Fleeing civil war in Sierra Leone, Brian Cole spent his former years in Guinea and Ghana before relocating to Perth, Australia, on a refugee programme in 2004. Fast forward 20 years and Brian is one of the hottest young chefs in the country, overseeing the pots at 3-hat Hearth Restaurant and Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Perth and snagging The Western Australian Good Food Guide’s Young Chef of the Year 2024.

At Hearth, Brian cooks Modern Australian; drawing both produce and inspiration from the West’s bountiful endemic pantry but for Kita Food Festival in Singapore, on March 14 and 15, Brian will be cooking fine dining West African at Tamba on Duxton Road.

Drawing from family recipes and the dishes his family used to celebrate together (which his mother has helped write several of them), he will present a fancy showcase of Sierra Leone and West African cuisine in a seven-course tasting menu. Think: barbecue chicken wing stuffed with oleleh- a paste of steamed black eyed peas with onion usually served hot at parties in Sierra Leone; cured scallops with cucumber “gron” soup- a cold soup made with fresh cucumber and dried fish; confit of pork belly, tomato stew, jollof rice- a typical, and very tasty, one put rice dish from West Africa; plantain mousse with tamarind caramel and ground selim- tree seed ice-cream.