WHAT happens when a few artists decide to go into the food business? You get a completely new interpretation of what a cafe can be, besides a place to eat. Food#03 promotes itself as a vegetarian restaurant as well as an 'art project' - 'started by a group of creative people interested to change the world', so it says in its website and Facebook page.
Artist Woon Tien Wei, who runs the restaurant, says the name was inspired by Food#02, a project he did in art school. 'It was a work adapted from Gordon Matta-Clark, who co-founded a restaurant called Food in Soho, New York, that was managed by artists in the '70s,' he explains.
Woon's Food#02 idea, back in 1999, was to give a presentation over a lunch he cooked at the studio. Little did he think that it would develop into a full-fledged cafe. Hence the name Food#03 , which he hopes to build into a 'meaningful' place. 'We'd like to see how we can push the boundaries,' he adds.
The first task was to create a Western vegetarian menu, and for that, he roped in Robert Ern Yuan Guth, who has just finished his Masters at LaSalle College the Arts. The well-built Guth, with his goatee and hair in ponytails, is not a vegetarian himself although a crush on a girl who was a vegetarian was what put him on the green path.
With her as his muse, he's created a menu of pizza (pretty tasty thin-crust variety), salads (great dressings) and a couple of tempeh specials (the burger's not bad, moist and paired well with a crusty foccacia and fried egg, although an acquired taste). What will be a big draw, though, is the bread, freshly baked on the premises by German-trained Singaporean, Mike Tan. The wholewheat foccacia bread was very good, and what's baking is this idea of making customised breads upon order, says Woon.
As for jazzing up the food and art scene, 30 per cent of the proceeds from the cafe would go to Post-Museum, which is a cultural space next door. Its current exhibition, for instance, lays out the argument for vegetarianism.
Although it is just a few weeks old, Woon has already 'curated' a few happening activities, like the Green Drinks party it hosted earlier this week, attended by members of an environmentalists' network on Facebook. Up next is a Raw Food dinner, by Food#03's first guest chef, Paul Yeoh, held on Dec 6.
He hopes the guest chef scheme will take off and become a regular event. If art can be curated, so can food.
Food#03 109 Rowell Road
(S) 208033
Tel: 6396 7980
Open from 5pm to 10pm, Tuesday to Thursday. Friday, from 3pm to 11.30pm, Saturday and Sunday, 12pm-11pm.
