Firstly, welcome to the long weekend. Thanks for taking time to come onto our site. Secondly, because you’re probably starved for time (there are Netflix shows to came up on!), we’re going to let Chef Damian D’Silva of Kin have the spotlight to introduce the Kin Heritage Menu straight away — a wonderful medley of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan and Eurasian cuisine in one handy beautifully designed menu.
Thirdly, we’re going to provide an added service. Click here if you’re convinced by point two to book a table right away .
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Hello Chef Damian D’Silva or shall we say The Grandfather of Heritage Cuisine or if I can be a little brave, the Big Poppa of Heritage! How have things been for you?
If I can be frank, I’m only halfway up the mountain that I decided to climb when I took the challenge to champion Singapore Heritage Cuisine. So, I still have quite a ways to go.
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It is quite a feat to combine the language and taste of five different ethnic cuisines into one. What would you call it? What does it taste like?
I’ve been very fortunate that I was exposed to the food from the different ethnicities from a very young age. I like to call the food that I cook, Heritage Cuisine as it derives from recipes of yore that encompass all the different races that I grew up with.
If there was one word that I could use to describe its taste, it would be, profound.
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How deep do you dig into the past to create the Kin Heritage Menu? Was there ever a point when you went “oops”?
I do not dig into the past as the memory is clear in my mind. It’s just deciding, what shall I cook next. I know this is hard to acknowledge, but when you grow up with so many fond memories of your childhood eating through the various cuisines it does become embedded in your brain.
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Chinese, Malay and Indian cuisine is what we mostly eat; Peranakan is kind of a standard too, but Eurasian cuisine? Wow. What do you think are some of the hallmarks about it?
Honestly, there is much more than we know of food from the different ethnicities. Take Peranakan as an example, what we know, is mainly dishes from Malacca or Penang and even between the two, there are so many differences and variations, in the way things are prepared and executed.
To delve deeper into the Peranakan culture, there are the Chetti Peranakans who are hardly known, except for those who are Chettis themselves or the very fortunate, that have been invited to their homes. To go much deeper and not many people actually know this, there is the Jawi Peranakans, who are descendants of local Malays (Malacca/Penang) and early Muslim traders of Arab, Bengali but mostly Tamil ancestry.
The Eurasians are a different cattle of fish but there are some similarities in the cuisine. Depending from which ancestry the Eurasian comes from, it will determine the different characteristics in the culture and heritage.
The Portuguese were the first to invade Malacca, followed by the Dutch and eventually the English and all three left idiosyncrasies that shaped the Eurasians today.
Take one very Eurasian dish, Debal. In most Singaporean households they do not know that Debal actually is Curry Devil or Devil’s Curry (I dislike this name). In most Eurasian homes, chicken is the protein, although there are a few that use pork. The actual Debal was cooked on the 26th with all the leftovers as there was no refrigeration in the past.
So dumping all that could not be eaten into a pot and dousing it with vinegar, guaranteed it will keep longer than usual and the flavour intensifies as it ages. No one does this today and vegetables were never added into the Debal but archar (vegetable pickle) was added. Trust me cabbage is not something that keeps well unrefrigerated.
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Can you take us through the R&D of one of your favourite dishes off the Kin Heritage Menu? What were some of the challenges? Was there anything you had to tweak?
I do not really do any R&D with any of my dishes. They have had a much longer history and acceptance then most things out there. Of course, if there was something that I was not familiar with, I would delve much deeper into understanding the dish by researching and interviewing people who are familiar with the dish that I’m wanting to execute.
Having said that, I do make minor adjustments to some dishes to be more palatable with the diners, like sourness, heat level and bitterness.
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How much of the Kin Heritage Menu is the old and how much is it the new? Are you able to quantify it?
Most dishes are more than a century old while others can be between 50 to 70 years when they were first executed. I do not quantify what goes into the menu but what makes sense eaten together.
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Was it easy getting recipes from family friends? How were they decided on?
The recipes from family friends were passed down from Granddad, so they have been around for almost a century. I have not had a chance to procure recipes from some of my acquaintances from the more uncommon ethnicities.
However, I’m confident that when the right time comes I will be able to convince the person to share his or her recipes as my sole intention is to preserve the cultural identity of the cuisine.
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Lastly, what’s next for you?
I’m not really sure, but it will definitely not be different from what I’m currently doing. I realised that when you do something for a long time it gives you wisdom. Ultimately, I want to write a Heritage cookbook that draws from the inner soul, recipes that are forgotten or passed through generations of hard work, love and the necessity to survive.
From simple but tedious recipes to complex and luxurious ones that draw upon celebrations and festivals to recipes that were created for survival.
Thanks for contributing to our monthly page views with this interview with Chef Damian D’Silva and the Kin Heritage Menu, we now highly implore you to catch up with our April 2021 issue here.
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