To celebrate its fourth anniversary this month, The Masses, a restaurant serving French-Asian food in Beach Road, has lined up four collaborations that will run from June to September. Chef-owner Dylan Ong wanted to collaborate with independent restaurants and restaurateurs. He tells The Sunday Times: “After the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the restaurant industry, this series of collaborations is our expression of solidarity with home-grown, independent F&B business owners.”
So on June 29, he will collaborate with chef Brandon Foo of French restaurant Le Bistrot du Sommelier; with chef Sunny Leong of natural wine bar Wine RVLT on July 28; with chef Daniel Surendran of appam stall Heavens on Aug 8 and 9; and with chef Jack Ding of Teochew restaurant Shao on September 28. Part of the proceeds from these collaborations will go to the Children’s Wishing Well, a nonprofit organisation which helps children and young people from low- income families.
Chef Ong, 33, says: “Even though people in Singapore are self-proclaimed food lovers, there are countless options around. It is virtually impossible to know or remember every restaurant that is worth visiting. Through cross-marketing and word-of-mouth, diners are more likely to retain information about places new to them. These restaurants stand a better chance of welcoming new guests.”
During the circuit breaker period, the restaurant collaborated with chef Surendran, 33, who runs Heavens, an appam stall in Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre. They came up with two versions of appam (pictured), a South Indian fermented rice pancake, which they filled with non-traditional ingredients. One featured prosciutto, mushroom and spinach ragout and a sous-vide egg; while the other had mimolette, aged parmesan and halloumi cheeses plus a runny egg.
Chef Ong says: “It was a huge success. We had guests try, for the first time, Suren’s sublime appam. Hype is great, but I’m more motivated by cultural exchanges like this one. “The collaboration also proved to me that hawker dishes deserve a spot on the restaurant table too.”
For the collaboration, chef Surendran trained staff at The Masses to make appam and supplied them with ingredients for the pancakes. He has no qualms about sharing his recipe. He says: “I believe our traditions can be kept alive only if we share. I don’t want to see appam die out in Singapore. Besides, I know it’s a tedious process, so realistically, I know I am not going to face too many competitors.”
That collaboration, he adds, brought awareness and publicity for Heavens, and younger customers started patronising the stall too. He says: “Over about three months, I spoke to about 50 customers who went to Heavens for appam after having them at The Masses. If I had time to speak to all customers, the number might have been higher.”
For their next collaboration, for brunch over National Day, he will be in the kitchen at The Masses, turning out the brunch items the two will dream up. Chef Leong, 31, of Wine RVLT, will be working on modern Asian dishes involving fermentation for his collaboration with The Masses. It will feature snacks and four or five courses. He will take to The Masses ingredients he has been fermenting for months – lemon kosho, honey-fermented blue ginger and pulot hitam rice wine. He will also introduce, for the first time, lentil tempeh that he is making. Tempeh is usually made with fermented soya beans.
Chef Ong says: “Pushing boundaries has helped us get to where we are, and my team and I are not stopping. We will carry on pitching a collaboration, planning and executing it. We will struggle at some points, for sure, but will emerge more mature in our thought processes and with even more experience to draw from in future. “We go home each evening wiser and sharper.”
