Yale-NUS students pursue their love for food through work opportunities

While many students pursue internships that are related to their studies, there are also some who decide to take an unconventional pathway and explore work experiences that are vastly different from their academic majors.

Two Yale-NUS students, Joel Phoon (Class of 2025) and Siddharth Chintalacheruvu (Class of 2024), decided to turn their love for food into work opportunities.

Joel at work in Pilot Kitchen. Image provided by Pilot Kitchen.

Joel, who majors in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, has always had a love for food. This led him to try recreating particularly enjoyable dishes he had at restaurants, in his own kitchen at home. His first experience at a professional kitchen was during his gap year amid what he calls his ‘croissant phase’. Joel and his brother were dining at Restaurant IBID and discreetly discussing the topic of croissants when the chef, who was doing some research and development into croissants at the time, overheard the dialogue and offered Joel a job.

More recently, Joel has been working at Pilot Kitchen, a restaurant that prides itself on treading the unknown and experimenting with novel ideas to “break new ground in the culinary plane”.  Adopting an ‘everyone does everything’ philosophy, each chef at Pilot Kitchen is designated to work at a different station each month. A chef could be working with meats – searing and slicing proteins or handling deep-fried items – for a month, then move on the next month to work the pass, which includes determining the flow of service and calling the orders as they stream in to make sure food gets served on time.

In an intense and busy working environment like Pilot Kitchen where everyone plays a different but pivotal role, the most important lesson that Joel gleaned was to trust in each fellow team member. This extended to having trust in himself. “I’d say the biggest challenge was not so much picking up the hard skills required to be good cook (of course they still matter), but more so having the confidence in yourself to execute in a timely and satisfactory manner come service time,” said Joel.

Joel also decided to put his skills and passion to action in Yale-NUS College, by starting a Supper Club with his friend. It started out as a platform to host friends and share a love for food with others. “Obviously it was also a way for me to scratch the cooking itch during the days I’m not at the restaurant,” Joel added.

Siddharth (standing, left) with his chef and patrons during a pop-up restaurant event held at Elm Rector’s Common. Image provided by Siddharth.

In the same industry but with a different niche is Siddharth, who boldly delved into the restaurant and hospitality scene for the first time this year.

Siddharth was initially interning at a consulting firm when he felt disconnected from the impact of his work. He decided to attend a walk-in interview at The Lo & Behold Group, a hospitality company with award-winning restaurants that he had been interested in for a long time. Though they did not have any available internships to offer him, Siddharth took additional steps and contacted the interviewers to ask for any type of role available. Siddharth ended up having the opportunity to join Claudine, a French neo-brasserie located at Dempsey Hill.

As a restaurant host, Siddharth was the first point of contact for diners. He took calls and arranged reservations, attended to emails and online requests and worked on seating arrangements. “We cannot compromise on any element of the guest experience, from how you greet the guest, to how you answer the phone,” shared Siddharth. In fact, on a typical Friday night, the restaurant could get very busy, with 80 to 90 diners. Hosts are expected to provide excellent service and think on their feet despite the hectic environment.

When asked what he enjoyed about his stint, Siddharth replied, “There is a lot of doing as opposed to just thinking.” Compared to his consulting experience, Siddharth felt that working at a restaurant gave him more opportunities to see how deliberately doing a few things well created value for others.

The significance of simplicity and intention were key concepts that Siddharth brought forward to his recent series of initiatives at Yale-NUS College – pop-up restaurants! Siddharth would work with a chef before each event to come up with a menu containing dishes that held a special place in the chef’s heart. “I loved being deliberate and thinking through all the elements – picking a venue [on campus], selecting décor items – while trying to keep things simple to foster a desired dining atmosphere,” Siddharth shared.

Joel and Siddharth who both courageously pursued endeavours uncommon amongst their peers were keen to encourage others to be intentional in their pursuits.

Joel shared that starting somewhere small to act as a litmus test might be a good idea for those who feel a deep curiosity towards something new. “But at the very least, don’t rule out the unconventional routes too quickly! They deserve as much if not more time considering than the other routes,” he remarked.

Recalling how he had a tough time breaking out of the mould, Siddharth said: “If you know something does not sit well with you, don’t continue just because everyone around you is telling you to do it. You owe it to yourself to explore your interests.”