Kitchen Collective Dining Series

Food adventures await as more overseas guest chefs flock to Singapore for collaborations.

Kitchen Collective, a Visa-sponsored dining series, features prominent chefs from one-Michelin-starred establishments cooking at local restaurants over the next three months. 

Until Saturday, Thai chef Tam Chudaree Debhakam of Bangkok’s Baan Tepa is cooking at Qin Restaurant & Bar (call 6980-3535 or go to qin.com.sg) at The Clan Hotel Singapore.

She and Qin’s executive chef James Tay will offer a nine-course dinner ($260++) featuring dishes such as fresh crab tossed in Thai curry and crab roe, suckling pig and Baan Tepa’s signature Dong Dang rice noodles in squid ink. 

Next up is a Sicilian affair at Conrad Singapore Orchard’s Italian restaurant Basilico (call 6725-3232) on July 5 and 6.  

Italian chef Nino Ferreri of Limu restaurant in Sicily’s Bagheria city will be working with Basilico’s chef Valerio Pierantonelli. 

Among the choices of main courses for lunch ($88++) are carnaroli rice simmered in clarified tomato broth with red prawn crude, capers, olives and basil; Mediterranean fish fillet cooked in a Sicilian sea salt crust; and braised wagyu in Marsala wine sauce, summer black truffles and seasonal vegetables.

For dinner ($168++), the rice dish is part of the meal, while diners can choose one of the latter two dishes as their main. 

Dessert for both meals features a Sicilian nectarine confit in extra virgin olive oil, almond cremeux and rose and Tahitian vanilla gelato. 

Other collaborations in the pipeline are French chef Arnaud Dunand Sauthier of Bangkok’s Maison Dunand, who will be hosted at Riviera restaurant at One Fullerton from Aug 29 to 31; and Hong Kong’s chef Cheng Kam Fu of The Demon Celebrity restaurant, who is cooking at Tung Lok Signatures at Orchard Rendezvous Hotel from Sept 25 to 27. 

Visa Infinite cardmembers get 15 per cent off the guest chef menus, while all other Visa cardmembers get 10 per cent off.

Info: Go to kitchencollective.sg

Cantonese classics at Goodwood Park Hotel 

After a successful run in 2022, Chinese restaurant Min Jiang’s showcase of Cantonese classics is back. 

It returns with gourmet ambassador Moses Lim and guest chef Chan Kwok, who was formerly from Orchard Hotel Singapore’s Hua Ting restaurant. 

New to the event are veteran chefs Yim Yiu Wing (former executive chef of the now-defunct China Club) and Cheng Hon Chau (formerly from Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant in Sheraton Towers), working alongside Min Jiang’s chefs Chan Hwan Kee and Ho Chee Hee. 

Like the previous edition, the menu features nostalgic dishes that are extremely labour-intensive and therefore rarely served in restaurants. 

Two set menus are available for lunch and dinner – either six ($138 each for a minimum of four people) or eight courses ($168 each for a minimum of eight people). On July 13, only the $168 menu will be available for dinner. 

Highlights of the six-course menu include baked stuffed crab shell and roasted Silver Hill Irish duck with sliced mango by chefs Ho and Chan Kwok. 

A popular dish served at wedding banquets in the 1960s and 1970s, it features handpicked Sri Lankan crab meat combined with onions and shiitake mushrooms in a bechamel-like cream sauce and baked in a crab shell till golden brown.

Another nostalgic favourite is Mr Lim’s crispy wontons with pork and seafood, inspired by his memory of savouring wontons dipped in sweet and sour sauce at Hong Kong cha chaan teng. 

Here, the dish is elevated with an Iberico char siew filling instead of the usual ground pork or shrimp. 

The $168 menu includes steamed diced chicken in a pomegranate-shaped egg white parcel filled with seasonal greens and topped with crab roe and a fragrant stock, by chefs Yim and Chan Kwok. 

Another duck delight is the wok-fried crispy Silver Hill Irish duck by chefs Ho and Chan Hwan Kee.

The duck is steamed for two hours before the tender meat is topped with a layer of mashed taro. Each piece is then fried till the exterior is crispy.  

Where: Min Jiang, Goodwood Park Hotel, 22 Scotts Road
MRT: Orchard
When: July 13 to 20, 11.30am to 1.30pm, 6.30 to 8pm
Tel: 6730-1704
Info: Go to goodwoodparkhotel.com/dining

$150 lunch omakase at Sushi Sato 

While $150 for an omakase lunch is not the cheapest in Singapore, the one served at upmarket Japanese restaurant Sushi Sato offers pretty good value for money.

The starting price for lunch is usually $220, while dinner prices range from $380 to $580. 

The cheaper option is also a sign that fancy omakase restaurants are slowly but surely making their offerings a tad more accessible for those looking to have a luxe meal for less. 

The flow of the meal remains the same as the $220 option. Both start with an appetiser and chawanmushi, followed by sushi, an uni and ikura rice bowl, as well as soup and dessert.

The main difference is that the $220 menu has 10 pieces of sushi – three more than the $150 menu, plus an extra negitoro handroll. 

Ingredients may change according to the season, but that is part of the fun of leaving it up to the chef.

My lunch experience starts with a refreshing yuba appetiser, and continues with skilfully moulded pieces of sushi featuring sweet botan ebi, kinmedai (golden eye snapper) and otoro (fatty tuna). 

Dessert is seasonal fruit – I get a slice of orange and cherry – and housemade chewy warabi mochi. 

This $150 lunch is served at the restaurant’s private dining room, which seats up to six diners. So, if you gather five more friends, you get the space to yourself without any additional spending required.

Where: Sushi Sato, 6B Dempsey Road
MRT: Napier
When: Till Sept 30, noon to 3pm, Tuesdays to Sundays
Tel: 8380-3830
Info: sushi-sato.com