The Singapore culinary team
Text by Lorraine Koh @ Makansutra.
The Singapore National Culinary Team brings home another gold medal,
beating 14 other countries to take home the title at the International
Food Fair 2012 but does it matter if you haven’t heard about it?
“Unfortunately, the local media does not give as much attention to a win
from the Singapore National Culinary Team as they do other food news,”
says Chef Tony Khoo, team manager for this year’s Culinary Team.
Held in Korea, this is the first time that the Singapore National
Culinary team is winning gold in the Restaurant of the Provinces
category. This award is one of the many top place winnings that teams
comprising of local chefs from Singapore restaurants have won in recent
years.
Some examples include the Team winning gold at the Expogast Culinary World Cup 2010, an industry event held in Luxembourg.
There is also the once-in-every-six-year Salon Culinaire Mondial event
held in Basel, Switzerland. Our national team was crowned overall
champions at this prestigious event beating traditional giants such as
Switzerland, Canada and France in the overall rankings.
Over the years, it has resulted in some recognition among international peers at industry competitions.
“Whenever the Singapore team are in an overseas competition, more of the
spotlight and media attention is focused on us these days because they
know that we will usually deliver above average results,” says Chef
Tony.
Unfortunately bringing in Michelin Star chefs into Singapore seem to
create more buzz that our culinary national teams winning the big time. A
stark contrast to the excitement generated by Singapore sports national
teams like badminton, table tennis and football.
But Chef Tony is not sour. He is happy with Michelin Star chefs because
they add to the vibrancy of the culinary scene in Singapore.
Eric Chua, Sous Chef of Unilever Food Solutions and one of the Culinary
Team this year feels that these competitions help elevate Singapore, a
little island, to greater heights in the eyes of the global culinary
scene.
“Even in Singapore, being the winner means you get more people and fans
coming to your restaurant. In competitions, competitors will start to
keep a look out for you and this will make you work even harder creating
exciting new dishes for competitions which in turn inspire dishes in
our own restaurants,” he added.
Prior to 2012’s International Food Fair, the team trained for six months, to refine their culinary prowess and innovation.
Team captain Chan Tuck Wai said that they decided to cook pork, instead
of the usual beef or lamb in order to show a real contrast of textures
caused by braising but then also roasting the meat to get the perfect
crunchy crackling.
The winning menu included an appetiser of scallop flan with shellfish
emulsion, lychee-crab beignet (fritter), seared king crab on leek fondue
and smoked milk foam.
The main course that the team presented was roasted pork loin, glazed
pork rack, braised pork cheek and belly croquette, apple-celeriac
gratin, horseradish espuma (foam) and sauce porto (a sauce flavoured
with port wine).
It was finished off with a wild strawberry consommé jelly and a yuzu (citrus fruit) in a crispy meringue dome.
The food they presented is not something Singaporeans typically consume, which begs the question, why not local dishes?
“We do incorporate some local elements in certain competitions if the
criteria allowed it. However, we normally try to incorporate the local
produce in whichever country we compete in so that limits our choices,”
says Chef Eric.
Chef Tony adds, “A good majority of us are trained in western food so we
do what is best, and I think that’s what’s important, doing our best.”
