Mumbai/Bengaluru: The Indian consumer’s hunger for world-class dining and nightlife is both driving the fast-evolving culinary scene in India, as well as shaping their overseas travel choices and experiences. Singapore, with its reputation as a food paradise backed by a UNESCO-recognised food culture, presents among the most exciting F&B scenes in the world for today’s Indian traveller.
Reimagining how Indian consumers can indulge in Singapore’s famously rich and diverse dining scene, Singapore’s Diplomatic Missions in India1, together with the Singapore Tourism
Board, have partnered The Soul Company to launch a series of exclusive restaurant pop-ups across India through 2023, featuring some of Singapore’s most prominent F&B minds today.
Dubbed Taste Obsession – in homage to the shared foodie culture that links both countries – the series will offer a taste of everything from the country’s Michelin-starred street food to its boundary-pushing fine dining restaurants, through ticketed dinners hosted at popular restaurants across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. These pop-ups will also celebrate the multi-faceted and longstanding cultural and people-to-people ties between the two nations.
To kickstart the Taste Obsession series, Rempapa – the acclaimed restaurant serving contemporary Peranakan food – will be serving up iconic renditions of Singapore’s unique cuisine.
Diners in Bengaluru (Four Seasons Hotel, 30 November 2022) and Mumbai (Magazine St Kitchen, 3 & 4 December 2022) will be able to savour Head Chef Alan Chan’s signature dishes, including their famous Ayam Pelencheng, Lamb Rendang, and Singgang. Future events in the series will also dish up a variety of other famous Singaporean dining hotspots, such as homestyle seafood restaurant Keng Eng Kee – the regular late-night favourite of global chefs like Massimo Bottura, David Chang and the late Anthony Bourdain – and award-winning street food Hawker Chan Soy Sauce Chicken.
For discerning drinkers, the series will also host some of Singapore’s leading craft mixologists, who at the recently unveiled World’s 100 Best Bars 2022 - were responsible for making Singapore the most heavily represented country on the list. This includes the team from 28 Hong Kong Street, one of Singapore’s most revered craft cocktail bars.
Says Diganta Chakraborty, Head of Brand, The Soul Company, “Like India, Singapore's food scene is a delicious melting pot – a direct reflection of the countless restaurants and bars that have made Singapore one of the most exciting dining and nightlife destinations in the world today. Since The Soul Company’s inception, it has been our driving force to bring novel and original F&B experiences to Indian foodies. We are today delighted to partner. Destination Singapore to bring some of our favourite Singaporean restaurants and bars to our community, who are hungry for the world-class F&B offerings that the foodie paradise is known for.”
Speaking about this unique collaboration, Renjie Wong, Area Director, India, Middle East & South Asia, Singapore Tourism Board said, “Increasingly, food experiences are essential part of the Indian holidaymakers’ programme in Singapore. They are seeking out unique, local and international dining experiences and keen to discover the hidden gems in the city’s culinary landscape. This exciting new partnership with The Soul Company gives us an opportunity to connect with India’s passionate foodies in a fresh way, showcasing a muchloved aspect of Singapore’s vibrant lifestyle offerings. With Taste Obsession, we hope to build upon our food-centric efforts in India over the years to showcase the delightful dining and nightlife experiences awaiting travellers to our city.”
Says Zacchaeus Lim, Vice-Consul (Political), Consulate-General of the Republic of Singapore in Mumbai, “We hope that with this new series of pop-ups occurring pan-India through 2023, we will be able to promote a novel and softer aspect of the already deep and broad-based Singapore-India bilateral relationship, especially from the cultural diplomacy perspective. And how else, if not in a way that everyone loves, and what Singapore is famous for – as a foodie’s paradise.”
