WSFC16 DIALOGUE SPEAKER LIST

Based on this year’s theme of “The Comforting Flavours of Home”, a selection of distinguished speakers and presenters from around the world specializing in various aspects of field will channel their thoughts on that topic. It will be a multi-sensory and multi-faceted two way chat on the topic, over two days (20^th and 21^st April). The stellar and learned line of speakers include.

Anton Diaz

The creator of the widely read food and travel blog in Philippines, Our Awesome Planet, Anton Diaz is also the co-founder of Mercato Centrale, a popular weekend night street market in 2010. Together with RJ Ledesma, Diaz aims to promote and celebrate Filipino heritage food and street food culture. Impressed with the hawker centres in Singapore, they are looking to set up Filipino hawker stalls around Metro Manila to improve the education and incubate the next generation of successful home-based food entrepreneurs, and elevate the quality, cleanliness and branding of street food. Anton Diaz was part of the panel in World Street Food Congress 2015.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brett Burmeister

It all started in 1991, when Brett Burmeister had his first taste of food cart, Honkin’ Huge Burrito, since then he has been actively pursuing and advocating street food in Portland, Oregon. The managing editor and owner of Food Carts Portland, Burmeister has since wrote and tasted over 1000 street vendors in Portland and everywhere else. He also helps and advises street food vendors on how to stay on the right side of the mobile vending laws. His reputation has spread far and wide; the Oregon native and his business partners decided to launch NOLAFoodTrucks.com as an advocacy to the street food scene in New Orleans. Brett Burmeister was part of the panel in World Street Food Congress 2013.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chef Duangporn from Bo Lan restaurant, Thailand

Chef Duangporn Songivsava (Bo) has always have a passion and desire to create exceptional Thai food. It all started when she decided to pursue her Masters in Gastronomy in Adelaide, and then joined the team at Cy’an in the Metropolitan hotel Bangkok. Bo then moved to London to work at Nahm, it was there she met Dylan Jones. Sharing similar ideas and visions, they went on to open the popular Thai restaurant Bo. Lan in Bangkok. In favour of returning back to the local community, Bo.Lan works closely with local farmers, advocates the use of bio-diversified produce and aims to achieve a zero carbon restaurant by 2018.  Bo.Lan is ranked in the Asia’s Best Restaurant Awards.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ian Kittichai

Chef Pongtawat Chalermkittichai, commonly known as Ian Kittichai, is one of the most internationally acclaimed Thai chefs. Chef Ian Kittichai started his affinity with the culinary industry when he helped his mother with her curry pushcart business – Kittichai would accompany her during grocery shopping and then later, the selling of curries. With a bit of lady luck, talent and hardwork, he was given a culinary school scholarship, scored an apprenticeship at a French fine dining restaurant in Sydney, Cladue’s. Since then the founder of Cuisine Concept Co, a global food and beverage consulting firm, has opened restaurants internationally and is the first Asia Geographical Indication Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property, and the AgenceFrancaise de Developpement. He is also a council member of The World Street Food Congress, along with Anthony Bourdain, KF Seetoh, and Claus Meyer, amongst other culinary luminaries.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

KF Seetoh

KF Seetoh a TV host, author and Founder of World Street Food Congress and Makansutra. He began his career as a photojournalist before spending almost two decades as commercial lensman. He saw opportunities in the world of street food in the 90s and set up Makansutra, a company dedicated to promote and celebrate heritage and street food. It has interests in street food market operations, street food guides, events and consultancy. He created the charming Makansutra Gluttons Bay at the Esplanade Singapore about ten years ago.  He hosts his own TV show on local channels and on the Asian Food Channel. He has his own Food Surprise show on TLC, Discovery. In 2012, he saw the need to champion the causes and opportunities available in the planet street food and gathered his faithful pals and buddies, including William Wongso, Jean George Vongerichtien and Anthony Bourdain and a host of top international hawkers, and created The World Street Food Congress in 2013. The WSFC16 is the first international edition of the event after two successful runs in Singapore. CNN calls him the “Guru of Grub” and The New York Times cites him as a “food maven”.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Malcolm Lee

