The final instalment of the season in our sustainable adventures with BMW takes us to Caviar in the luxurious all-electric BMW i7.

SINGAPORE

Nestled away in a corner of Singapore’s shopping district of Orchard Road, you will find Singapore’s first caviar-based restaurant — the aptly named Caviar. And for a dish that is as rare as it is premium, it’s only fitting that we get there in BMW’s super-luxurious and all-electric flagship limo, the i7. 

Long, large, and looming, the BMW i7 is the coming-together of the luxury experience one would expect from what is essentially an electric 7 Series, along with the driving pleasure that BMWs are known for. 

With a dual motor setup driving all four wheels on the i7, you have 544 horsepower and 745Nm of torque at your disposal, together with a range of up to 625km on a single charge. And don’t be mistaken, it may be a sizeable car, and in fact, is BMW’s longest series production EV, but 0-100km/h is achieved in a cool 4.7 seconds.

Most striking however, is the level of tech available in the BMW i7. The luxury sedan features what BMW calls the Interaction Bar, a full-width LED-backed panel that stretches across the length of the dashboard, extending onto the passenger and driver doors. It houses some functions, among others, for adjusting the climate control, and opening the semi-automatic doors with the touch of a button. The panel dazzles and dances with soft lighting when you switch between driving modes.

Above the Interaction Bar is BMW’s expansive Curved Display, which combines a 12.3-inch driver instrument display and a 14.9-inch infotainment touchscreen that’s as pleasing to look at as it is to use.

In the rear, you’ll find 5.5-inch touchscreens built into each door for passengers to control features like seat comfort, radio, and climate.  

And just as BMW has created a luxurious experience within the i7, Caviar has also managed to create a luxurious experience under the guidance of its executive chef, Dannel Krishnan. 

With caviar the main focus of the restaurant, Chef Dannel shares that they obtain them through sturgeon farms, as opposed to wild caviar. 

And building on that, they try to follow a produce-driven ethos by obtaining quality ingredients from locations as close to them as possible. Like the aged sea bream dish that was prepared for us; the fish was obtained from a kelong (floating fish farm) in the northeast corner of the island of Pulau Ubin.

As for how each type of caviar is selected for the restaurant, a thorough screening process is involved, with the whole team tasting and discussing the merits of each caviar. Based on Chef Dannel’s calculations, only about 20-percent of caviars actually make the cut. 

As for the dish Chef Dannel planned for us, the scaled bream is prepared through a Japanese practice called ikejime, where the fish is put to sleep with clove oil, before cleaning out its insides. This process allows the meat to stay fresh for longer, letting them age the fish for close to a week, accentuating its natural flavours. 

In this particular dish, Chef Dannel also employs the use of kaffir shavings, yuzu-based dressing and caviar that come together to create an experience for the palate that transports you into the clearest of ocean waters, swimming alongside the bream on your plate. A curated experience that cleverly balances quality with mindfulness. 

After that, we decided it was time to take Chef Dannel out for a spin in our idea of a luxurious experience. 

For those new to the world of fine dining, Chef Dannel sees the quality and curation of the experience integral to understanding this concept. From the finesse required in cultivating ingredients to refining the menu from conception to final product, a lot goes into creating the right journey for the customer, not unlike what BMW has done with the i7, and its seventh generation 7 Series. 

The BMW i7, when you study it in detail, is a collection of carefully crafted design elements and components that comes together to make every drive a luxurious experience. Take for example, after a grand opening with the light effect of the BMW crystal headlights Iconic Glow, the BMW IconicSounds Electric takes over on the move.

A synthesised collection of aural sounds that accompany the car’s motion, BMW IconicSounds Electric is a collection of tones designed by the legendary music composer Hans Zimmer, who wrote the music scores for many films including The Lion King, Gladiator, and Pirates of the Caribbean. This synthesised sound can be activated to change the mood of the drive, from a relaxing cruise to a sporty, engaging blast of energy.  

Similarly, in fine dining, the process of acquiring caviar is one that involves so many finer details before it even hits your plate. A sturgeon (whose eggs are what forms caviar) takes 10-15 years to actually come of egg-producing age, before those eggs are even ready for harvesting. 

When the eggs reach the hands of restaurants like Caviar, it’s then up to chefs to manage how much of it goes into each dish they prepare. Make no mistake — every gram used makes a difference, and laying it out is such a micro skill that requires precision like a surgeon. 

Every step counts when considering what goes into a fine dining dish, similar to the way every step counts when putting together a luxury vehicle like the BMW i7. 

The continuing quest to improve and keep up a sustainable production chain has resulted in BMW refining its operating processes. The automaker uses green energy in its production plants, and the motors in BMW i7, for example, are synchronous motors that use an electrical field to spin the main rotor rather than fixed, permanent magnets. This system allows the rotors to be manufactured without the use of rare earth metals, which are a very limited natural resource.

But back to the food, adding value to the ‘fine’ in ‘fine-dining’, Chef Dannel curates from start to finish the quality that goes into his dishes, whilst maintaining an experience for diners with as low a carbon footprint as possible, exhibiting the level of attention to detail that goes into an experience like one at Caviar.

This trip to explore Caviar concludes our video series with BMW on sustainable motoring and dining. From a farm in the heart of Kranji, to Asia’s first plant-based butcher, then to an urban farm up in the sky (51 floors to be exact), and finally under the sea to Caviar, these restaurants are proof that it’s possible to enjoy a curated take on the dining experience in an eco-friendly way. Plus — you can do it all in a vehicle that’s just as sustainable.

Find out more about the BMW i7 at www.bmw.com.sg now!

This story is brought to you by BMW.

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