Latest news with #Artichoke
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Tastemakers: From mezza to mozza, Artichoke restaurant flips the script
SINGAPORE – In Singapore's brutal food scene, where restaurants go belly up in the blink of an eye, staying open for 15 years is a feat. Chefs and owners who get to that milestone should bask in the glow of achievement, of having had the wits to keep all those balls in the air for so many years. Artichoke's Bjorn Shen is not basking. He is converting his New School Middle Eastern restaurant, which turns 15 on Aug 10, into a pizza parlour. The 90-seat restaurant at New Bahru will serve its last Middle Eastern meal on Aug 10 and, on Aug 15, Artichoke becomes a New School Pizza Parlor. Why? 'I've been playing the same video game for 15 years, using the same character and the same weapon. And, like, been slaying all the bosses,' he says. 'After 15 years of playing the same game, I'm getting bored. Can I change the character? Can I change the weapon? 'We're still playing the same Singapore F&B game. But we're changing the weapon now.' Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes Asia Behind deadly Thai-Cambodian clashes, a bitter spat between two dynastic leaders Multimedia Lights dimmed at South-east Asia's scam hub but 'pig butchering' continues Business Banking and finance jobs will change but won't disappear as AI becomes the new normal: Accenture Sport Mikkel Lee gets back up to speed as Singapore swimmers eye 2028 Olympics spots Business How parents can prevent disputes over their properties Asia Hottest 'ticket' in Jakarta? Young Indonesians compete for a slot at this novel club Singapore Kopi, care and conversation: How this 20-year-old helps improve the well-being of the elderly Middle of the barrel He got into Middle Eastern food while working part time at a Greek restaurant in Brisbane, Australia. He had gone there to study hospitality and tourism at the University of Queensland. Cooking with and for his Middle Eastern colleagues spurred him to open Artichoke after he graduated and returned to Singapore. Despite a rocky start when he opened the restaurant in 2010 – diners here did not understand his take on Middle Eastern food – he stuck to his guns. He let his inner dude and irreverence out. The restaurant started attracting attention from the media and diners. He parlayed his image as a self-described 'gun-slinging maverick who didn't care about the rules' into a successful business. Now, he is rocking that boat. The 43-year-old says: 'I'm coming up to 45 soon. I'm not planning to cook in restaurants past the age of 60. It took me 15 years to get here. Can I see myself doing this for the next 15 years and getting to retirement on this one cuisine? I cannot. I don't want to.' He talks about how difficult it is to keep reinventing Middle Eastern food. 'We have to make our way through 10 old ideas before finding one new idea,' he says. 'Now, we're scraping the middle of the barrel. Not the bottom, but the middle. It's getting harder and harder to find cool, new ideas after putting a creative spin on this cuisine for 15 years. So, I'm thinking, 'How many more versions of hummus can I do? How many more versions of falafel can I do?'' Asked if diners who love his food and have become regulars might feel hard done by, he says: 'I'm hoping we've given people good times in the last 15 years.' And to those who have yet to discover Artichoke, he adds: 'We've been here for 15 years. If you haven't come in 15 years, why am I banking on you to come in the next six months?' 'Artichoking' pizza Singapore has had something of a pizza boom in the last few years, with artisanal pies coming at diners in every style imaginable: classic Neapolitan, contemporary Neapolitan, neo-Neapolitan, New York-Neapolitan, San Francisco sourdough, New Haven-New York and Japolitan, among others. Brands such as L'antica Pizzeria Da Michele, Vincenzo Capuano, Fortuna, Roberta's and Pizza Studio Tamaki jostle alongside home-grown ones like La Bottega Enoteca, Blue Label, Wild Child Pizzette and Goldenroy Sourdough Pizza for a slice of, well, the pizza pie. Just as he had 'artichoked' Middle Eastern food – he uses the noun as a verb to describe how he puts his spin on food – he has now 'artichoked' pizza. A big consideration was the Singaporean experience with pizza. 'Our concept of pizza is Pizza Hut, Milano's, Shakey's and Rocky's,' he says. 'It's a crispy-base pizza with a crunch, and lots of toppings that go closer to the edge.' His pizza will come in two formats – Slabs and Rounds. The Slab is a hybrid of the Roman al taglio style, with a foccacia-like dough and usually sold in rectangular slices; and the Detroit style, also rectangular, cooked in a pan, with a thick, crisp and chewy crust and cheese spread out to the edges of the pie. Artichoke's Slab has something a little extra – a half-and-half mix of pecorino and mozzarella cheeses sprinkled on the pan before the dough is placed on top. The pecorino gives the crust flavour, and the mozzarella melts and fries the dough in the oven for a crunchy bottom. The rectangular pies arrive at the table on metal racks so they stay crisp. Variations will include Margherita, topped with mozzarella and pecorino cheeses, red sauce and basil; and Dirty Duck, topped with Balinese spiced duck and snake beans. Prices are expected to range from $22 to $32. Each pie is cut into six squares. Artichoke's Green Supreme is stuffed with mushrooms, peas, garlic and spinach, and topped with zucchini, burrata cheese and mint. