Yesterday afternoon, I had the great pleasure of attending the local (Singapore) launch of the Singapore International Culinary Exchange (SPICE for short) and the unveiling of the Singapore Takeout. The Singapore Takeout is a custom-fabricated shipping container that, with the push of a button, transforms into a pop-up kitchen. This flying kitchen has been engineered so that it can be used for both demonstrations as well as a proper, working pop-up restaurant kitchen.

Singapore Takeout will feature some of Singapore’s current crop of top chefs as well as our very best food products. The Takeout leaves our shores next week, setting sail for London. From there, it will travel to Paris, Moscow, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi, Dubai, and Sydney. The chefs representing Singapore include (as pictured from left to right at the top photo of this post) Andre Chiang, Haikal Johari, Malcolm Lee, Benjamin Seck, Janice Wong, Willin Low, Ryan Clift, Armin Leitgeb, and the team from Iggy’s (represented by Ignatius Chan in the photo). In most of the destinations, one or more of each city’s celebrity chefs will be asked to work alongside our local chefs. Each pop-up event will last 3 days, during which the paired chefs will serve up amazing Singapore-inspired dishes at private and public events, as well as conduct demonstrations and workshops.

Now, before I go any further, however, I should disclose a wee bit of information. Which is that a good part of my enthusiasm is because I’ve been personally involved with this project for almost a year now. The integrated communications agency I co-own, Ate, is managing the SPICE campaign for the Singapore Tourism Board, ieSingapore, and SPRING. So, obviously, this project is something that I’m actually working on — as opposed to just enthusiastically blogging about.

The event yesterday was a load of fun. Many of the country’s top chefs, restaurateurs, food manufacturers, and journalists came by. Ms Aw Kah Peng, Chief Executive of STB, and her peers from the other agencies, officially launched the Takeout. And to break it in, we asked Chef Janice Wong, who will be representing Singapore on the Takeout’s stopover in London this coming June, to dish up some awesome Modern Singaporean treats, like her fabulous lemongrass infused laksa dumplings; some really out of this world chocolate, foie gras and pork xiao long bao; and a cool reinterpretation of ice kachang.

Tonight, the Takeout is open to the public. And while many of you might be reading this a bit late to head down to Clifford Square, I can only say that it should be a great evening. Janice is serving up the same Mod Sin dishes she served the VIPs yesterday. For those interested in running over right away, the event is taking place between 7pm-10pm at Clifford Square.

And for all my readers overseas, hopefully, you’ll get to see the Takeout in the flesh sometime soon. And if all goes well, this sneak peak of Singapore’s best and brightest chefs and foods will just make you want to see and taste more from our shores.

To follow the Takeout and to get more info on SPICE, please check out the Singapore Eats Facebook page.