Kita Food Festival in Singapore 

It is peak guest chef and bartender season, with several foodie events held in Singapore in October. 

The International Chefs Summit Asia – an industry event celebrating chefs – concluded on Wednesday.

It will be guest shifts galore at bars from this weekend in the lead-up to The World’s 50 Best Bars ceremony at Pasir Panjang Power Station next Tuesday. 

Following this is the return of the Singapore leg of the annual Kita Food Festival – a series of dining events held across the Republic.

There are several chef collaborations to pick from.

They include dinners ($328 a person) at the one-Michelin-starred Marguerite restaurant at Gardens by the Bay on Oct 19 and 20, featuring Marguerite’s chef Michael Wilson and acclaimed Indian chef Prateek Sadhu, formerly of Mumbai’s Masque Restaurant. 

Another highlight is the six-hands dinners ($328 a person) at Fiz restaurant in Tanjong Pagar on Oct 20 and 21, which showcase the influences of India’s culinary heritage on the Malay Peninsula. 

It brings together Fiz’s chef-owner Hafizzul Hashim, chef Ivan Brehm of one-Michelin-starred Nouri, and guest chef Deepanker Khosla from one-Michelin-starred Haoma restaurant in Bangkok. 

For a more casual option, the Big Sunday Barbecue ($108 a person) at Raw Kitchen Bar in Kampong Bugis sees eight chefs – paired into four teams – for an epic grill-out on Oct 22. 

They include Marcus Tan of Fool Wine Bar, Fariz Ramli of modern Indian grill restaurant Revolver and David Tang of American grill restaurant Rosemead. 

The festival finale on Oct 23 offers food for thought with Kita Conversations ($99 a person) – an ongoing dialogue on topics such as food production, history and consumption in South-east Asia. 

Held at The Projector in Beach Road, the line-up of speakers includes chef-author Will Goldfarb from Ubud’s Room4Dessert restaurant and local author Khir Johari, notably of The Food Of Singapore Malays: Gastronomic Travels Through The Archipelago (2021). 

After Singapore, the festival heads to its final stop in Kuala Lumpur from Oct 26 to 30. 

Where: Various locations
MRT: Various
When: Oct 19 to 23, various times
Info: For the full programme and to buy tickets, go to kitafoodfestival.com

Yan’s autumn menu

Never mind that Singapore does not have four seasons. Cantonese restaurant Yan’s autumn menu fits the country’s temperamental weather just right. 

Several ingredients in the dishes are those traditionally used to fortify the body for the cooler months. And with the recent hazy weather, I think they are most nourishing. 

There is a selection of a la carte dishes, but for best value, I recommend the six-course set menu ($138++ a person, minimum two to dine). 

The star dish is a mini Buddha Jumps Over The Wall soup, a comforting double-boiled broth with three-head abalone, sea cucumber, mushroom, pig’s tendons, shredded conpoy and ginseng.

On the a la carte menu, the same portion is priced at $78++. 

After serving, the abalone is removed to be prepared a second way for added flavour – braised with a mixture of oyster sauce and shrimp roe, and served with broccoli.

Other highlights from the set include the crispy half quail and stewed Ipoh hor fun topped with hairy crab meat, roe and vegetables. 

Standout dishes from the a la carte menu include the steamed eel with minced garlic and shredded mandarin peel ($20 for 100g, order one day in advance); and pan-fried venison steak – a nod to serving deer in Hong Kong in the old days during the autumn game season. 

Where: Yan, 05-02 National Gallery Singapore, 1 St Andrew’s Road
MRT: City Hall
When: Till Oct 31, 11.30am to 2.30pm, 6 to 10.30pm daily
Tel: 6384-5585
Info: yan.com.sg

La Dame de Pic’s new chef and menu 

One-Michelin-starred French restaurant La Dame de Pic by famed chef Anne-Sophie Pic – which opened at the Raffles Singapore hotel in 2019 – has a new chef in charge here. 

Chef de cuisine Alexandre Alves Pereira, 33, a Frenchman of Portuguese descent, first met Pic in 2019 when she mentored him for the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition in October 2021. He won the regional leg representing north-west Europe.

As head chef of La Dame de Pic – Le 1920, which opened in May 2021 in Megeve, France, he led the restaurant to its first Michelin star eight months later.

Prior to his arrival in Singapore in July, he developed the current menu alongside Pic in her home town of Valence. 

There are two menus – Experience ($248++) and Elegance ($348++). 

Highlights across both menus include the restaurant’s signature berlingot dish – its pasta spin on the pyramid-shaped hard candy never disappoints. 

This season’s version features mushrooms – Japanese white maitake and shimeji, and bluefoot from France – served with a mushroom consomme with ginger and Indonesian vanilla bean. 

For the meat mains on both menus, you can choose between the pigeon with a mild green curry of laksa leaves, mint and pistachio, and gyoza stuffed with confit leg and offal; and pork rack with hojicha, passionfruit and white miso with confit and fermented carrots. 

The combination of flavours for both proteins works well, although I would have loved to taste more of the laksa leaves and hojicha in respective dishes. 

In the Elegance menu, which features more dishes, the standout course is the flavour-packed ebi chawanmushi, where the delicate egg custard is made with a stock infused with dried shrimp and topped with botan ebi, sakura ebi, kiwi, cucumber, marigold and tarragon. 

Mixed beverage pairings are available (from $98++), offering a good balance of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Or splash out for alcohol pairings (from $188++) that include private labels from Pic’s collaboration with Rhone Valley vineyards. 

Where: La Dame de Pic, Raffles Singapore, 1 Beach Road
MRT: City Hall/Esplanade
Open: Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 1.30pm (last seating); Tuesdays to Saturdays, 6.30 to 8.30pm (last seating); closed on Sundays and Mondays
Tel: 6412-1185
Info: ladamedepic.com.sg