OUR SPECIALTY

From a selection of six sauces and 13 ingredients, you can choose from a total of 78 combinations and types of cheese baked rice. On crabby wednesdays, also available is Cheese Baked Chilli Crab with Mantou croutons ($20) even raved about by known local blogger at ieatishootipost.

THE INNOVATION

Owner Benny Se Teo, an ex-offender, takes in ex-offenders like himself during their last few months of their jail sentence to train them in necessary skills so that they can have a new start in life. Through employment, he hopes to ease their integration back to the society smoothly.

But honestly, not because of Benny’s experience at Fifteen, a social enteprise set by famous TV personality and chef Jamie Oliver, or Benny’s story and cause for the socially disadvantaged, but because the food is truly good, people return for more. This makes Eighteen Chefs a truly successful model of a social enterprise.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Owner Benny went in and out of prison four times for heroin addiction since the age of 14. After a near-death experience, he turned over a new leaf and started learning how to cook. From then, he got a month-long internship at Fifteen before setting up Eighteen Chefs with two of his church friends.

The number eighteen is a slang for an active local gang and also the number of chefs Benny hopes to have in his restaurants one day. Eighteen Chefs has since set up a second branch – 54-seat restaurant at Eastpoint Mall equally committed to training ex-offenders as chefs and keeping there away from crime.