The World Gourmet Summit in Singapore enters its 10th year with a stellar line-up of chefs, outstanding wines and special programmes in molecular gastronomy, French charcuterie, tea appreciation and even barbecue.

The event, from April 10 to 28, welcomes Michelin three-star chefs Philippe Legendre of Paris and the self-taught Santi Santamaria of Catalonia, Spain. In addition, Michelin-starred chefs Paco Roncero of Spain (Ferran Adrias' principal disciple), Gennaro Esposito of Italy, Kevin Thornton of Ireland, Antonin Bonnet of Great Britain and Laurent Tourondel of BLT (Fish) in New York will be cooking.

The line-up includes chefs Susur Lee of Canada, Terje Ness of Norway and Alessandro Stratta from Wynn in Las Vegas as well.

The World Gourmet Summit is the granddaddy of culinary confabs in Asia. Founded a decade ago to draw tourists to Singapore during one of its hottest months, it has been a great success, involving all the city-state's major hotels and its top restaurants.

For the first time, 10 of Singapore's leading restaurants will offer themed menus to compliment the star chefs' dinners at the hotels. Such establishments as Au Jardin, Garibaldi and Au Petit Salut will be hosting the French charcuterie and molecular gastronomy dinners.

Wineries hosting tastings at the summit include Frances Domaine Bonneau Du Martray, Chateau-Figeac, Domaine Joseph Faiveley, Chateau Cos dEstournel and Domaine Michel Gros. From the Piedmont region of Italy comes Luciano Sandrone.

The Macallan will host a single-malt Scotch whisky tasting and Meat & Livestock Australia will close the 19-day feast with a gourmet barbecue.

Running concurrently with the World Gourmet Summit is Food & Hotel Asia 2006, an exhibition for the food and hospitality industry.

Nearly 2,900 companies from 60 countries will display equipment, food and beverages, furnishings, catering equipment and housekeeping products.

FHA 2006 will be held from April 25 to 28 at Singapore Expo, Halls one to six, and will feature conferences, workshops and courses in wine tasting, baking, food safety and industry trends.

It will also hold cooking and wine-judging competitions.

Eleven chefs from Thailand will be competing against 600 chefs from 21 countries in the FHA 2006 Culinary Challenge.

Last year, two Thailand-based chefs won the best ice-carving team title.

For more information, look up www.worldgourmet-summit.com. For details on the FHA 2006, visit www.foodnhotelasia.com.

Hal Lipper

The Nation