Hawkers’ cook-off with Gordon Ramsay upsets Newton stall owner
[UPDATE 10 July 2013 1.20am: Added SingTel's response]
A thousand people in Singapore got to eat food prepared by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and top local hawkers for free in a cook-off Sunday night.
So they were happy, but at least one person wasn’t – a stall owner at Newton Food Centre, where the event was held.
Rosly Samad, stall owner of Siti Khadijah Seafood, told Yahoo! Singapore that the event caused him to suffer about 60 per cent loss in business on Sunday night, which he estimated to be S$1,000.
He pointed out that the SingTel sponsored event gave away chilli crab, which is the key dish for several stalls at the food centre, including his.
“I have a cage full of crabs and I’m not able to sell them tonight because of the event,” said Rosly.
The stall owner believes the crowd was another reason for his loss in revenue for the night.
Rosly said that some of his customers complained that there were no parking lots, “since most of them have been blocked due to the event.” He added that it happened during the “peak dinner period between 7pm to 9pm”.
Rosly also complained that some of the people who got free food from the event occupied seats and tables meant for customers of the stalls at the food centre.
He said some customers were bothered by some of the rowdy behaviour of the people participating in the event. Before the cook-off started, there were people “standing on the tables and jumping like monkeys”, he noted.
Prior to the event, the organisers did go down to the food centre to inform the stall operators that the cook-off would be held at the popular hawker centre.
There were some objections, but despite this the organisers went ahead, he said.
Rosly believes that the organisers should have sat down with stall holders to “talk about the problems that will come about due to the event, such as clash of business”.
He also claimed that some of the stall holders in the food centre were “unhappy” and had closed shop that night because of the event.
Responding to queries from Yahoo! Singapore, a SingTel spokesperson said SingTel had “worked with the Newton Storeholders Association to consult stall operators prior to the event, and implemented several measures to address their concerns.”
He said these include having “additional security and cleaning staff” onsite to “minimise disruptions to the food centre” and taking steps to “ensure that participants consumed their platters within the event area.”
The spokesperson added that some stall operators had given them positive feedback.
Check out the cook-off between Gordon Ramsay and the top local hawkers
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Additional reporting by Nurul Azliah
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