Who or What is Whitejacket?
My name is Benjamin, and together with my loving wife, Bernadette, we bring you Whitejacket - an informative website which aims to assist the hungry chef.
When I was a child, Christmas Eve was announced throughout my home with the aroma of Christmas cooking. From the tempting scent of roast turkey, to mysterious fragrances - wafting clues of chicken pie or sweet caramel apple pie. Every occasion in Singapore is celebrated with a meal, bringing family, friends or even strangers together. From the grandiose to the humble, homecooked or potluck meals, from happy reunions to sad farewells. Whether it is a simple gathering or grand ball, events like these are always a culinary adventure. The meal then, is not just a consuming act, but a path to discovery.
Professional, beginner, or even domestic-based, we hope you will find the information in these following pages useful. We also welcome your opinions and ideas, and would appreciate any feedback.
Why "Whitejacket"?
To highlight and celebrate the chef, not any in particular, but every hard working chef out there. How many of you still remember the smell and feel of a clean and fresh jacket, in the early hours of the day, and by the end of the day, its transformation into an unpleasant piece of once-white fabric. Yet we still don it, proudly announcing our profession!
Pages and Content
All the recipes and tests recorded in the Blog have gone through a series of trial and error, with adjustments made to each ingredient, component or technique accordingly. Not all have been successful though!
The dishes featured in the Photo Gallery were tested and perfected, prior to being served to actual diners. If you have similar experiences that produced completely different or perhaps almost similar results that you'd like to share, do leave a comment in the blogpost, or send me an email. I'd be glad to discuss it with you.
...Play With Your Food!
The alginate structure in the header design does not imply that Whitejacket is based on food science or food chemistry, but suggests how much we wish to interact with ingredients, or "play with our food". Whitejacket is more knowledge-driven, than scientifically based or for the pure sake of modernistic culinary innovation. I wanted to highlight how the study of even a simple ingredient, like alginate or salt, is so important in food preparation. It is not about taking the "romance" out of cooking or dining. To use an ingredient well, one should know how, why, when, where, what if... It is these questions, and the search for answers, be it historic, scientific, or plain common sense, that drives us forward.
The design of the website is meant to be as user-friendly as possible, with large, easy to read fonts, for the weary and almost teary-eyed chef. Due to hectic schedules and time constraints, I may not be able to update the blog and website as regularly as I wish, so do check back regularly for updates or subscribe to the RSS feed or mailing list.
What are my influences / culinary style?
European cuisine with a solid base in traditional French cuisine and a keen interest in avant-garde and neo-classical styles. I am also influenced by Asian cuisines and ingredients. Guided by principles of flavour and texture, I believe in creating a feast for the senses with innovative techniques to present the complete dining experience.
Taste is the most important factor, followed by a combination of textures - combining these two to create an element of surprise for the diner. A sense of rhythm and harmony must be present in a meal, as each dish is carefully thought through, each complementing the one before and the one after.
I take an open-minded approach to new techniques and ways of using ingredients. Never resting on one’s laurels, I believe a chef should always search for new techniques to improve, while respecting the basic principles of flavour, texture and overall dining experience. It is not simply about being able to obtain the right ingredients or a recipe. Ask yourself, how many menus have a dish that has been already done?
Some make a carbon copy of a dish, straight out of a book. Or blatantly (mis)appropriate a dish from another's kitchen, to theirs and claiming it as their own. Totally absurd, that’s what it is. Lets take the all time favourite Egg 65. Purchase the latest temperature controlled water bath or oven steamer, a set of related thermometers, a few dozen eggs, put it on the menu and that is pure innovation and creativity?
Why not just follow the theory and technique but apply this new knowledge with another product? Allowing the mind to give in to lazy ways and not bothering to think out of the box is one of the biggest mistakes a chef can make. Every chef plays a role in evolving the culinary scene. The only way a chef can elevate the culinary arts is by broadening his horizons in all aspects. That’s my style.
Progressive Cuisine
When we mention ”avant-garde or progressive cuisine”, terms like “deconstruction”, “transformation” or the latest food fads come to mind. Unorthodox, experimental, radical…
However, culinary avant-garde is not about ultramodern styles, but the forward-thinking of chefs and their styles or cuisines. “Avant-garde”, originally used in the military sense, literally means “advance guard” in French. This term was later adopted by the Arts to describe “pioneers or innovators of a particular period” (Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper).
An avant-garde approach to anything usually promotes concepts, ideas or techniques ahead of its time, and is often shunned at first due to its glaring deviation from what we consider “normal” and within our comfort zone. Take the advent of information technology for example and how its inception raised all sorts of fears, of “supermachines” taking over the world, or something along those lines.
Cooking is about deconstruction and transformation – analysing each component of a dish, recreating and re-presenting them in new ways. Forward-thinking chefs or followers of the culinary avant-garde movement do so by focusing on flavour, texture and temperature. The end result may look familiar but taste better, or look unfamiliar but taste the same, or simply take you by surprise. It is up to the chef to know where to draw the line between the familiar, the unfamiliar but pleasant, or just plain nonsense, while always, always respecting the basics of cookery.
Food as Art?
Food is art, as presented on each plate by the chef. The chef’s personality and style goes into each masterpiece, like a signature on every plate. A dish speaks to a diner like how a picture paints a thousand words.
To quote Chef Ferran Adria of El Bulli:
“I have no doubt that art can manifest itself in gastronomy, as much in the creation as in the perception of the diner. In my view, the true artists are the diners who are able to experience emotion as they confront a plate, to touch something that is difficult to conceive without resort to metaphor, or (and why not?) to bright ideas like that of a good Andalusian friend of mine: “Art is the experience of a shiver down the spine”.”
How certain “comfort foods” help us get through particular moods or cravings is just a simple example of how food brings forth (or suppresses?) emotions. Food is as powerful as a picture or a song that transports us back in time, evoking memories and feelings. It is soulful when it makes you smile or gasp or weep; intellectual, when it makes you think…wonder…reflect…
Food as Science?
A chef should not be afraid to accept new methods and technology, and scientifically explore the limitless possibilities of food. Technological advancement, particularly in molecular gastronomy, helps chefs delve into the “how”s, “why”s and “what if”s of cooking. However, many question if this application of science to culinary practice elevates cuisine or simply takes the soul out of the art. Will science kill the soul in our food?
An article in Goldarths Review (Issue II 2006) answers this best,
“Cooking even in the most basic form is a science… (However), the soul of the food is in the heart of the chef, not in molecular movements within the ingredients… And while molecular gastronomy pushes the chef to delve into the science of cooking, above and beyond being a scientist he is a craftsman. Science sharpens his tools, his heart propels him, and the two come together to form his craft: the craft of feeding our body and soul.” – Koh Yuen Lin
Chef Profile
Name: Benjamin Lim
Nationality: Singaporean
Current address: Dubai, U.A.E.
Email