Cover Damian D’Silva opens Rempapa and Gilmore & Damian D’Silva at the National Gallery Singapore (Photo: Gilmore & Damian D’Silva)
Damian D’Silva opens Rempapa and Gilmore & Damian D’Silva at the National Gallery Singapore (Photo: Gilmore & Damian D’Silva)
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At 69, chef Damian D’Silva continues his lifelong mission to preserve Singapore’s culinary heritage. His latest ventures, Rempapa and Gilmore & Damian D’Silva at National Gallery Singapore, bring lost Eurasian recipes back to life
When Damian D’Silva last spoke with Tatler in 2019, he likened his three‑decade culinary journey to a marathon. “This is the last mile I’m going to run—and it feels like a 100m sprint,” he said then. Now, six years on—and after helming the now‑shuttered Folklore and Kin, as well as his current restaurant Rempapa, which champions Singapore New Heritage cuisine—the 69‑year‑old chef tells us he is still very much in the race. “I’m still running that marathon, but at least I don’t have to run so fast,” he says. His end goal remains the same: to preserve Singapore’s heritage cuisines, particularly by reviving and refining forgotten Singaporean and Eurasian recipes and flavours at risk of disappearing.
To achieve this, D’Silva undertook the gargantuan task of relocating Rempapa to National Gallery Singapore while simultaneously opening a new premium casual concept, Gilmore & Damian D’Silva (or Gilmore in short), at the same venue this November. “I like pain,” he quips when asked why he would take on both tasks at once. But joking aside, D’Silva recognised the opportunity when the team at the museum approached him with a 6,000sqft space. “They wanted to have a more inclusive Singaporean experience for the people visiting it,” he shares, adding that some of the requirements were to “offer items below $10 so it’s more approachable, as well as lunch menus in the $35 to $40 range”.
Above Rempapa’s breakfast kaya toast set
Above Rempapa’s ayam berempah
Rempapa’s breakfast kaya toast set
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D’Silva decided to create two distinct concepts. Rempapa has now been reimagined as an all‑day café with a budget‑friendly menu featuring both new dishes and beloved classics. Signatures such as the laksa and nasi lemak remain—with the latter now available with an expanded selection of accompaniments, such as rendang, vegetarian curry and even lamb shank. “We anticipate at least 30 per cent of our sales to come from tourists,” D’Silva shares, which is why he has also refreshed the table service experience. Guests can now scan a QR code and order directly from their seats, while those unfamiliar with the food can head to the counter for recommendations. “We want to accommodate both locals and tourists,” he says.
Gilmore, D’Silva explains, is an upmarket concept that sits close to his heart. It is named after his late grandfather, whom he affectionately called “Pop” and who first taught him to cook as a young boy. “I think what I am today, 95 per cent of it is my grandad’s DNA,” he says. Gilmore’s opening also feels like a full‑circle moment for D’Silva: his grandfather was once the first and only custodian of the Supreme Court, which was formerly housed in the building National Gallery Singapore now calls home. “At first, it didn’t hit me. I thought, ‘I’m back at the Supreme Court …’ Then I walked around and realised how much it has changed, and everything started to come back,” he recalls.
D’Silva fondly remembers trailing after his Pop around the Supreme Court on Saturdays, sometimes spooked by the soaring ceilings and the pitch‑black corridors at night. His most cherished memories, he shares, were forged in the kitchen. First, he stood by and watched as a nine‑year‑old; a couple of years later, he was cooking alongside his grandfather. Even then, he felt a quiet urgency: “It was important for me not to lose what this man had learnt all these years,” he says.
Above Christmas debal at Gilmore & Damian D’Silva
Above Starters at Gilmore & Damian D’Silva
Christmas debal at Gilmore & Damian D’Silva
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His grandfather’s repertoire extended far beyond Eurasian cuisine, spanning Chinese, Malay and even Sri Lankan dishes. D’Silva reflects: “Until today, I’ve never met anybody who could cook [the cuisines of] different ethnicities so well.” There were no written recipes, of course. In those days, cooks relied on muscle memory—measuring by feel rather than by scale—with instructions such as “a little bit of garlic and onions” or “one thumb of ginger”. D’Silva wryly asks: “What does ‘a little bit’ mean? And how do you measure one‑thumb length when everyone’s thumb [length] is different?”