Regarded as one of the hot shots in Peranakan food scene in Singapore, Malcom Lee is the new-thinking-Generation-Y head chef and owner of Candlenut. He was the first Singaporean recipient of the Miele Guide Scholarship. He worked in food establishments in the United States and operated a student cafe-bar at the Singapore Management University, before starting his first Peranakan restaurant in 2010 – which shuttered down in 2012 and reopened in a new location in 2013. He uses modern technology and cooking processes to quicken yet maintain traditions, like using a sous-vide method in his kitchen. He has a very creative and forward thinking 14 course progressive Omakse (he calls it AhMakase) menu. Lee was part of the San Sebastian 2015 Gastronomika and Singapore: Inside Out 2015 in New York.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Odilia Wineke, Food Editor

A food editor at Detik.com since 2002, Ms Odilia Wineke has been dabbling her hands in the food industry for over 20 years. Odilia took on many roles; she was the food editor for Femina Magazine, a food stylist for various restaurants in designing their advertisements and food specialist at PT Nestle Indonesia. The author of 12 cook books, she was also the executive producer for several Indonesian cooking programs. Odilia Wineke was part of the Presenters panel in World Street Food Congress 2015.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Richard Tan

The former Director of the Hawker Centres Division of the National Environement Agency (NEA, which oversees operation and development of the hawker centres) in Singapore, Richard Tan was responsible for the formulation and implementation of Hawkers’ Policies and the planning and development of 10 new hawker centres. Under his watch, is the management of 107 hawker centres and markets with about 15, 000 stallholders. Richard has since retired from the public service in 2015, and is now presently engaged as an advisor and consultant on several projects regionally with an agency, that was tasked to manage hawker centres in Singapore by NEA. Richard Tan was part of the panel in World Street Food Congress 2013.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sangeeta Singh

Sangeeta Singh protects the livelihood of street vendors in India through the National Association of Street Cendors of India (NASVI). A non-government organisation, NASVI is constantly challenging and defending the rights of about 10 million street vendors in India, of which 6 million hawk food.  In 2014, with some ideas they gleaned from WSFC13, they successfully implored the federal government to recognise and legitimise all itinerant vendors throughout India. The head of NASVI, she ensures that the street food vendors and policy makers are on the same path, facilitates food handling and hygiene maintenance and also organises street food festival at national (the Nasvi Delhi Street Food Festival), and worldwide level. Sangeeta Singh was awarded the Bihar Samman by the Chief Minister of Bihar for her exceptional work with street food vendors and was part of the panel in World Street Food Congress (WSFC) 2013 and 2015.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sean Basinski 

It all started in 1998, when Sean Basinski spent his summer selling burritos from a pushcart on the corner of 52^nd Street and Park Avenue, and was constantly harassed by the law. The rest was history. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Pennsylvania, Basinski got a $15,000 grant from Yale Law School to set up Street Vendor Project (SVP), a non-profit oranisation that provides legal representation and advocacy for the 20,000 people who make a living on the sidewalks of New York City. The director of SVP, he also serves as a board member of the Food Chain Workers Alliance. Sean Basinski was part of the panel in World Street Food Congress 2015.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

William Wongso

William W. Wongso is Indonesia’s most famous culinary expert and authority. He is considered the nation’s food ambassador and was a culinary consultant Gaurda airlines. With a list of titles under his name, Wongso is also a renowned restaurateur, food consultant, critique and popular television host. A passion for food, Wongso has introduced the different flavours of Indonesian food, from street food sellers to fine dining restaurants. Through this, he aims to promote the rich Indonesian traditional cuisine on the world of culinary map. William W. Wongso was part of the panel in World Street Food Congress 2013 and 2015.

________________________________________________________________________________

Woo Wai Leong, First MasterChef Asia 2015

A leap of faith and a passion for food (he started cooking in his teens and entered cooking competition in university) were the key ingredients that pushed Woo Wai Leong into taking time off his final year of law training to join MasterChef Asia. He joined, cooked and conquered – Woo took the title of the first MasterChef Asia 2015. What sets him apart from the other competitors was his creative take on Singapore’s heritage dishes – using Asian and Italian cooking styles, he created a Chilli Crab Pate a Choux Gnocchi. You can now find this qualified lawyer part-timing at Horse’s Mouth, shaking up a storm (mixologist) while writing his upcoming cookbook.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________