SINGAPORE - There is no need to travel to what is considered one of the most remote foodie destinations.
The team from two-Michelin-starred Koks restaurant in Leynavatn, Faroe Islands - the Danish territory between Iceland and Norway - will be coming to Singapore instead.
It will run a pop-up from Jan 23 to Feb 18 next year at Grand Hyatt Singapore's Grand Salon event venue.
It features a show kitchen and can seat 30 diners for lunch and 45 for dinner. Prices start at $228++ for lunch and $458++ for dinner. Wine pairing is available at an additional $148++ for lunch and $248++ for dinner.
Priority booking starts from Tuesday (Dec 7) for American Express' premium card members. Members of the public can register their interest on the same day to be on the waiting list and public bookings start from Dec 14.
Koks, which opened in 2011, is helmed by executive chef Poul Andrias Ziska, 31, who has worked at Michelin-starred restaurants Geranium in Denmark and Mugaritz in Spain. This is his first visit to Singapore, together with six core team members.
The month-long pop-up coincides with the closure of the 26-seat restaurant, which operates only from March to November.
During the downtime, the team usually takes a break and does pop-ups overseas, says chef Ziska in a Zoom interview with The Straits Times.
While Singapore's bustling city is far from the rugged and wild North Atlantic landscape of the islands, he hopes to showcase the best of new Nordic cuisine with sustainably sourced ingredients and local traditions of wind-drying, pickling, curing, smoking and fermenting.
Expect signatures such as langoustine roll, fermented ocean perch with fermented lamb intestines and cheese, and cod fillet with fermented cabbage and caviar.
While here, the team will also tweak its existing dishes to feature Asian ingredients.
He says: "The pop-up has to go both ways. It is important for me to show what we do in the Faroe Islands and we also want to explore what Singapore has.
"It's exciting to travel, meet new people and see new restaurants and produce. You always learn something on these trips."
After the pop-up, Koks will resume operations back home in March, along with its new sister restaurant Roks, which opens the same month in the Faroe Islands' capital of Torshavn. The latter is a more casual outfit that started as a pop-up last year to cater to locals.
The arrival of Koks in Singapore follows other high-profile chef residencies here, including France's Mirazur and the ongoing Gaggan Anand at Mandala Club.
The Koks pop-up kicks off a gourmet series brought to Singapore by Chef Residence, a new platform helmed by United States-based chief culinary officer Michael Goldman, who organises such dining events globally.
On bringing Koks here, Mr Goldman went through considerations such as how the food resonates with local diners, unique elements of the location and whether an environment can be created for chefs to execute a dining experience.
He says: "We want local guests to discover the cuisine of high-profile restaurants without having to travel far, while chefs and their teams get to discover new places and learn about ingredients and techniques from local chefs who help them during their residency."
Chef Residence Presents Koks runs from Jan 23 to Feb 18 next year (2022) at Grand Hyatt Singapore, 10 Scotts Road. Priority booking starts from Dec 7 for American Express' premium card members. Members of the public can register their interest from Dec 7 to be on the waiting list and public bookings start from Dec 14. Go to this website.
