Past Events
Kita Food Festival 2025
Singapore
The 2025 Singapore Weekender, held March 12–17, featured four-hands dinners with Kelvin Cheung of Jun’s (Dubai) cooking with Eugene See from Birds of a Feather (Singapore) and Raymond Tham of Beta (Kuala Lumpur) cooking with Marvas Ng from, Path (Singapore). Kitchen takeovers included Syrco Bakker from Syrco BASÈ (Bali, Indonesia), Brian Cole of Hearth Restaurant and & Lounge (Perth, Australia), Keiko Kuwakino from Satoyama Jujo (Niigata, Japan), Darren Teoh of Dewakan (Kuala Lumpur), and Chalee Kader from Wana Yook (Bangkok, Thailand).
On March 15, the Big Barbecue at Gourmet Park Kampong Bugis had chefs Linn Yong (Limau & Linen, Kota Kinabalu), Taiki Rattanapong of Homeburg (Bangkok, Thailand), Waymann Cheong from Lucky Hole (Penang), Ricardo Allen of Camp Caribbean (Singapore), Adam Penney of Carnaby (Singapore) and Jhiun Dick Leong from Open Farm Community (Singapore) cooking together. The next day, Graze & Groove at Kult Yard featured Southeast Asian street bites with DJ’s playing old vinyls from the region. The festival closed with the Future of Food Symposium at New Bahru, which explored what we might be eating in a decade from now–featuring speakers such as Eelke Plasmeijer of Locavore NXT (Bali, Indonesia), Helianti Hilman from Javara (Jakarta, Indonesia), Guillette Ferato of Blueyou, Prof. William Chen from Nanyang Technological University Singapore, and more.
Kita Food Festival 2024
Kuala Lumpur
Kita’s KL Weekender 2024 featured kitchen takeovers and four-hand dinners by Ben Devlin (Pipit, Pottsville), Louis Tikaram of Stanley (Brisbane, Australia), Prin Polsuk of Samrub Samrub Thai (Bangkok, Thailand), Jimmy Ophorst of PRU (Phuket, Thailand) Johnson Ebenezer from Farmlore (Banglore, India) Hans Christian from August (Jakarta, Indonesia) and Christophe Lerouy of Lerouy (Singapore) that collaborated with local restaurants in the city like Yellow Fin Horse, Raw, Fifty Tales, Akar Dining, Potager, Entier and HIDE.
Over the weekend, A Food Affair was held at The Toffee, KL with events like Marketplace, Kita Conversations featuring speakers such as Su Kim Hock of Au Jardin (Penang) and Suzanne Ling of PichaEats (Kuala Lumpur) and Masterclasses by Pete Smit of Dirty Supper (Singapore), Karen Yap of Karen’s Plate (Kuala Lumpur) and others. To wrap the weekend up– our Big Sunday Barbecue at Botanica & Co, Bamboo Hills featured chefs from restaurants such as Nadodi, Dewakan, Ignis and S.A.J. Bistronomy by Leens from Kuala Lumpur.
Kota Kinabalu
Our last Weekender for 2024 was held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The lineup included two four-hand cooking collaborations: one with Aidan Low of Akâr Dining (Kuala Lumpur) and Raphael Peter Lee of OITOM (Kota Kinabalu), and another with Ray Adriansyah of Locavore NXT (Bali, Indonesia) and Linn Yong of Limau & Linen (Kota Kinabalu). The weekend culminated in a Big Sunday Barbecue featuring six chefs, including Darren Teoh of Dewakan (Kuala Lumpur), Johnson Wong of Gēn (Penang) and Ho Jun Yip of Hyatt Centric (Kota Kinabalu) at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru.
In addition to these dining events, a mini Kita Conversations session was hosted at Hyatt Centric, with speakers such as Oliver Truesdale-Jutras of Re:Growth (Singapore) and Josephine Lu of Jaws & Claws Chocolate (Kota Kinabalu).
Kita Food Festival 2023
Kuala Lumpur
Our final stop for 2023 was back home in KL. First up came a series of four-hand dinners, both ritzy and casual: from a collaboration between René Stein of Tisane (Nürnberg, Germany) with Darren Teoh at Dewakan, to Chele Gonzalez of Galley by Chele (Manila, the Philippines) serving up tapas at Mano.