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN Slabs will also be made into Stacks, split in half horizontally and piled with fillings and toppings. There are two variations – Green Supreme, stuffed with mushrooms, peas, garlic and spinach, and topped with zucchini, burrata cheese and mint; and Meat Supreme, beef Sloppy Joes, corned beef, bacon and tomato cream. Prices will range from $28 to $32 . Rounds are deep-fried pizza, similar to Pizza Montanara from Naples. At Artichoke, the pizza bases are first deep-fried so they puff up. Then, depending on what goes on them, baked and topped, or topped and baked. The BAP or Bacon Apple Pie comes with pancetta, apple butter, brie cream, hazelnuts and rosemary. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN Variations include BAP or Bacon Apple Pie, with pancetta, apple butter, brie cream, hazelnuts and rosemary; and Black Bolognese, with spicy octopus masak hitam, squid ink and potato cream. Prices will range from $30 to $34. Rounding off the menu will be a selection of snacks, including Beef Lasagne Nuggets, and burrata cheese with strawberry tomato kimchi and perilla; plates including fried chicken and Japanese Oyster & Mushroom pasta; and sweets such as cherry pie. A meal for two might include one snack, two pizzas or plates and a dessert. The average cheque is expected to be $35 to $40 a person – lower than Middle Eastern Artichoke's $69 a person Feed Me menu. Flipping the script on Artichoke will allow it to open all day and to offer delivery and pickup – both not viable in its current iteration. The restaurant in the River Valley area is surrounded by condominiums. Rabbit hole Chef Shen's pizza awakening happened in Osaka in 2017. After days of eating nothing but Japanese food on a trip there, he decided to walk into a 16-seat place called I Love Pizza. It was the first time he ate Neapolitan pizza. 'I was blown away,' he says. 'I'm like, 'Why am I liking the crust so much?' So, I Googled Neapolitan pizza , and then I went down the rabbit hole.' What followed was a deep dive into pizza, although he found it difficult to find proper Neapolitan pizza in Singapore. One place he found was Pizza Fabbrica in Haji Lane. He says it serves pies with leopard spots – the rim of the pizza sports charred spots, the hallmark of authentic Neapolitan pizza. In 2018, he visited 20 pizza restaurants in nine days in Tokyo and, the following year, went on a pizza tour of Bangkok. In 2023, he went to Rome, and then to Caserta, home of I Masanielli, named the top pizzeria in Italy every year since 2019 by the influential 50 Top Pizza guide. In 2020, he started Small's, a four-seat space within Artichoke, then located in Middle Road, serving pizza omakase. Even then, he was 'artichoking' pizza. The meal included Neapolitan-style pies and the highlight was Pizza Alla Banh Mi, pizza dough baked, split and stuffed with a mountain of banh mi fillings – Vietnamese charcuterie, pickles, herbs and tomatoes. He co-owns Baba G's Pizza Place in Seminyak, Bali, with Artichoke head chef Mathew Woon, 41. They serve Neapolitan pizzas there, for a mostly tourist clientele. Bjorn Shen's pizza will come in two formats – Slabs and Rounds. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN So, the switch to pizza does not come out of the blue, he says. Pivoting seems to come naturally to chef Shen. Small's, which went from four seats at Artichoke to a full-fledged restaurant in Lavender Street and back to a seven-seat space in Artichoke, has moved away from pizza omakase. It now serves whatever chef Shen fancies. Currently, it is an All-Fish Korean BBQ menu at $145 a person. The next menu is expected to feature beef and kakigori or Japanese-style shaved ice. Baba G's started out as Babaghanoush in August 2024, serving Middle Eastern barbecue with ingredients from Balinese markets. It became Baba G's Pizza Place in May 2025 . Chef Shen has put in about $200,000, and finds the market there challenging. He is having better returns from Nep!, a 14-seat natural wine bar in Penang he co-owns with two former Artichoke staff – chef Koh Yee Ming, 31, and Goh Chia Ye, 29, a sommelier. It opened in June 2024 and serves small plate food made with ingredients from the markets there. His $80,000 investment has already paid dividends. In 15 years of running Artichoke and doing consultancy work in Singapore and abroad for restaurant groups and hotels, he has come to realise the need to diversify. He says: 'I need to spread my wings out of Singapore. People come to me for consulting gigs here, and I keep telling them I cannot guarantee success. Just because Artichoke's been around for a while, I cannot make your restaurant a success. 