Seaside Foraging and Eurasian Cuisine

MasterChef Singapore judge Damian D’Silva grew up by the sea and spent many happy hours foraging for horseshoe crabs, shellfish and sea snails that would end up in the cooking pot. In this episode, he talks about how his childhood and grandfather influenced his cooking philosophy, when he found his calling in the kitchen (later than you'd expect), and what's left for him after winning the prestigious culinary award La Liste.

Chef Damian D’Silva is a judge on MasterChef Singapore and the first Singaporean to be awarded the prestigious culinary prize Artisan & Authenticity Award 2024 from La Liste, a French ranking and restaurants guide. An advocate for local culinary heritage, he helms Rempapa, a multicultural restaurant serving dishes from the ethnicities in Singapore.

What Damian Talked About

• 02:15 – Why Damian chose to cook sea snail and papaya curry on From Book to Cook
• 04:26 – Foraging in the sea and on land
• 07:46 – His fascination with Western culture and food as a teenager
• 08:28 – The Malay and Peranakan version of the sea snail and papaya curry dish
• 08:50 – His experience of growing up in a community with different ethnicities
• 10:09 – Foraging for horseshoe crabs and cooking them
• 12:32 – About his grandfather, who had the greatest influence on Damian’s cooking journey
• 14:20 – The difference between a cook and a chief
• 18:01 – When Damian found out that cooking is his calling
• 20:26 – Why heritage cuisine is important
• 22:45 – How Eurasian cuisine is unique
• 25:23 – What’s next for Damian D’Silva after winning the Artisan & Authenticity Award 2024 from La Liste
• 27:53 – Why he has not written a cookbook
• 29:18 – The hardest thing about being a chef
• 32:28 – The one thing Damian would rather buy than make on his own
• 34:06 – Food is…

Transcript and Resources

• Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/sea-foraging-eurasian-cuisine/transcript
• Watch Damian make sea snail and papaya curry: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/videos/sea-snail-papaya-curry/

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This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by One Dash. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Damian for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.