He vividly recalls the first recipe his grandfather taught him: carne picada, a minced meat dish with soya sauce, potatoes and spices. Over the years, he learnt more of these heritage recipes—many of which now anchor Gilmore’s menu. He shares that almost 70 per cent of the dishes at the restaurant are seafood‑based, reflecting what locals once ate. “The older dishes in Singapore, those that go beyond 200 years, were mainly seafood because they didn’t have cows or pigs back then,” he explains. “Seafood was what was easily available, so there were a lot of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and cuttlefish in what they cooked.”
One of the dishes on the menu is curry mohylu. It originated in a time when locals would catch an abundance of fish or prawns, depending on the season. They would scrape the flesh, shape it into balls and cook them in mohylu. Staying true to this, D’Silva prepares Gilmore’s curry mohylu in‑house using seasonal ingredients—making prawn balls from January to early March, and fish balls for the rest of the year.
He has also brought back the cowdang, another seafood dish rooted in Kristang cuisine. His version features prawns gently simmered in coconut milk and a handful of simple ingredients that draw out the crustacean’s natural sweetness. Another Kristang classic on the menu is Christmas debal, a staple dish in Eurasian homes on Boxing Day that is traditionally made with leftovers from the Christmas meal. D’Silva pays homage to the tradition with his own rendition—fortified with smoked ham, bacon bones, roast pork and chicken, and served alongside homemade vegetable achar (pickles).
Above Eurasian feast at Gilmore & Damian D’Silva
Eurasian feast at Gilmore & Damian D’Silva
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With a menu built on nearly forgotten flavours, the challenge for D’Silva is presenting the dishes in a more contemporary light—especially when, as he notes, not many people “want to learn about old food”. While he acknowledges that today’s diners have become more discerning, he still tones down flavours that might otherwise feel too intense. As he explains: “I want the dishes to be tried by everybody, because [they’re] special to me … [They’ve] been in my family for 300 years.” Over time, he hopes to gradually adjust the dishes to more closely reflect the flavours he remembers from childhood. “We should retrain our taste buds to appreciate a spectrum of flavours, including sour and bitter,” he says. He knows that this evolution will take patience, but he is clear‑eyed about the urgency. “If I don’t start now,” he states, “then it’s too late. I’ll be dead then.”
While most of the dishes at Gilmore draw from his grandfather’s trove of family recipes, there are also creations contributed by the team. “I want [my team members] to have a say in the menu, so I told them to think of dishes you don’t see anymore, do some R&D and include them in our menu,” he says.
D’Silva notes that preparing the heritage dishes on his menu demands considerable time and effort, which is why he has invested in the right kitchen equipment to maximise efficiency. The cowdang, for instance, is one of the most labour‑intensive items on the menu; cooking the coconut milk alone takes about an hour. “When the oil splits, that’s when the ingredients go in—but you can’t turn up the flame too high or it’ll burn everything,” he explains. One of his key investments is a large commercial pot capable of cooking 120 litres in a single batch. As he puts it with a laugh: “If you’re going to spend three hours, you might as well make a big batch … no one wants to repeat that every day.”
Above Damian D’Silva will helm both Rempapa and Gilmore & Damian D’Silva at the National Gallery Singapore
Damian D’Silva will helm both Rempapa and Gilmore & Damian D’Silva at the National Gallery Singapore
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When asked how he plans to manage two restaurants, D’Silva says he will spend most of his time at Gilmore. “My mind can take it, but my body can’t,” he admits, noting that he now limits his hours—unlike in the past, when he could endure 12 to 14 hours on his feet in the kitchen. To uphold his standards and maintain consistency across both concepts, he has expanded his team and put proper training in place to ensure quality at every level.
Make no mistake, though: D’Silva is still running that marathon, especially now, as appreciation for heritage cuisine grows—a cause he has championed for more than three decades. Looking ahead, he says with a smile: “I think I’ll keep running until I can’t anymore. Then I’ll walk. But in a marathon, you can always walk, right?”
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Images: Rempapa and Gilmore & Damian D’Silva
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Dudi Aureus is the senior dining and travel editor at Tatler Singapore, covering the city’s most exciting restaurants, global travel trends, and the personalities shaping the culinary and lifestyle scenes. She also serves as co-jury chair for the Tatler Best awards in Singapore, celebrating the very best in hospitality. When she’s off duty, she can often be found at a favourite hole-in-the-wall Thai spot, savouring a perfectly balanced pad thai.
