Chinese Ghost Kitchen

Singapore, August 2021 - In the midst of discovering local, we created a covid baby - 古早味

While working on a Discover Local SG 30 by 30 project in collaboration with local farmers, I met Malcolm Ong, owner of The Fish Farmer. He unveiled a shocking truth about Giant Barramundis being reared for fillet and the remainder to waste. In his wisdom, he offered to gift these fish heads for free if we could find a purpose for it in the kitchen.

The head banquet chef, Chef Andy, who joined me on the farm visit, shared that in the early days of Singapore, the Chinese migrants are not a fan of food waste. They made delicious delicacies out of off cuts such as fish head, chicken feet and pork caul fat. This inspired the birth of 古早味, a ghost kitchen on a delivery and takeaway concept, to utilise existing resources and make up for some lost wedding revenue.

Like-minded individuals came together out of passion to make this possible.

We envisioned for the food to be photographed in an old monarch's house and Goshen Art Gallery jumped into action to sponsor an oil painted portrait of 楊貴妃 Yang Gui Fei, one of the four beauties of Ancient China for the official food photography.

Music has the ability to bring life to the brand and awaken the dragon. Jem Han, a professional wedding busker, took on the challenge and wrote an original song about our Chinese forefathers arriving to Singapore and the delicacies they made with off cuts.

A music video was filmed by visual director Ian Soh - a wedding photographer turned iPhone videographer for the purpose of this shoot. He conceptualised the transitions and filmed in three locations seamlessly.

In the famous words of a Beatles song, "I get by with a little help from my friends". I took on the challenge to use Adobe Premier Pro to stitch the video together, with guidance from YouTube, Sam Lee and Ryan Tan, borrowed the brains and costumes from Ryan Hong, Malc Oei and Andrew Lua, volunteered my mother and baby son as models in this video.

We present to you 古早味, a video launched on Singapore's day of independence 2021.