A SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS WEBSITE
Singapore, April 9, 2011 Fine Palate Café AN incident that Fine Palate Café owner Heather Barrie witnessed years ago still upsets her. “I was in a cafe, and I saw one of the cooks weighing the spaghetti to make a plate. He took one strand off because it weighed too much, then cut it in two and put one half back on to get the amount he wanted!” she bristles. “In my kitchen, you do what is necessary to get the quality right. I don’t focus on costing things – only the generous, as they say, can make a sandwich worth eating.” Indeed, lavish gourmet sandwiches and such are what Ms Barrie’s new eatery serves up. Fine Palate Café opened about three weeks ago on the ground floor of a repurposed school building in Waterloo Street, and its menu is popping with full flavours and quality ingredients. In it, Black Angus beef patties tango with brie, crispy bacon and wasabi mayonnaise in home-made buns; cubes of sushi-grade tuna are draped in slinky coils of cold capellini and swirls of sesame shoyu cream; and crisp pastry parcels swaddle lemongrass-infused chicken. All are Ms Barrie’s own recipes and everything is made in-house, with fresh ingredients. “I use influences from the region and westernise the style a bit; I want to do things that people would not have an opportunity to eat outside,” she says. The native of Melbourne, Australia, moved to Singapore 20 years ago when her banker husband was transferred here. Pregnant, bored and unable to find much quality Western food at the time, the passionate foodie began cooking the things she wanted to eat. Later on, she began to entertain at home, which led to requests for her to cater food and organise events for her husband’s clients; subsequently, she set up a catering company, Fine Palate Catering, to handle the demand for her services. “And so out of a hobby, it became a business,” says Ms Barrie, who maintains Fine Palate Catering as her primary venture. The cafe arm came about when she decided to move her catering business to Waterloo Street, where it would be more accessible to her customers (Fine Palate Catering counts among its clients a number of banks as well as some prominent local families). Seeing how the location was so central, Ms Barrie decided to set aside some of the space for a small 50-seater cafe, which she did up with chic matte silver banquettes from Europe, Fritz Hansen chairs and Gaggenau equipment (she’s also a spokeswoman for the luxury kitchenware brand). “It will serve as a tasting kitchen, my showcase,” she explains. That aside, the foodie also intends to utilise the cafe as a sort of classroom space for interactive events, where those interested in good food can learn more about it from specialists. Already, it has hosted a coffee appreciation workshop, where participants learnt about the finer points of the bean and beverage, and next month, there’ll be one on oysters. “There’s so much to learn about oysters, for example the types of water they grow in and how it changes the flavours, so I wanted to do something on that,” says Ms Barrie. In the pipeline too, she adds, is a workshop on caviar and another on what to do if you’re organising a dinner for the first time – what to look out for and how to make things worry-free, for example. “But I don’t think we’ll be doing wine and champagne much. That’s everywhere.” The cafe has an even more ambitious plan for the future: to organise cooking classes as part of a movement where participants go back and teach their friends and families what they’ve learnt in a pay-it-forward style, a la Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (incidentally, the British chef is one of Ms Barrie’s favourites because he’s “really focused on food and doing things right, not so much the business side of things”.) “Also,” shares Ms Barrie, “I would like to open later into the evenings (Fine Palate is open only until 6pm for now because of a lack of manpower), and serve shared plates, which are my favourites, and rotate the menu very regularly.” Sounds delicious. Weight watchers – not least those measuring pasta portions in the kitchen – beware. Fine Palate Café
51 Waterloo Street
51 Waterloo Street #01-04/05
Singapore 187969
Tel: 6336-5120
www.finepalate.com.sg
