#16 | The Potluck Podcast: With Lee Yum Hwa, pasta-maker and chef-owner of Ben Fatto Italian Private Diner
The Potluck - A food newsletter on what's buzzing in the dining world in Singapore
Hello dear readers, The Potluck goes on Podcast mode for this edition. It is really just an excuse to give my pens, notepads (and aching hands) a rest after weeks of mad scribbling on another project. Lest I digress on my debut in the Spotify sphere.
In The Potluck Podcast, I chat with Singapore’s food producers and makers at the virtual dining table, where stories and secrets are shared and spilled. Tuck into scrumptious servings of anecdotes and sharings from food personalities who shine a spotlight on local dishes and a vibrant food culture that keeps evolving.
Getting The Potluck Podcast to a rolling boil is Lee Yum Hwa, pasta maker and chef-owner of the much-feted Italian private dining outfit, Ben Fatto. The self-confessed pasta geek, who knows his orecchiette from marubini, crafts exquisite pasta like whole wheat bigoli made with freshly milled khorasan and shares his pivotal journey during last year’s circuit breaker period.
On this podcast episode, Yum Hwa shares how he went from operating a popular private diner (with a long waiting list to boot) to selling his hand-crafted artisanal pasta and sauces online. His private dining sessions have since resumed. He also collaborated with one Michelin-starred Nouri restaurant and online Italian marketplace Grammi to sell his pasta.
Yum Hwa also shares how the uncertainties have distilled a clearer vision of becoming a wholesale pasta maker. The former chef at Artichoke restaurant says: “Production was always my end game so I hope to scale this up eventually and away from the private kitchen model, which was a launchpad.”
On a quest to cover the wide spectrum of pasta shapes, the self-taught pasta-maker has made about 20 (and counting) types of new pasta such as marubini cremonesi and busiate trapanesi.
Yum Hwa also tosses up his love for pasta-making, and how he immersed himself in the world of pasta through social media. He quips: “Many people in Singapore still think that pasta comes from a box, I want to showcase the craft of making pasta as the protagonist of a dish.”
Listen to the podcast as Yum Hwa shares his pasta-making journey! Happy slurping!
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Follow me on Instagram (@kenneats). Got news? Get in touch at kennethgohsz@gmail.com. Tuck into previous editions of The Potluck here.