restaurants

True Blue Cuisine: Interview with chef-owner Benjamin Seck

When Peranakan restaurant True Blue Cuisine first welcomed diners in November 2003, it was in a humble shophouse in Katong. Since then, it has grown to become a true destination for those hankering after a taste of authentic Peranakan culture. In fact, in 2008, it was handpicked by the Peranakan Museum to complement its collection by relocating its premises to a space close to it on Armenian Street in order to offer visitors a more complete experience of Peranakan culture. At the helm of this award-winning restaurant is chef-owner Benjamin Seck who is not only a master of authentic Baba-Nyonya cuisine, but usually has a few new tricks up his sleeve. “Mum [renowned Peranakan chef Nyonya Daisy Seah] does the traditional dishes at True Blue Cuisine. I prefer to do my own brand of fusion Peranakan cuisine, incorporating unique ingredients like flowers into my dishes,” he reveals. Chef Benjamin loves to use the orchid flower which is crunchy and adds a desirable hint of bitterness to his flavourful, zesty salads. Of course, his other agenda for using orchids is to showcase a bit of Singapore in his cuisine. The resourceful chef gets his stock of organic orchids directly from the Mandai Orchid Garden.

Chef Benjamin has fond memories of helping his grandmother in the kitchen when he was a young boy growing up. “I loved to play with water and fire,” he quips, “so I was always helping Grandmum with the washing and frying. The very first dish I created was a Nyonya salad consisting of boiled pork belly, cucumber, hae bee [dried shrimp] and sambal belachan. Just mix everything together!”

Naturally, he has since acquired more skills in the kitchen! The passionate chef believes that one of the toughest things is prepare is the rempah—an alluring combination of herbs and spices pounded into a paste—which is central to most Peranakan dishes. Aside from all the peeling, slicing, dicing and pounding involved, the mixture must be laboriously fried over a charcoal fire until a layer of oil emerges. At True Blue Cuisine, chef Benjamin still uses a traditional charcoal fire as he believes that it is a “more balanced” heat source which enhances the robust flavours of the rempah.

The quality of a chef’s rempah is often the defining factor in many Peranakan dishes. This is especially so in chef Benjamin’s favourite dish, Ayam Buah Keluak. “I have it at every Peranakan restaurant I go to. This dish is the benchmark of how good your food is!” he says. To him, the ultimate compliment one can pay him is to deem his dish “just like Grandma’s”.

“Of course, I don’t believe that there is a right or wrong method in cooking your food. Every Peranakan family has their own secret recipes,” he says. But it is precisely because of such “secret recipes” that so many great Peranakan recipes have been lost over the years. Not only are the older generations unwilling to pass down their recipes, the pre-war and post-war generations were predominantly illiterate and did not record their recipes.

In light of this, the White Card and chef Benjamin is presenting White Card members with a one-of-a-kind dinner event to savour Peranakan cuisine that have been long forgotten. Inspired by pre-war Singapore, renowned Chef Benjamin Seck will be re-creating 5 forgotten Peranakan delicacies that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in Singapore. At the dinner, well-respected Baba, Encik William Gwee, will be introducing the dishes and sharing his war-time experiences. Also, local author, Mr. Andrew Tan, will be sharing his experiences and present each diner with an autographed copy of his childhood memoir “Papa as a little boy named Ah Khoon”. This is a 5-course Peranakan meal that will be the talk of the town.