s Ubud Food Festival, the jungle-fringed cultural heart of Bali will once again become the epicentre of Southeast Asia’s culinary imagination.
Yet among the festival’s glittering line-up, one dinner in particular has already set serious gourmands murmuring with anticipation.
On Sunday, 31 May, Syrco BASÈ will host Grounded: Syrco BASÈ x Pipit in the Garden — an intimate one-night-only four-hands collaboration between two Michelin-starred chef Syrco Bakker and Australian chef Ben Devlin of Pipit.
Only 40 seats exist.
Which, in the language of modern luxury dining, effectively means none.
For Bakker, whose Indonesian heritage quietly informs the soul of Syrco BASÈ, cooking has become an ongoing dialogue with the archipelago itself.
Since opening in January 2024, the restaurant has rapidly established itself as one of Indonesia’s most compelling dining destinations through its guiding philosophy of Traceability, Nature and Transparency — known simply as TNT.
It is a deceptively elegant concept rooted in rigorous integrity: direct relationships with Balinese farmers, fishers, artisans and producers; fair sourcing; deep respect for the supply chain; and an insistence that luxury must remain connected to the earth from which it comes.
The result is cuisine that feels startlingly alive.
A tomato tastes intensely of volcanic soil and sunshine. Reef fish arrives with oceanic clarity still shimmering through its flesh. Indigenous herbs, native spices and heirloom ingredients emerge not as decorative gestures but as storytellers in their own right.
Devlin, meanwhile, brings the wild poetry of Australia’s native pantry into the conversation. At Pipit in New South Wales, he has become celebrated for produce-driven cooking shaped by smoke, fermentation, coastal abundance and native botanicals.
Together, the two chefs will present a refined menu balancing native Australian flavours with meticulously sourced Balinese produce selected through Syrco BASÈ’s TNT philosophy.
Guests can expect four intricate bites followed by a seven-course dinner that moves between both culinary identities with remarkable fluidity: perhaps smoky native herbs against delicate Indonesian seafood, or richly layered tropical aromatics sharpened by Australian acidity and fire.
The evening will also unveil several previews from Syrco BASÈ’s forthcoming Summer 2026 menu, offering diners a glimpse into the restaurant’s next creative evolution before the wider world sees it.
Yet what makes Grounded feel especially magnetic is the emotional timing of it all.
Bali itself is changing. The island has become one of Asia’s most cosmopolitan culinary destinations — a place where ancient warungs coexist beside boundary-pushing fine dining rooms, where Japanese precision, Latin fire, Nordic fermentation and Indonesian heritage increasingly collide in thrilling ways.
Food tourism now rivals surf culture and wellness travel as a defining force within Bali’s economy, creating vital opportunities not only for restaurateurs, but also for farmers, fishermen and local producers whose livelihoods depend upon these ecosystems of hospitality.
Events such as the Ubud Food Festival have played no small role in that transformation. More than a showcase for chefs, the festival has become an important cultural platform connecting international audiences to Indonesian ingredients, regional food traditions and the people sustaining them behind the scenes.
Syrco BASÈ understands that responsibility intimately.
Its participation in the official Ubud Food Festival After Party alongside 3 Peaks Gin further reinforces the restaurant’s instinct for collaboration and cultural exchange.
Guests can expect complimentary welcome cocktails and signature drinks crafted by the Syrco BASÈ Bar team alongside a dynamic line-up of industry talents including Aris Sanjaya, Arya Dharmayasa, Aditya and Cok Angga — a gathering of creative energy as spirited and intoxicating as Bali itself.
But Grounded ultimately offers something rarer than exclusivity.
It offers intimacy. A fleeting convergence of two chefs, two landscapes and two philosophies beneath the heavy velvet air of an Ubud evening — where fire, earth, smoke, spice and story collapse into a single unforgettable meal.
And by the time the final cocktail is poured beneath the jungle canopy, securing one of those 40 seats may well feel less like booking dinner, and more like obtaining passage into one of the defining culinary moments of Bali’s year.
Grounded: Syrco BASÈ x Pipit in the Garden is priced at IDR 1,500,000++ per person, inclusive of four bites and a 7-course dinner, and is limited to 40 guests only.
For reservations and further information, visit https://syrcobase.com/ today.
*Photos courtesy of Syrco BASÉ.
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