KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL
Chef-restaurateur Beppe De Vito and public relations veteran Lynn Yeow-de Vito’s thoughts about noodles reflect their takes on the importance of food to culture, and vice versa
Ask chef-restaurateur Beppe De Vito how he would describe his passion, and he immediately has an answer. “My passion is to make people happy—be it my wife or my customers,” he says. “As nice as it sounds, it’s actually a selfish thought. If they’re happy, I’m happy as well; it’s actually a simple, lazy path to being happy.” As good a sound bite this is, it doesn’t quite tell the whole story. A self-taught chef, Beppe’s passion for what he puts on his restaurants’ menus is obvious when he starts to talk about food. He is well known for his pasta with sea urchin, which was inspired by a childhood spent diving for this delicacy in Italy. “Where I come from, we eat them raw. So when you find them, you eat as many as you can. Then, you spend the rest of the afternoon opening and cleaning the rest, and serving them with pasta,” he shares. “I don’t believe in creativity that has no roots. For me, there has to be some story behind a dish, some sort of attachment to something—a memory, a cultural connotation or a seasonal connotation.” Loving wife and public relations maven Lynn Yeow-de Vito is an ardent foodie herself who loves preparing shabu-shabu or hotpot for her family. “There’s not much cooking involved, but it’s about having all of my kids around the table, making a mess and having fun during the meal,” she says. Lynn is also, in her own way, trying to be a champion of local food. “If you are prepared to pay a certain price for a plate of pasta, why not for a bowl of bak chor mee?” she asks. “People complain that food courts are using central kitchens nowadays, but that’s because nobody wants to do the work of making local food anymore. My hope is that if we get more people passionate about local food, this perception will start to change.”