'I can't even guarantee that if I open another restaurant in Singapore, it will be a success. There are so many factors stacked against you. One of them is manpower. Without it, we can't do anything, we're just crippled. So, I've been trying to open in places where manpower is a bit more abundant.' The question now is whether the Artichoke pivot to pizza will work. He says his wife Roxanne Toh, 40, who handles the administrative and human resource side of the business, is fine with it. They have two daughters aged eight and six, and a baby boy is due in August. He says: 'She knows I have this thing for pizza. I've got a stupid pizza tattoo, you know? She knows.' For some years, Artichoke used 'Still not dead' as its anniversary tagline. Scrappiness might get a restaurant through its first few years, but then experience must count for something at the 15-year mark. Chef Shen says: 'If I want to build a lasting thing in Singapore, if I want to really entrench ourselves in the hearts and minds of people over time, it needs to be something that is tailored more to the Singapore taste.' So, despite his love for Neapolitan pizza, Artichoke will serve what he thinks will intrigue Singaporeans and also resonate with them. 'Thick, crunchy, full of toppings. Not like Neapolitan, where all your 'liao' is in the middle and then the sides are like, whoa, throw away,' he says, using the Hokkien word for ingredients. None of this is to say he is done flying by the seat of his pants. He is not a gun-slinging maverick for nothing. On the menu of Artichoke, New School Pizza Parlor, he talks about why it is now serving pizza, ending with 'Let's see if we go another 15 years, or if this was a dumb idea'. There is also a new tagline: 'Cheating death since 2010.' Still not dead, all grown up.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Olivia Wilde cuts a trendy figure in a white love heart T-shirt and flared trousers as she goes shopping in London
Olivia Wilde cut a trendy figure as she stepped out for a spot of shopping in London's Primrose Hill on Tuesday. The American actress, 41, turned heads in a white T-shirt emblazoned with a red love heart graphic, featuring short sleeves and a slightly cropped fit. She teamed the casual top with a pair of cream-flared trousers, which boasted a drawstring waist and relaxed silhouette. Olivia kept it comfortable in black-and-white trainers and wore her wavy dirty blonde locks loose over her shoulders. The Don't Worry Darling director completed her laid-back look with a pair of oversized black sunglasses and toted her essentials in a black Artichoke tote bag. Olivia's outing comes after she visited a pub near her ex-boyfriend Harry Styles', 31, London neighbourhood last month as he is reportedly building a £30million super-mansion in the neighbouring area Hampstead. Harry is said to be restoring a Grade II-listed former 18th-century mansion to its former glory after it was divided up into two semi-detached homes in the 1950s. Set over four acres in leafy Hampstead, North London, Harry purchased the larger property for £8.8 million in April 2019 and the smaller adjoining house for £4.175million seven months later. Last summer, MailOnline exclusively revealed he had submitted a detailed planning application for his extensive renovation project and was reportedly given the green light earlier this year. Director Olivia was romantically linked to Harry from January 2021 until November 2022 after meeting him on the set of her film Don't Worry Darling. She had previously been engaged and shares two children with her ex-fiancé, Jason Sudeikis, 49 - Otis Alexander, 11, and Daisy Josephine, eight - who she split from in early 2020. Olivia and Harry were reported to have experienced an instant attraction on the Don't Worry Darling set, despite their 10-year age gap. A source told PEOPLE at the time: 'Everyone saw it coming. During breaks, he hasn't been able to stay away and visited her trailer.' By February 2021, the couple were said to be 'very serious' about each other, with a source claiming that Harry was 'very happy' with Olivia. Harry is said to be restoring a Grade II-listed former 18th-century mansion to its former glory after it was divided up into two semi-detached homes in the 1950s (pictured 2023) The relationship even progressed to the point where Olivia had introduced the former X Factor star to her children. A year later, Olivia told Vogue: 'I'm happier than I've ever been. And I'm healthier than I've ever been, and it's just wonderful to feel that.' Harry echoed this sentiment in April of 2022, describing himself as 'really happy'. He also said the relationship had a positive effect on his music and told SiriusXM's The Morning Mash Up that the process of making Harry's House had been the most 'joyous' experience of his career so far. The star is believed to have referenced Olivia in the lyrics of As It Was, namely: 'I don't wanna talk about the way that it was, leave America, two kids follow her, I don't wanna talk about who's doin' it first.' However, their intense work schedules and conflicting priorities were reported to be the cause of their eventual split, which was initially reported to be a 'break'. A source told PEOPLE at the time: 'They have had some issues, but Olivia thought they were gonna work through it all. She is disappointed. It's just a tricky situation, though.' In February 2023, it emerged that their relationship was over for good, with a source claiming that the pair remain good friends.
