The SingTel Hawker Heroes Challenge was organised by SingTel and was held on 7 July 2013 at the Newton Food Centre. Live streaming of the challenge was broadcast by Singtel on its HungryGoWhere portal, as well as the announcement of results on Mio TV. The challenge involved popular television personality and UK chef, Gordon Ramsay, pitting his skills against a group of chosen food hawkers in Singapore.
Voting
On 5 June 2013, Singapore food bloggers and Singtel submitted a challenge to Gordon Ramsay to compete in a cook-off with top hawkers in Singapore. Ramsay accepted the challenge on 24 June.
Voting began on 25 June with 12 food hawkers selected around Singapore.
The top 3 winning hawkers were then chosen on 3 July to compete against Ramsay in the final showdown.
| Votes for top 12 food hawkers | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Food | Shop | Total Votes | |||||
| 1 | Chilli Crab | Jumbo Seafood Restaurant | 319,922 | |||||
| 2 | Chicken Rice | Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice | 318,151 | |||||
| 3 | Laksa | 328 Katong Laksa | 316,611 | |||||
| 4 | Carrot Cake | Hai Sheng Carrot Cake | 289,365 | |||||
| 5 | Char Kway Teow | Hill Street Fried Kway Teow | 199,828 | |||||
| 6 | Nasi Lemak | Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak | 177,795 | |||||
| 7 | Prata Murtabak | Sin Ming Roti Prata | 171,240 | |||||
| 8 | Claypot Chicken Rice | New Lucky Claypot Chicken Rice | 165,515 | |||||
| 9 | Roast Meat | Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint | 156,389 | |||||
| 10 | Prawn Noodles | Noo Cheng Adam Road Big Prawn Mee | 135,527 | |||||
| 11 | Hokkien Mee | Eng Ho Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee | 131,688 | |||||
| 12 | Bak Kut Teh | Outram Ya Hua Rou Gu Cha Restaurant | 131,150 | |||||
Preparation
Gordon Ramsay was given with a timeline of two days to master all three dishes. He arrived in Singapore on 5 July 2013 and visited the first stall Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice in the noon. A large group of fans were present at Maxwell Food Centre to catch a glimpse of him while he received some tips on how to cook the chicken rice. Later in the day, he also gained tips on how to cook the chilli crab from Jumbo Seafood Restaurant.
On 6 July 2013, Gordon Ramsay met his other rival of 328 Katong Laksa. Upon tasting the laksa sauce, Gordon revealed that he had to change his original plan as he felt that the sauce was better than he'd expected.
Results
On 7 July 2013, Singaporeans began queuing as early as 1 a.m. to get a chance to sample and vote for their favourite local dishes.
Voting was done in the form of SMS and was opened to the 1,000 guests who had turned up to sample Gordon Ramsey's and the hawker's dishes. Each voter had a chance to vote for their favourite dish in the three different categories.
At 9pm, a total of 3,000 votes were tabulated from the members of public and Singapore hawkers emerged as winners. Gordon Ramsay lost by 6% of the total votes, but managed to edge out the chef of Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in the Chilli crab category as his version was voted as the better one.
| Percentage of votes for Singapore vs. Ramsey challenge | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food dish | Hawker Heroes | Gordon Ramsay | Winner | |||||
| Chicken Rice | 53% | 47% | Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice | |||||
| Chilli Crab | 47.5% | 52.5% | Gordon Ramsay | |||||
| Laksa | 59.5% | 40.5% | 328 Katong Laksa | |||||
References
- "Get live updates for Gordon Ramsay vs Hawker Heroes". hungrygowhere.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay accepts the SingTel Food Challenge". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Which hawker heroes will Gordon Ramsay cook against?". hungrygowhere.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Game on for Top 3 Hawker Heroes and Ramsay". hungrygowhere.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "View Poll Results". SingTel. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Fan mobs, chicken rice, and a kinder, gentler Gordon Ramsay". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Gordon Ramsay meets 328 Katong Laksa rival". Yahoo! Singapore. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "S'pore hawkers beat Gordon Ramsay in local food challenge". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Gordon Ramsay wins chilli crab, loses Hawker Heroes challenge". hungrygowhere.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- "Gordon Ramsay loses Hawker Heroes Challenge". TODAYonline. Retrieved 2013-07-08.