Dishing up a better world
I was in Singapore recently for the Worldchefs Congress and Expo, which gathered 5,000 chefs from over a hundred countries, members of the hospitality service sector and companies that cater to their needs. Worldchefs must be to food what the Venice Biennale is to art, or the Frankfurt Book Fair is to books. How appropriate to organize this in a city people visit just to eat!
In the face of a planet with an increasingly unstable climate and economic challenges, it is heartening to see people from across varied industries, disciplines and the creative sector make an effort to stem this tide of disaster. Fashion is recycling, upcycling and using more sustainable methods to clothe the world. Cars are going hybrid or electric. Increasingly, energy is being sourced from the sun, the wind and water.
The food industry that sustains the world has also contributed greatly to its carbon footprint, among other ills. But the Worldchef movement aims to eradicate as much of that as it can in five days of talks on food trends, cooking demos and competitions.
Every day we gained a deeper understanding of the directions in which the ever-evolving food industry is moving to address issues of sustainability, health and the mental issues confronting chefs who work in such a pressure-filled environment.
Unilever, one of the world’s largest food manufacturers and whose brands are household names, is concerned with many contradictions. Two billion people suffer from obesity while nearly a billion don’t have enough to eat. Likewise, in a starving world, so much food goes to waste and in many cases, the way it is produced is depleting our dwindling resources.
To this end, Unilever believes that “the world’s food system needs to change,” that all should have access to good nutrition and be encouraged to eat more plant-based meals. Thus, the Future Menus 2024 was held at the Marina Bay Sands convention center, demonstrating the chefs’ take on four particular food trends with a Culinary Infinity table. This was beautifully decorated to show a range of terrains and laden with delicious samples prepared by four Unilever Food Solutions chefs from the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
UFS Philippines’ country marketing manager Monica Reyes welcomed chefs and media from around the globe to an interactive food tasting to explore the trends “New Ways for Low Waste,” “Flavor Shock,” “Local Abundance” and “Modernized Comfort Food.”
UFS Philippines executive chef Kenneth Cacho showed us his take on the Flavor Shock trend through truffle balls with a cassava filling and roasted white chocolate filled with salted egg powder, decorated with edible flowers. The latter was a collab with one of my favorite chocolatiers, Christian Valdes, who has made a name for himself concocting other unusual and delicious chocolate pairings.
Eric Chua, UFS chef for Singapore, Vietnam and Cambodia, created spent grain focaccia for the Low Waste Menu trend, the spent grain having been formerly considered unusable. It is the byproduct from brewing that is actually nutrient- and fiber-rich.
UFS Indonesia chef Gun Gun Handayana treated guests at his Local Abundance station to a tempeh sando, showing how foraging for local ingredients is far more sustainable and rewarding, a treasure trove right at your doorstep.
For Modernized Comfort Food, UFS Thailand executive chef Jirajov “Pop” Navanukroh updated fish and chips with a salted egg mentai sauce which I plan to repeat at home. You simply make your favorite fish and chips recipe and mix mayonnaise with a little Unilever salted egg powder and sugar to serve on the side.
The other future trends that were discussed in the Worldchefs Congress included Plant-Powered Protein, The New Sharing, Irresistible Vegetables and Feel Good Food. Attendees were encouraged to make their menus increasingly plant-based. Meals meant for sharing can mean plenty of small plates and not just family-sized platters. Chefs were advised to create dishes that would revitalize health and energy.
For myself, the most interesting of all the talks focused on the high-pressure work of chefs that causes them to miss a lot of family time or stress out on their staff. Speakers encouraged their fellow chefs to work less, focus on creating memories with their families and to be more open-minded and flexible with their younger, Gen Z staff. You don’t need to be a chef to imbibe this valuable advice.
We also enjoyed delicious and innovative meals during our stay in Singapore, starting with dinner at White Label, a Halal restaurant offering French cuisine in a beautiful heritage structure. There was lunch at Roberta’s which was both an Italian restaurant and the gallery of Wasuka Art. At Seafood by the River, located along the colorful Boat Quay, we enjoyed lobster and lively banter. And I joined my cousin Angie Rosales and her husband Yeng for a yummy Peranakan meal at Violet Oon’s.
But at the end the day, my takeaway was more than my usual list of dishes to replicate at home. I thought about how God created an Earth full of riches to feed mind, body and soul. How saving the planet must be a united effort of both big corporations and individuals. We can all do our own part.
The best part?
This is food after all—a necessity to survival. We can make it delicious and healthy. We can use it to help and bless others. We can enjoy it, locally sourced and thoughtfully prepared, every single day because we must.
And guess what? We can turn it into a way to be the lifesavers of our planet.
