2016 Year In Review

What a year 2016 has been for us!

After a year of hiatus in 2015 (due to our wedding), 2016's focus was to build our identity. We moved into a beautiful blank slate rental in Commonwealth and set about bringing people here for the full Mixtape Chef experience. From designing our dining room to be as cozy as possible, ironing out countless workflow issues to ensure a seamless dining experience, learning about the huge variety of dietary restrictions and setting the stove on fire twice; we wouldn't have want it any other way.

Having a customized menu for every meal also meant pushing our repertoire to the limit: it forced us to create new dishes and to constantly work with new ingredients (of course, the Smiley Sidekick had the pleasure- and curse, of going through all the food tastings).

Here are some of our food discovery adventures in 2016. Enjoy!

A blank slate kitchen

Our first Porchetta debut was on 31st Dec 2015. This glorious hunk of meat is now one of our most requested dishes.

In Jan 2016, we were first featured on channel 8, about the private dining scene in Singapore, which propelled us to a larger audience.

At the start of the year, we had plans to retail homemade food but it was shelved as we decided to prioritize our dinner parties.

Crab Cakes- a pacific northwest classic, which we brought back after our Honeymoon to Seattle.

We tried our hands on Southern Fried Chicken. Sadly, we have not roll this out into our menus yet... I am getting hungry just thinking of the fried chicken!

We attempted to make our own air conditioning... which failed. #askuswhy 

But we left it there, anyway!

We were thinking of a dish for our vegetarian guests and decided to launch the Ratatouille- Pixar movie version.

Taking homemade to the next level by making our own Ricotta cheese

2016 was about perfecting the simple country loaf. 2017- it's time to explore the sourdoughs!

We learnt that not all Mussels are made the same. Blue Mussels are just another whole level above our local mussels.

Dabbled with our Singapore Classics - Chilli Crab

In an attempt to get rid of leftovers, we whipped up the Shakshuka which became our favorite brunch food. Pictured here is our very first Shakshuka we made.

We finally managed to roll out Ceviche this year! #YAY 

One of my favorite starters as it is so simple and primes our guest for the heavy meal to come.

We started playing with Squid ink in our Paella and pasta

Pushing the limits of the Singaporean palate: Olive Oil Semi Freddo with Parmesan Crisps

Our new toy after our Tokyo trip: Shaving these Katsuoboshi on everything that needs an umami boost.

This menu was an idea for SG50 but we only had the chance to launch in SG51. The menu pays homage to the Singaporean cuisine using a juxtaposition of 2 classics.

Not Chwee Kueh

Hainanese Chicken Risotto

Chilli Crab Cake

Pandan Semi Freddo with Toasted Coconut

Dabbled into Bone marrow but this is still very much, work in progress.

Found the magical Morel mushrooms in TCM shops.

Experimenting fermentation with Homemade Sriracha Sauce

I am not a big baker so I am quite proud of this Orange Almond Cake. :)

We launched homemade Pizzas with our own dough and sauces.

Playing with Asian flavours in the humble Panna Cotta. Pictured here is a Kaffir Lime Panna Cotta with Passion Fruit.

With roughly 6 months left in our Commonwealth private dining room before we move to Sengkang, we hope to continue to bring great food and memories for our guests. Limited weekends left. #justsaying. Booking details on our website. :)