We held a Big Sunday Barbecue at Botanica+Co’s leafy Bamboo Hills location, with four chefs from Singapore and four from Kuala Lumpur. Kita Conversations saw culinary greats including David Thompson, Diana Chan, Khir Johari, and food waste hacker Benjamin Lephilibert. Then came the grand finale: a Thank You Dinner prepared by our 2023 Horizons chefs.
Singapore
2023 marked our debut into the Lion City. Curated by Brazilian chef Ivan Brehm from Michelin-starred Nouri (Singapore), the weekend consisted of a series of four- and six- hand dinners and lunches, followed by a Big Sunday Barbecue with eight of the city’s hottest chefs cooking over charcoal at Coop Coop.
The long weekend ended with Kita Conversations, an all-day symposium where we heard from some of the sharpest culinary thinkers from across the globe, including Anissa Helou, Prateek Sadhu, Matt Stone and Matthew Orlando.
Penang
Our 2023 Penang weekender was a brilliant affair, with a series of four-hand and takeover dinners featuring: Vaughan Mabee from Amisfield (Queenstown, New Zealand) with Kim Hock Su at Au Jardin (Penang); Hans Christian from August (Jakarta, Indonesia) cooking new Nusantara cuisine with Johnson Wong from Gēn (Penang); and a kitchen takeover by Peranakan-cuisine chef Malcolm Lee from Michelin-starred Candlenut (Singapore).
We wrapped up the weekend with The Great Mezze at ChinaHouse, with four Singapore chefs and four Penang chefs cooking up elevated and unpretentious fare, shoulder-to-shoulder.
Kuching
We kicked off our 2023 festival with a debut in Kuching, hosting a four-hand dinner between chef Anthony Yeoh of Summer Hill (Singapore) and John Lim of Roots (Kuching).
The hook? French classics prepared using the wonderful endemic ingredients of Sarawak.
Kita Food Festival 2022
Langkawi
Our 2021 Festival began with our first-ever stop in Langkawi. Chefs Darren Teoh of Dewakan (Kuala Lumpur), Prateek Sadhu of Naar (Mumbai, India) and Chai Chun Boon of the Datai Langkawi cooked up a beautiful dinner against the idyllic backdrop of the Datai –– a most memorable start!
Penang
The weekend in Penang played host to two great collaborative dinners: Andrew Martin from 80:20 (Bangkok, Thailand) with Johnson Wong at Gēn (Penang), and Aitor Jeronimo Orive from Basque Kitchen by Aitor (Singapore) with Sun Kim Hock at Au Jardin. All of these chefs then joined CC Lee, Tan Hong Tat (Wagyu Tan), Mathijs Nanne, and Nurilkarim for the Great Mezze at ChinaHouse.
Kuala Lumpur
Our stop in Kuala Lumpur saw a total of 9 collaborative dinners, a multi-chef Big Barbecue at Tiffin at the Yard, and the launch of Conversations, our symposium series of talks and panels by key F&B industry leaders.
Kita Food Festival 2021
Kuala Lumpur
Where it all began. Our first KL Weekender consisted of 20 events over 5 days, including masterclasses, dinners and a Big Sunday Barbecue. More than 30 delegates participated, including Jeff Ramsay, Toni Valero, Jun Wong, Noreen Ramli, Joe Tan, Chai Chun Boon, Tubby, Sricharan Venkatesh, Masashi Horiuchi, Zoe Rai, Raymond Tham, Jack Weldie, Shaun Ng, Lroy Lim, Syuk Othman, Takashi Kimura, Tan Meng How, Wong Yin How, Tan Wei Loom and Darren Teoh, plus the teams from Aliyaa, Junglebird, Eats Shoots and Roots and Native Discovery.
Penang
Our first Penang Weekender saw three fantastic collaborations between chefs from Kuala Lumpur and Penang: Tyson Gee from ATAS (Kuala Lumpur) and Kim Hock Su at Au Jardin (Penang); Shaun Ng from Hide (Kuala Lumpur) and Johnson Wong from Gēn (Penang); and finally, a kitchen takeover at ChinaHouse by Gary Anwar of Ember (Kuala Lumpur).
