How It Started
European tourists created a demand for food they wre used to, and hotel retail outlets began offering French, Dutch and German food and Japanese food.
What is Special
The high standards of the kitchen culture and the range of cooking methods aroused an interest in local cooks who became accepted as professionals as they enhanced the range of the cooking techniques. Previously cooking was considered a menial task.
How it Developed
Contemporary European cuisine began to take root only in the 1990s, being preceded by English food cooked in the Anglo-Hainanese style, and Italian food came to be accepted by locals.
While the older generations of Singaporeans (i.e. those born before WW 2) did not eat so much meat, the generations after them began to accept a predominantly meat diet with chicken, pork, beef steaks as the most commonly requested items. These meats were accompanied by salad and soup as starters, ending with tea or coffee and a dessert.
From the year 2000, wine pairings became more popular.
The emphasis in SHATEC was in western cooking abd backing as reflected in Rosette.Hence many of the SHATEC graduates have run the chef centric cafes.
ontinental food (in Singapore) seems to refer only to the French style of cooking, with Italian going on its own momentum. However to justify the term “continental” restaurants offer German food (menu ) and British food (menu….)
What is memorable?
1) The introduction of creamy soup into the Singapore meal experience . Le Coq has a lot of cream of mushroom, tomato, asparagus soups, and cream of soups like Crab Okra, Clear Oxtail, Onion, Dutch Pea, Consomme, Chicken Noodle and Mulligatawny.
2) The acceptance of eating large chunks of meat – beef, chicken, lamb, mutton, pork and salmon.
Previously only shredded pieces of meat were eaten with rice . The Derby lists the weight of a fillet of beef as 250 gms and salmon as 300 gms.
3) The availability of salads aspect of the meal. Salads include Garden, Casesar Doc Greens specialises in salads.
The use of different types of cutlery at different parts of meal
eg. The butter knife
the soup spoon
the steak knife
the fish knife
the teaspoon
the dessert spoon
the cake fork
The roasts viz. chicken, pork knuckle have become popular in their own right to become mass distribution items in supermarket.
Cured meat and sausage have become delicatessen items sold at supermarkets and other outlets.
Pairing of wine and food has become a norm in certain restaurants.
Ref. Get Paired Up – Sunday Times 19 Oct 2008.
Food styles developed in Europe flowed in and were adapted by local chefs Examples include Cuinsine Naturelle where ingredients must be fresh, presentation should have an untouched appearance with a balance of flavours and features. The philosophy behind Cusine Naturelle is to intensively cook ingredients, extracting maximum flavour naturally for the thick stock base.
Brasserie Tatle’s Cuisine Naturelle signature dishese were steamed Chicken Supreme and Bistrow Style Prawns.
Classical is reflected in Le Coq d’Or with chateaubriand Coq d’Or
(for 2), Beef Wellington (for 6) and Balmoral Brasserie.
The serving of duck, western style, was innovated by the Drake Restaurant. The first restaurant to bring in tapas was Claymore Café. Even the first Spanish Café, El Patio had only two Spanish dishes ciz Estotado De Ternera and Pollo A L’Art.
Restoran D’Nolasco claims to be “Portunguese Cuisine at its best” but what was served has come to be known as “Eurasian food”.
A Polish fortnight gives a brief taste of the food.
Continental food has been subjected to the common touch with a Chefis Set Lunch and an Executive Set Lunch in Mimolette.
