Arguably one of the biggest names in the food industry, Gordon Ramsay was in Singapore for SingTel’s HAWKER HEROES, and thanks to HungryGoWhere Malaysia (coming very soon, and I’m one of the contributors), Chris, WeiZhi, and I were fortunate enough to be invited to the event in Singapore.
Yes, we got to see Gordon Ramsay up close, and got a taste of his foods too.
crazy crowds at SingTel’s HAWKER HEROES
The challenge started with 10 short listed hawkers, and after public voting, three finalists were chosen to represent Singapore hawker foods and goes up against Ramsay. The poll gathered some 2.5 million votes online, so yah, it was a big deal.
The voted representatives were
- Ryan Koh of 328 Katong Laksa (316,611 votes)
- Ang Kiam Meng from Jumbo Seafood Restaurant (319,922 votes)
- Foo Kui Lian from Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice (318,151 votes)
So it was laksa, Singapore chili crab, and chicken rice. Ramsay then visited the hawkers and spent 3 days learning how to cook these dishes before the challenge on Sunday night, 7/7/2013.
Gordon Ramsay and the hawkers from 328 Katong laksa,
Jumbo Seafood, and Tian Tian chicken rice
The crowd was huge at Newton Food Court, we heard that there were some people who lined up for a food ticket (limited to 1000 servings) a day prior. Thank goodness for people from SingTel we got media passes. 😀
The scene was pretty intense, loads and loads of people at the smallish venue. Chef Ramsay somehow managed to spent a few minutes meeting the people in the media area, but each time was perhaps a few minutes only. No such chance as taking a photo with, but we were super lucky and got something (more of that later)
the dishes, both from Ramsay (top) and the hawkers (bottom)
The dishes were served in 6 plastic containers, understandable since they had to prepare 1000 portions. One side were the chili crab, laksa, and chicken rice from the hawkers, the other side were from Ramsay and his team after 3 days’ intense learning session.
I was pretty excited getting to taste something from him and see how it stack up against the best from Singapore.
Chris from PureGlutton, Wei Zhi of kampungboycitygal, and yours truly
My thought before the tasting was that the one ingredient that is most familiar for Gordon Ramsay is probably crabs, and hence Singapore Chili Crab would be his best bet, and in either case, the competition won’t end up in a clean sweep either way.
Here are my verdicts on the dishes after tasting them:
- Chicken Rice – I really like how smooth Ramsay managed to make the chicken breast tastes, but the rice from Tian Tian was more moist and nicer, and as for chili sauce, Tian Tian’s version was clearly superior, Ramsay’s version tasted like it had too much vinegar. I chose Tian Tian over Ramsay but it was close.
- Laksa – I tried Ramsay’s laksa and thought it was pretty good, and then I had a taste of 328 Katong’s and it turned out even better! Though both dishes had similarly well executed ingredients (prawns, fish paste etc), the soup from 328 was that much better. More sour and had a better kick than the more lemak version from Ramsay’s camp.
- Chili Crab – Again, the crab itself were both excellent. As for the sauce, Jumbo’s version was very familiar – sweet & slightly spicy, and chunky with eggs. Ramsay’s version was a lot more spicy and had a more curry kinda taste to it, I actually liked it, but thought this could go either way.
these aren’t the real chefs I think, with Hanis & Shing from HungryGoWhere Malaysia
After tasting, we spent the next hour hanging out at the nearby community centre while waiting for the result. It does take quite a bit of time to feed 1000 people.
Then the results came in.
It was 2-1, Tian Tian & 328 Katong Laksa can now claim that they are better than Gordon Ramsay, while the chef managed to edge out Jumbo Seafood’s chili crab. I really can’t argue with the result and thought it was rather fair (from more than 5,000 votes).
Perhaps surprising to some, but Gordon Ramsay took it very well and applaud the food scene from the area. He also talked about how tough it was to learn the tricks of the trade in such a short time. Check out the shaky video I managed to take above.
I thought it was a pretty impressive feat.
Florence, Sally, Chris, WeiZhi, KY, Linda & kids
Oh, by the way, though I didn’t have a photo with Gordon Ramsay, Chris, Wei Zhi, and I did manage to get an autograph from Gordon Ramsay, and it’s on my KYspeaks name card too! During the time he came over to the tent I think only four people managed to get his autograph, so we were extremely lucky.
my name card, signed by Gordon Ramsay!
Most awesome trip indeed, and stay tuned to Hungry Go Where Malaysia version!
Walaoee~ Gordon Ramsey! But yeah, fighting the local expert gonna be hard for even Ramsey himself. The cultural & local taste to fight against. People would easily adapt to the taste that they familiar more compare with new taste of local food.
Alex: yeap, plus he only had 3 days to prepare
I have long wanted to know Malaysia. Here in Brazil the little we hear about this beautiful place is when we have F1 on tv. The images must be a magical place! The food should be fantastic. And by the way, Gordon Ramsay is a genius! Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
Renan: make a trip! 😀
I’m needing it!
I could have told you the hawker would win. and if it was MALAYSIA.. lagi kalah teruk .. hahaha 😛
ciki: haha ya it’d probably be tougher!
the food from both sides definitely sounds worth traveling to singapore for! though maybe i’d prefer ramsay’s laksa cos i like creamy-milky ones. hope he can come to KL someday and make nasi lemak, char kuey teow and roti canai for us! 😀
Sean: yeah, that’ll be interesting, but I want him to go against bak kut teh too
Hehehe it was so worth it squeezing in the crowd. I had one of the best weekends this year. 😛 I’m not a fan of Chili crab or tian tian chicken rice so didn’t even bothered trying to get in to try. It’s predicted that he will lose. Did he even cook all 1000 portions? I highly doubt it. Many factors go in la, it would be embarrassing if the home turf loses lor.
Kelly: I think none of the hawkers or Ramsay could cook 1000 portions by themselves, it’s definitely his recipe tho, cooked with a lot of help.
Glad to see the hawkers were the winners and what a brave man Gordon is to compete with them!
The Yum List: that’s true, from the start we already know it’ll be very tough for him to win any one of the 3 dishes.
It was awesome getting to meet him in person when he came to our table! 🙂
Pureglutton: yah, pure luck!
Hi I was there but I didn’t see u.. went to eat some seafood with my parents.. no parking so had to park outside the nearby community centre.. newton was packed with people and hard to find a table.. actually went to tian tian in the afternoon but long queue so didn’t eat there.. i’m surprised they didn’t choose char kway teow, wantan mee or bak kut teh as one of the dishes for him to compete against.. yeah i heard the crowd counting down as i left.
Rainer: the event was incredibly packed, we had great fun tho.
Wow you were so lucky attending this event! If you haven’t seen it yet, this is an interesting video of Gordon Ramsay in Malaysia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H0tKZudm-c I have lived for 6 months in Malaysia myself and I really enjoyed it! Especially the food, I still have a lot of Malaysian friends on facebook and they make me so jealous with their food pics everytime. I hope I can visit your wonderful country very soon and try out the lovely dishes again. Greetings from the Netherlands!
Rick: Greetings to you too! I’m glad you enjoyed Malaysia, and sure be checking out that video myself too 😀