Gordon Ramsay hails Singapore’s culinary scene

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was in town for the first Marina Bay Sands Culinary Olympics at Bread Street Kitchen, the restaurant he opened in Singapore in 2015. His chefs are pictured with Steven Low Chee Wen (far left) and Foong Man Chung. Photo: Marina Bay Sands

The 50-year-old was in town yesterday for the first Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Culinary Olympics, held at Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen at MBS, which opened in 2015.

Ramsay was a member of the judging panel at the closed-door culinary competition, which saw food and beverage teams from MBS showcase their skills and creativity.

Ramsay — known for his signature fast-talking style on TV shows like Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef US — has previously visited Singapore in 2015 and 2013, when he lost to local hawkers after a night of hard work cooking dishes like chicken rice and laksa.

TODAY sat down with him to ask about Singapore’s food culture and where he thinks local chefs are headed.

Q: What’s your take on Singapore’s culinary talent and the local food scene?

A: I fell in love with Singapore in the 1990s when I used to go to cooking competitions at Raffles (Hotel) because it was a great place to be back then. After cooking at the grill there, I used to go to the hawker markets at 1am or 2am… Suddenly, fresh produce, live prawns and frogs, customers pointing out what they wanted to eat directly — I would be there until 4am or 5am, just chilling and eating until the sun came up. I think there are very few food cities in the world that are as exciting as this.

I did this challenge four years ago with local hawkers, I got my ass kicked. But it would be wrong for me to win — that would be insulting (to local chefs). I had a week of training (on dishes before the event) but these guys have generations of experience.

Q: What is your advice to Singaporean chefs? How do you think we can elevate the cuisine here?
A: We’re only three, four years away from seeing local chefs emerge. And once they do that, they have to do what we did — go and explore something new. Go to Kyoto for six months, go to Barcelona and see what a great tapas bar is like inside and use that knowledge — that knowledge. (They need to) understand another culture and come back.

There is definitely room for this new wave in Singapore. It’s just a matter of time. Also, local businesses would be foolish not to support and promote it.

Q: Chefs who open stores here sometimes find it difficult to work with local ingredients. How has Bread Street Kitchen managed that?

A: It would be foolish to fly in from London and ignore what’s going on locally… We work with artisan suppliers and one thing we (do is) provide a level of consistency with local suppliers… It’s up to the chef to capitalize on what’s going on locally.

We have a research and development team that’s on site six to nine months before we open, and we do that with every restaurant.

Q: In regards to the recent comments you made on Twitter about people’s food, you said you can easily tell if it’s good or not just by looking at it — can you talk about how you’re able to do that?

A: I’ve been spoiled. I think I have a great eye for detail, I don’t like bullshit… If I see something that looks like shit and they tell me it’s caramelized, you know, I’m going to go crazy.

For me, you know the truth. Don’t flood my social media with that bullshit… I do compliment. I have fun doing it. I’m like a sniffer dog — you know, the ones in the airport that go around sniffing your bags. That’s me on social media… I’ll tell you straight.