World Gourmet Summit 2013 – A Culinary Experience with Chefs Bo Lindegaard & Lasse Askvo

Today the revolutionary duo of Bo Lindegaard & Lasse Askvo gave an exclusive group of members of the media an insight into their culinary world.

Both chefs bought to the table an extraordinary culinary experience, perhaps something entirely unfamiliar to this side of the globe. More about “I am Kombo”; an interactive dining experience pioneered by them can be read in detail HERE. For our session, the duo has replicated a similar dining experience, though not in its entirety, but an insightful preview nonetheless.

As a welcome prelude to what lies ahead, we were each handed a passionfruit, a knife and a cutting board. Amused, we cut into ours as instructed; and was astonished with what was revealed –  pretty aqua streaks of Bombay gin jelly injected into the fruit.
Cautiously we dug in and scooped spoonfuls into our mouth, and sighed in pleasure of the unexpected but sharp flavours it imparted on our tongue.

Swiftly the open face sandwich followed, a simple but enjoyable morsel of pork belly sausage ontop seeded rye bread with condiments of onion rings and leaf of lettuce.

Next was the assemble-it-yourself canape; presented in egg shells.

Pick up an egg shell with sunny yellow egg cream with curry emulsion. Sprinkle the herring floss dried rye crumbs from another eggshell on top. Last but not least, trim the alfalfa sprouts with a pair of scissors provided & garnish your “dish”.

Done? Grab a spoon and enjoy!

My favourite of the session was the pork skin crackers paired with a marvelous dip of “rye bread porridge” (description provided by Jonathan from 2am dessert bar) and beetroot wurtz.

The dip was so good that I discretely polished off 2 servings of it while watching the group getting busy over the next activity – assembling our own cake.

This is a full blown example of the interactive dining The Social Act is all about. The concept induces diners to interact among themselves, and also be involved in the preparation of the meal/dishes. 

Your culinary playground are set out for you to have fun and while it’s a little unexpected and some might even find it scary, that was what made the whole experience refreshingly different.

A tablecloth was spread out with required utensils (scissors, knives) provided. Ingredients and instructions were on the table. Starting with the base of 2 malt sponges, we could assemble our cake in any manner and form we want, with the ingredients piled on in whichever sequence we wish.

Marshmallows, long gourd infused in lime sugar syrup, mango, papaya and passionfruit sauce, white chocolate crumble and lemon vebena sugar were just some of the ingredients we played with. For the finishing serving, we added liquorice ice cream.

How do you like our final product, complete with lighted candles and Danish flags? 🙂

Chef Bo gave a quick final assessment of our “work” before we got the green light to dig in.

Here’s my slice of the cake.
That’s long gourd peeking out at the side with salted marshmallows on top drizzled with plenty of the mango, papaya and passionfruit sauce. The liquorice ice cream was an acquired taste (just like liquorice is) and frankly I can’t say I like the cake though it was certainly fun assembling it. In terms of taste, all I liked was the mango sauce and the malt sponge.

A personal parting gift to each of the guest was a “namecard” cut out from the tablecloth; a gesture of “bringing something from the dinner” back with you. In fact, the whole tablecloth is yours if you want it!

Our whole experience took place at-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy which is located at Level 5, 28 Tai Seng Street (Sakae Building), Singapore 534106. 

The closest MRT station is Tai Seng MRT (Circle line) and the building is located right opposite 28 Tai Seng Street, just a five minutes walk away. After our session I walked around peeping in at the current classes going on; wishing I have the time to indulge in a part time certification in baking. The classes was very professionally conducted and there were hands-on sessions where I spent some time watching the students working on their assigned tasks.

Many thanks to the 2 jovial chefs, Miele (the professional kitchen partner) as well as Sunrice Global Chef Academy for our unique culinary experience today! 🙂

The World Gourmet Summit 2013 – check out the remaining events and dinners HERE.