The growing appeal of cooking isn't just happening in Singapore.
All over the world, chefs are gaining prominence and the celebrities among them are developing a cult following that is not just among couch potatoes hooked on TV cooking shows.
The best of them have inspired young chefs to fly across continents to work for free, or at very low pay, at their restaurants.
While this practice of apprenticeship is hardly new in Europe, more Singaporean chefs are adopting it.
An example is executive sous chef Gan Swee Lai of Goodwood Park Hotel's Gordon Grill and his colleague, executive pastry chef Lim Kim Wah.
Both of them wrangled a two-week stint at Maze in London in March.
The one-Michelin-star restaurant is owned by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay of reality TV show Hell's Kitchen fame.
The serendipitous opportunity came about due to a relationship struck up with chef Jason Atherton, Ramsay's protege who helms Maze, when he was a guest chef at Goodwood Park Hotel in October last year.
Chef Gan, 35, says: 'Chef Atherton enjoyed his five-day promotion at our restaurant so much that he offered to host us in his kitchen.'
While they were able to rub shoulders with Ramsay and pose for a photo, they didn't have a chance to work under the busy man.
Nonetheless, the experience was an enriching one for chef Gan, who says: 'The level of organisation and coordination between the kitchen and service staff was impressive. Even at the restaurant's busiest, a table of eight will receive their appetisers at the same time.'
Chef Jason Tan, 26, chef de cuisine of European restaurant Julien Bompard, which is opening in Finlayson Green next month, secured a year-long stint in 2006 at Robuchon a Galera in Hotel Lisboa, Macau.
The restaurant is owned by the Michelin-starred French chef Joel Robuchon.
His mentor, chef Julien Bompard of Le Saint Julien, had recommended him to Robuchon a Galera's chef, Francky Semblat.
On his experience as a cook in the restaurant, Tan says: 'Nothing short of perfection was allowed. I was expected to have a ruler with me when cutting tomatoes to ensure that they were of a uniform length.'
For others with less established connections, however, snaring a stint under the tutelage of a famous chef is probably only as difficult as being bold enough to ask.
Chef Benny Se Teo of Eighteen Chefs in Eastpoint Mall, for example, snared a month-long stint as a kitchen helper at British chef Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen, in London. He got it just by chatting with the restaurant's director, Mr Liam Black, in an online forum.
Fifteen is a non-profit restaurant that helps disadvantaged youth and juvenile delinquents by training them as chefs to keep them away from crime.
Chef Se Teo, 48, a former drug addict, says: 'He was impressed by my vision to achieve something similar to Fifteen in Singapore so he offered me the stint.'
Likewise, Chef Michael Han, 30, of the modern European restaurant FiftyThree, opening in Armenian Street, says: 'I was so blown away by the food at The Fat Duck that after several years of being a regular customer there, I decided to e-mail Heston Blumenthal, the owner, for a job and he agreed.'
The four-month stint at the prestigious three-Michelin-star restaurant in Britain helped open doors to other opportunities at restaurants such as Mugaritz in Spain and Noma in Copenhagen, both of which now hold two Michelin stars.
Also opting for the eat-then-ask routine was chef-owner Janice Wong of 2am Dessertbar in Lorong Liput.
The Le Cordon Bleu-trained 25-year-old says: 'I'd initially planned on doing an eight-day food tasting when I visited New York City last year, but after dining at the popular dessert restaurant Room 4 Dessert and speaking to the owner Will Goldfarb, he agreed on the spot to let me do a month-long stint at his restaurant.'
She also got a two-week-long stint this way at Swedish restaurant Aquavit and spent another week at WD-50, which is known for its cutting-edge molecular gastronomy techniques.
She admits with a sheepish grin that her unconventional methods might not have complied with labour laws in the United States, but she wasn't working for pay and the opportunities were much too precious to give up.
While snaring stints with famous chefs might require a modicum of luck, how much one gets out of it would depend on sheer hard work.
Chef Han says: 'The more effort you put into your work, the more inquisitive you are, the more work you'll be allowed to do in the kitchen - and that's the only way to get the most out of the stint.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times on 29 June 2008.
