Sasha Wijidessa, one half of the founding duo behind Singaporean bar Fura, talks about the fight to use insects in cocktails, choosing bartending over dentistry and what the future of food looks like. I’ll tell you.
How did you become a bartender?
“In 2014 I started working at a bar called Operation Dagger. It’s not something I saw long term. I was studying for a diploma in pharmacy and worked from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. I interned at a dental clinic until 2000 and then went to a bar and worked until 3 a.m. I started as a barback and worked at Operation Dagger for five years. After two and a half years I became general manager, and at 22 When I was a year old, I ran a bar.”
What made you leave pharmacy?
“For a long time in my life, I struggled to feel like I fit in anywhere, and the first place I felt that way was in a bar. It wasn’t my choice; rather, my parents wanted it for me. When I started working at Duggar, I felt like myself, confident and happy.”
How did the idea for Fura come about?
“I have long wanted to eventually do something on my own. I moved to Copenhagen in 2019 to join distillery Empirical, and Christina Rasmussen and I moved back to Singapore in 2022. But we felt like now was the time. We did a pop-up called Mallow in 2022 out of necessity. Christina and I, our marriage is not recognized here. She took on this pop-up because she needed a visa. Day by day, it felt like it wasn’t enough, so she started planning what will become what is now Fura in August 2022. We looked into this space in October, signed a lease last March, and opened in September.”
How has it been since you launched it?
“So far, it’s been going really well. Everyone seems to like what we’re doing. The road to opening has been very tough and I don’t think I’ve ever been so depressed in my life. But , I can’t complain about how things have been since we opened. We’ve had a lot of great guests and are attracting a lot of like-minded people.”
What makes Singapore’s bar scene unique?
“In Copenhagen, I was disappointed by how toxic the food and drinks were. No one talks about it much, but there’s no real sense of community. Singapore is the opposite. There’s a sense of everyone working together to win. We have a mentality: There are a lot of bars and the bar scene is very saturated, but every bar has a strong identity, so there’s no competition.”
How would you describe Hoora’s identity?
“Hoola is very personal and developed through conversations Christina and I have at home. We talk about having children one day and what kind of world we want to bring them into. Especially in Asia, many of the ways we eat and drink vary greatly from generation to generation, and our food resources are vastly different than they were 10, 20, or 50 years ago. We would like to propose new ways of eating and drinking, rather than restricting ourselves to things.We are not influenced by Asia, nor are we Japanese, Italian, or French.Because our identity Because when you have one, you associate it with traditional cooking and eating.”
Where do you get your inspiration from?
“The menu focuses on ingredients, but we also use ingredients that are mindful of what the future of food will be.We have a drink called Jellyfish Martini.Jellyfish are a pest of the sea, so this is an ingredient that we definitely want to use.Essential What we have is a broken ecosystem, so we are trying to reintroduce that balance. Ten years from now, this situation will turn around and jellyfish will start to be consumed all over the world, and the ecology of the oceans will change. If the system were to be balanced, jellyfish would become a food ingredient we should move away from.”
Why did you put insects on the menu?
“The theme of the menu is to use ingredients that are abundant, exotic or prevalent.” We announced that we would be approved for edible consumption, but we were initially denied a business license after seeing insects on the menu. We have been in talks with the SFA for over six months. Our End In the conversation, they said they would definitely be up and running by the end of the year, but of course that didn’t happen, so it’s just a waiting game.”
What does 2024 have in store?
“I want to position Hula as a lifestyle brand. If it’s just a restaurant, the touchpoint is within the space. If people can incorporate the spirit of Hula into their lives, we can have a bigger impact. What we want to grow this year is our retail line. We make our own vermouth, we have our own home-fermented wine. Our coasters are the ones we collect. It’s made from oyster shells, and I’d like to start retailing it. I’d also like to work with a local company to retail stools made from recycled compressed wood. Something like this The more we can separate ourselves from the space, the more we can do.”