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Singaporeans are a well travelled lot. With amazing connectivity out of Changi, not to mention really good airfare deals, folks living here travel far and wide. Many go abroad to try new restaurants and cuisines. Some go to near-insane lengths to dine well.
But of course it isn’t always necessary to fly out of Singapore for great food. Occasionally, we get lucky: apart from home grown culinary talent (Of which there is plenty), there are also chefs and restauranteurs of international acclaim who have come here.
I’m not talking about celebrity chefs who fly in, setup a fancy restaurant with their name and brand, then fly out. Few in that category have invested the time and effort to make their foreign outposts anything as memorable as the original. I am referring to another category altogether: a growing number of top chefs who have decided to make Singapore their base.
A good example of the latter would be David Pynt and his restaurant here, Burnt Ends. The buzz had already begun to build up before Burnt Ends opened in Singapore. Mr Pynt's pop-up restaurant in London in 2012, named Burnt Enz, had already generated a lot of excitement. A quick Google search of “Burnt Enz” will generate a whole lot of hits, with many raving about the wonderful barbeque served up at this pop-up restaurant.
Mr Pynt had also spent time at Asador Etxebarri, where chef Victor Arguinzoniz had done amazing things with barbeque. I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations (Series 5, episode 7) where Bourdain visited Etxebarri and sampled some of the amazing things that chef Victor did with his custom grilll. And Etxebarri is featured again in his latest season of Parts Unknown. I suspect Mr Pynt learnt a thing or two about barbeque during his stint there.
But of course it isn’t always necessary to fly out of Singapore for great food. Occasionally, we get lucky: apart from home grown culinary talent (Of which there is plenty), there are also chefs and restauranteurs of international acclaim who have come here.
I’m not talking about celebrity chefs who fly in, setup a fancy restaurant with their name and brand, then fly out. Few in that category have invested the time and effort to make their foreign outposts anything as memorable as the original. I am referring to another category altogether: a growing number of top chefs who have decided to make Singapore their base.
A good example of the latter would be David Pynt and his restaurant here, Burnt Ends. The buzz had already begun to build up before Burnt Ends opened in Singapore. Mr Pynt's pop-up restaurant in London in 2012, named Burnt Enz, had already generated a lot of excitement. A quick Google search of “Burnt Enz” will generate a whole lot of hits, with many raving about the wonderful barbeque served up at this pop-up restaurant.
Mr Pynt had also spent time at Asador Etxebarri, where chef Victor Arguinzoniz had done amazing things with barbeque. I watched an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations (Series 5, episode 7) where Bourdain visited Etxebarri and sampled some of the amazing things that chef Victor did with his custom grilll. And Etxebarri is featured again in his latest season of Parts Unknown. I suspect Mr Pynt learnt a thing or two about barbeque during his stint there.
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