Hi Huneybees,
Last night was such an exhilarating night!
Gordon Ramsay's challenge with the
Singapore Hawker Heroes has finally happened and I was there to share the excitement.
Over the last few weeks, food bloggers, SingTel and Gordon Ramsay have had helped to generate over 2.5 million votes from Singaporeans as we were pondering over which of our local Hawker Heroes should go up against Hell Kitchen's Chef himself. It has once again put our Hawker food culture in the spotlight and the red dot on the map is once again in the news.
The results was a 2-1 win with Hawker Heroes' winning the Laksa and Chicken Rice, while Chef Ramsay won the Chilli Crab challenge.
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| Gordon Ramsay with his challengers - Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice, 328 Katong Laksa and Jumbo Seafood Restaurant |
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| Human JAM!!! |
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| I wanted to see Gordon's you are fired moment! |
Even though it was a huge hype, with tons of Singaporeans queuing up right from 1am, I was disappointed that I did not get to see the chefs in action though. It was more of a meet the celebrity moment than a food tasting challenge. All the food were already packed and it was not as though it was a blind tasting when the dishes are already labelled. It would have been more fun if the dishes were simply numbered.
Let me share more photos with you from last night before I pass a "verdict" ya ?
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| He has some cute chefs in the kitchent too! :) |
Gordon was friendly and a little weird to see a different side of him compared to the strict one that I always see on screen.
Excited fans who can't wait to try the dishes.
DJs - Peifen, The Muttons, Glenn Ong and Jean Danker were present to report LIVE.
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| Peifen preferred the local dishes more specifically the laksa and chicken rice. The grains of rice were distinct and she liked it that way. |
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| Jean finds it a tough one between the Chicken Rice and Chilli Crab. She likes the Chicken Rice chilli of the Hawker Heroes and Hawker Heroes wins hands down. |
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| Chef Ramsay's rendition of Hawker Food. |
When I tasted all 6 dishes, it was pretty clear to me that the Hawker Heroes were winning, with the Chicken Rice being a close call, a little difficult to judge on that. Chef Ramsay's version of Chicken Rice had fragrant rice and the chicken was tender. However, his chilli wasn't as good as it lacked the slight lime and spicy kick. It would be the best combination if he had Tian Tian's chilli with his rice and chicken meat.
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| Our very own Hawker Heroes' dishes. |
Couple Lee Chong Seng and Goh Li Fern were one of the first few to taste the dishes. They have both voted for the local Hawker Heroes' dishes, while sisters Valerie Chia and Vanessa Chia chose for Chef Ramsay dishes.
Clearly, Chef Ramsay has put in alot of thought in presenting his food as well as the use of ingredients. Portions of his servings were bigger, but my bewilderment comes from his win on the Chilli Crab and not the Chicken Rice. I've been asking around the whole night, even the DJs present, no one mentioned that they like Chef Ramsay's Chilli Crab. To me, the Chili Crab tasted more like Asam Crab, it lacked the Chilli Crab sweetness and weirdly there was a sourness to the sauce. So what caused the change in votes?
Well, according to Dr Leslie Tay, right after the results were announced, he spoke with KF Seetoh who in turn told him that Chef Ramsay had tweaked his recipe when he realized that he was lagging behind.
"I managed to taste his Chilli Crab at the end of the event and it was indeed quite different from the version he served earlier in the evening! It was much more balanced, spicier and less sweet than the Jumbo version. As an experienced competitor, he was aggressive and he knew the how to play the game. Not only did he changed his recipe mid-game, he also went around swaying voters." --- Dr Leslie Tay
I'm so disappointed that one of the Singapore signature dish (Chilli Crab) was not won by our Hawker Heroes. It is OUR dish and yet it was won by a foreigner who came in to learn the recipe within 3 days. I think it time that Jumbo Seafood re-look at their recipe and come up with a better rendition soon.
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| Grabbed a shot with Chef Ramsay only to find it blur with all the shoving from the crowd. Sigh... |
Ultimately, I'm hoping this sort of challenges could be held more often. Fly in Michelin Chefs from all over the world to challenge our local chefs and hopefully through the exchange, our quality of food will increase and maybe produce some Michelin Chefs ourselves?
More photos from last night's event can be found in
my album here.
