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Seaside Foraging and Eurasian Cuisine
Manage episode 421711769 series 3476396
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MasterChef Singapore judge Damian D’Silva grew up by the sea and spent many happy hours foraging for horseshoe crabs, shellfish and sea snails that would end up in the cooking pot. In this episode, he talks about how his childhood and grandfather influenced his cooking philosophy, when he found his calling in the kitchen (later than you'd expect), and what's left for him after winning the prestigious culinary award La Liste.
Chef Damian D’Silva is a judge on MasterChef Singapore and the first Singaporean to be awarded the prestigious culinary prize Artisan & Authenticity Award 2024 from La Liste, a French ranking and restaurants guide. An advocate for local culinary heritage, he helms Rempapa, a multicultural restaurant serving dishes from the ethnicities in Singapore.
What Damian Talked About
02:15 – Why Damian chose to cook sea snail and papaya curry on From Book to Cook
04:26 – Foraging in the sea and on land
07:46 – His fascination with Western culture and food as a teenager
08:28 – The Malay and Peranakan version of the sea snail and papaya curry dish
08:50 – His experience of growing up in a community with different ethnicities
10:09 – Foraging for horseshoe crabs and cooking them
12:32 – About his grandfather, who had the greatest influence on Damian’s cooking journey
14:20 – The difference between a cook and a chief
18:01 – When Damian found out that cooking is his calling
20:26 – Why heritage cuisine is important
22:45 – How Eurasian cuisine is unique
25:23 – What’s next for Damian D’Silva after winning the Artisan & Authenticity Award 2024 from La Liste
27:53 – Why he has not written a cookbook
29:18 – The hardest thing about being a chef
32:28 – The one thing Damian would rather buy than make on his own
34:06 – Food is…
Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/sea-foraging-eurasian-cuisine/transcript
Watch Damian make sea snail and papaya curry: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/videos/sea-snail-papaya-curry/
Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore: https://form.gov.sg/616799db4d9b61001398f79b
This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by One Dash. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Damian for coming on the show.
BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.
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