FACT
25-03-2025
- Lifestyle
- FACT
Sohum Wellness Sanctuary welcomes TAAMA restaurant
Located in Al Qouz, TAAMA offers a mindul focused menu. TAAMA restaurant has opened in Sohum Wellness Sanctuary, and prides itself on offering mindful eating. Located in Al Qouz, Dubai, it is a serene spot in the heart of the city. TAAMA aims to fill your stomachs as well as your souls. Founded by holistic expert, Tanya Mansotra, the restaurant has been created with passion and dedication. The concept celebrates nature and aims to encourage relaxation. At TAAMA, guests can enjoy plant-based dining, which is rooted in wellness at its core. Executive Chef Fabienne Saroufim is behind the menu, which draws inspiration from her studies of molecular gastronomy. She has approached food as both a science and an art form, and uses an open-flame approach. Artichoke Spread comes with spices, mutabbal, hibachi grilled skewer and lime. Lion's Mane is slow-roasted over the open fire to create a smoky richness. The non-alcoholic cocktails have been created with Lyre's. The list includes Al Cozy, a nod to the Al Quoz location, and Crown Bliss, a butterfly pea tea. Plus, the ingredients span Ayurvedic properties and have wellness attributes. In 2024, Sohum Wellness Sanctuary opened. The centre combines ancient wisdom and spiritual practices. Drawing inspiration from Indian spirituality, the concept is based on the Sanskrit mantra Sohum. The team's mission is to help guests find balance in their body, mind, and spirit. Sohum Wellness Sanctuary offers a range of treatments, which include bespoke offerings that cater to the unique needs of guests. Plus, the venue will be home to world-class amenities including state-of-the-art therapy rooms, wellness rituals, and a shop with exclusive products. TAAMA is open now. Check in with FACT for the best things to do in Dubai. GO: Visit for more information.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Date set for Lumiere Durham 2025 - here's all the details you need to know
A date for this year's Lumiere Durham has been set, as details of the event have been set out by organisers. The hugely popular event will take place over three evenings this autumn, from Thursday, November 13 to Saturday, November 15, 2025. Produced and curated by Artichoke and commissioned by Durham County Council, Lumiere, which happens every other year, has attracted over 1.3 million visitors and boosted the local economy by more than £43 million since it began in 2009. Lumiere Durham pictured Javiers Riera's Liquid Geometry from November 2023 (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) For Lumiere's 9th edition, a brand new programme has been revealed. According to organisers, this year, Lumiere 2025 will continue to "enchant visitors" and locals in a revised format, taking place over three evenings, from Thursday to Saturday, 13-15 November. Durham Lumiere 2021 - 'Lampounette' by TILT, France (Image: STUART BOULTON) Lumiere 2025 offers new opportunities for the local community to take part in and develop skills, showcasing County Durham's creativity on a national stage. People connected to the event are inviting local businesses and individuals to make a difference and invest in Lumiere. Durham Lumiere 2023 - Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Pulse Topology (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) With arts funding under pressure, organisers have urged people to invest in the popular event. Artichoke has welcomed new major partners, Prima Cheese and Northern Powergrid, alongside longstanding supporters such as Durham University, EMG Solicitors, MGL Construction, Radisson Blu Durham, New College Durham, and Ramside Hall Hotel. If people want to be part of the event, get in touch with Artichoke's development director, Ma'ayan Plane (Ma' Artistic director of Artichoke, Helen Marriage said: 'We're so excited to be returning to Durham to programme the next edition of Lumiere, the landmark cultural event in the North East. Durham Lumiere 2021 - 'Heron' by Jon Voss (Image: STUART BOULTON) "As well as providing a unique platform for some of the world's greatest artists, and giving everyone the chance to see great art, Lumiere has been consistent over the years in bringing tangible benefits to the local community, building the local economy and training local kids. "It is made possible only because of the amazing partnerships forged over the years with Durham County Council, Arts Council England, and Durham's local institutions and businesses who all invest in the event to bring wider benefits to the community.' Cllr Amanda Hopgood, Leader of Durham County Council and portfolio holder for Culture, Creative, Tourism and Sport at the North East Combined Authority added: 'Lumiere is a shining example of the transformative power of culture on our communities, our businesses and our wider economy. Recommended reading: Amazon chooses Darlington for UK first drone deliveries to your street County Durham MP calls for extra funding for rural schools with small budgets Review into the dangers of ketamine welcomed by Durham PCC as abuse of drug soars "It has played a crucial role in establishing Durham as the Culture County, inspiring similar events across the world and continuing our long-standing tradition of innovation and investment in the arts. "From the thousands of residents who have taken part in outreach activities, to the businesses that have benefited from the increased footfall, to the 1.3 million people who have been blown away by the spectacular light installations – the positive impact of Lumiere cannot be overstated. 'We're delighted to commission Artichoke and to work with partners including Arts Council England and generous sponsors to bring Lumiere to County Durham once again in 2025."
