Michelin-starred Nouri chef Ivan Brehm serves up his life story
At a 10-course storytelling experience, he revisits childhood kitchens, culinary awakenings and career trials
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[SINGAPORE] Ivan Brehm has always preferred to let his cooking speak for him. The Singapore-based Brazilian chef is wary of the celebrity culture surrounding fine dining, even though his restaurant Nouri has just been awarded a Michelin star again.
He is far more comfortable discussing culinary history, migration and the connections between different food traditions than drawing attention to himself.
So when playwright-director Huzir Sulaiman suggested making Brehm’s life the subject of their first artistic collaboration, the chef demurred: “I’m still alive. Why are we writing a biography? I’m not a dead guy.”
Nevertheless, the two kept talking and the result is A Matter Of Taste, an unusual meeting of restaurant and storytelling staged at Nouri from Aug 18 to 30.
Just 24 guests will sit around the restaurant’s open kitchen, as Brehm and actor Ramzie Tahar recount 10 episodes from the chef’s life, each followed by a dish created from the memory.
The experience runs for nearly three hours and costs S$348++ a person.
It was not what Brehm had envisaged when he approached Huzir. After organising countless collaborations with other chefs, he wanted to revise the format and work with artistes.
He imagined that he and Huzir might invent a play about food, perhaps drawing on the ideas behind Nouri’s “crossroads cooking” – an approach that explores the connections between different culinary traditions and turns shared histories into new dishes.
But Huzir had a better subject in mind: Brehm himself.
After dining at Nouri, the two became friends and Huzir says: “Ivan’s approach to life is inspiring… he’s constantly learning and seeking to master his craft, pushing through tough times to come out the other side.”
Stories as delicious as the food
The story begins in Brazil, with the kitchens of Brehm’s grandmothers and the grilled fish he made for his mother at nine.
It then follows him into the world: culinary school in the US; Per Se in New York; Mugaritz in Spain; Hibiscus and The Fat Duck in Britain; and finally Singapore, where he opened Nouri, Appetite and the now-defunct Bacchanalia.
This is not merely a parade of famous restaurant names.
Brehm left home at 16, endured the brutal hours of elite kitchens and encountered workplaces that sometimes offered mentorship, insight and cruelty all at once.
“Some of the chefs were incredible and took the role of mentorship really seriously,” he says. “Some of them were proper villains.”
Huzir sifted through more than 20 hours of interviewing Brehm, looking for “foundational experiences, turning points and Eureka moments”.
He says: “I wanted a balance of humour, emotion, inspiration and ‘foodie-nerdy’ detail. I wanted the stories to be as delicious as the food.”
Brehm then translated these memories into newly designed dishes.
A lobster dish returns him to the gruelling precision of Per Se. The “life-changing” Verduritas salad he encountered at Mugaritz is reinterpreted. Dishes associated with Hibiscus and The Fat Duck are reworked in his own voice.
Meanwhile, Ramzie, the actor, occupies a shifting role. At times he plays Brehm and at others, someone from Brehm’s past. He spent a month apprenticing in Nouri’s kitchen to learn its rhythms and routines.
For Brehm, the experience has clarified one important thing about his journey.
“You don’t do these things alone. Life has this tendency of providing you with many versions of your mother – the people who care for you, show you the ropes and help bring you closer to your vision.”
A Matter of Taste may be served as dinner, but its richest ingredient may be hindsight.
Tickets are available at checkpoint-theatre.org.
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