Thursday, April 5, 2012

Savour 2012: Come celebrate the delicious

I am not even going to pretend like I am an expert at gourmet food products and chi-chi restaurants, but attending Savour did assist in helping me turn up that notch by a tiny bit. Big thanks to R for the impromptu date + early afternoon excitement as we dashed from class to class (hits & misses) and Fish for the late afternoon entertainment (ice cold cider was very much welcomed in the sweltering heat).

And because I am in a terribly lazy mood, here is a summary of the inaugural event from the website itself:

"The SAVOUR concept is a first of its kind in Singapore, with a philosophy to unite the finest food and drink with a plethora of expert master classes, live demonstrations, fun workshops and culinary shopping, in an event that is accessible to all. Within one purpose-built venue, one can find an alfresco Gourmet Village teeming with award-winning restaurants helmed by celebrity chefs, a bespoke indoor Gourmet Auditorium complete with a state-of-the-art kitchen where culinary master classes are held, and a Gourmet Market that boasts an international showcase of artisan food and drink exhibitors."

Now, on to the pictures (only had my IXUS 100 then, so pardon me!)

Gourmet Village - where you eat

Somersby Apple Cider
Pranced around the tents under the mid-day sun. Heat was close to unbearable. Which made the Somersby Apple Cider (from Sweden) soooo appealing. $9 per bottle. Gulped it down towards the end of the event. Thanks Fish for the treat!
Looks like Somersby Cider (brewed by Carlsberg) is engaging in some really intense marketing. I now see them by the troves at NTUC. Easy drink as its really light (4.7% vol alc) and has 15% real apple fruit juice. Sweet! Best served over ice.

Fragrant Steamed Yellow Pumpkin Rice: with XO sausages and pan-seared foie gras in sweet port wine sauce by Sam Leong (Forest @ RWS).
Best dish that we tried (Thanks R). Pumpkin was so evenly steamed and the rice was really fragrant and tasty.Not an advocator of foie gras but I did try a piece. Yummy, but again, I wouldn't buy anything with foie gras on my own accord :P
The 福 print on the pumpkin skin was kinda cool (and pretty) too.

Menage-A-Trois: Scallop mousse, green tea smoked salmon and soy mirin marinated ikura, sous-vide ocean trout, steamed bulot, micro basil and rouille dressing; sushi rice croquette, spanner crab, salmon sashimi and edamame puree by Chef Emmanuel Stroobant (St Pierre).
Woah.. hang on a second. All that in those 3 petite pieces? See, thats why there are times I can never understand chi-chi food. Didn't even know there was a riot of flavours going on there till i typed it out. Also, warm raw salmon didn't really go down well with me. I only ordered it because it was the cheapest thing on the St Pierre's menu (15 Savour Dollars) + I became a fan of the Chef after emerging from his class just minutes before. He is a funny guy.
Cod 2.0 For All Your Senses: Cod brandade flavoured with 'dashi' stock and served with cod skin crackers by Chef Hans Valimaki (Chez Dominique - Finland, 2 Michelin stars).
Fish was dashing around preying on dishes with cod in it (please don't ask me why) and happily trotted back to our table with this. Cod was done just right, nice and flaky, but I especially liked the green barley-like bits underneath it.
Potato and Malt: Sea buckthorn potato ice cream with malt by Chef Hans Valimaki (again).
Quite and ingenious desert! We had 2 of it. The Sea Buckthorn Potato Ice Cream was covered with a thin layer of white choc (love it). The crunchy bits at the side also provided contrast with the smooth cool layers of ice cream. Thumbs up.

Gourmet Auditorium -where you learn

Only managed to attend 1 Masterclass during our 4 hours at the event. Thankfully, it was an entertaining one by Chef Emmanuel Stroobant of St Pierre (nope, never been there before) who could really consider switching career from a chef to a stand-up comedian. His sidekick sous chef (young dude from OZ) complemented his show really well too.

As you can see, I was just wowed by his showmanship and not particularly by the dishes. In fact, I can't even remember what they were except for the fact that foie gras was the main ingredient used and since I don't forsee myself buying any fattened diseased liver in this life (those poor ducks/geese, seriously), I decided to just be entertained by his antics.

Gourmet Market
- where you nibble for free

Held within the F1 pit building itself, R and I managed to spend a good 20 minutes downing wines from all over the world at the free wine-tasting session. Mixing champagne, sauvignon blanc, Moscato, Merlot, desert wines in an empty tummy at 12pm was no joke! We then sauntered to the cheese appreciation class, but got turned away as the class was already fully packed (we were on time!!) and ended up at a random Tomato (Rougeline nonetheless) cooking class by Jimmy Chok. Had to rush off (before food tasting, grr) for the Artisan Bread Making by Jason Tan of Nick Vina. Helpful tips!

Cold Storage's Three Sixty (flagship store @ ION) took up an entire section too with free food tasting (cheese, wine, wangyu beef, carviar...). All premium products! I had a whale of a time going around the cheese section. My weak spot.
Didn't think much of the Iberico Ham from Spain though.


Albeit $43 poorer (that is how much a Saturday afternoon session ticket costs), I still hope that Savour would be back next year!

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