Singapore, May Day 2004

Dear Kids,

The Four Seasons Hotel, Singapore is one of the best hotels in the world as voted by almost every poll imaginable, and it is certainly one of my all time favorites.

Wanting to attend the World Gourmet Summit, I emailed General Manager, Chris Norton. Knowing the place was probably full, I asked if he could find me just a broom closet in which to hang.

I was rewarded with room 1619, a glorious corner room with sweeping views!

But the piéce de resistance was a chocolate sculpture of a broom closet, complete with brooms and buckets overflowing with chocolate bubbles, awaiting me on the desk!

Last evening I dined in the hotel’s great restaurant, One-Ninety, where guest-chef Suzanne Goin had prepared an exquisite, five-course dinner.

Featured on the cover of Gourmet, in Food and Wine and Bon Appetit magazines, Suzanne Goin is one of the hottest and most sought after chefs in America.

My dinner included a crisp and tangy endive starter, then heavenly pan-fried and cool foie gras, a Black Bass that should have been in the Opera (the Annual Singapore Arts Festival is underway), a Suckling Pig (bedded on leeks) that was deliciously both moist and crispy at the same time, all followed by a wildly rich, chocolate something that I’ll deny I ever ate!

No wonder Suzanne was named one of the ‘Best New Chefs’ of 1999 by Food and Wine, and was nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award in both 2003 and 2004! She is the owner of Lucques and of A.O.C. in Los Angeles. "Chapeau (vert)" to Chris for enticing her to One-Ninety… typical of his great taste and timing!

After dinner I bumped into Mr. and Mrs. Neil Jacobs. I have been raving about Neil’s leadership of the Four Seasons Group in Southeast Asia for years. Now that Chris has taken the helm here, Neil has moved up to ensure that the Four Seasons always wins the hearts and minds of the most demanding and sophisticated leisure and business travelers in the world. In my judgment, it’s always a clean sweep!

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