During the 2018 National Day Rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that Singapore would nominate our "hawker culture" as an example of Unesco's intangible cultural heritage.

This sparked off a number of hilariously salty reactions from our neighbours to the North.

They voiced all kinds of criticisms like the food quality, the supposed unoriginality of our recipes, and how Penang would be a better choice.

Celebrity ire

Adding fuel to the fire was Malaysian celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail, popularly known as Chef Wan.

He is a culinary ambassador for Tourism Malaysia, and one of the country's most popular chefs. However, he wasn't happy about Singapore's Unesco bid either.

According to The Star Online on Aug. 22, he said:

"People who lack confidence in their food will go all out to do these things for recognition.

It’s not necessary to announce to the world that you have this or that. By taking this route, it’s a bit of arrogant behaviour."

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Bizarrely, Wan also brought up recent spats between Malaysia and Singapore, such as territorial claims (in reference to Pedra Branca), and water issues.

He believes that Singapore's move will cause more "unhappiness" among the people.

No success in breaking in Singapore's food scene

In June 2016, The New Paper reported that a Singaporean restaurant Wan was linked to, 1 Market by Chef Wan at Plaza Singapura, had closed down.

It opened to "much fanfare" in 2012, but experienced a steady drop in business.

Wan had been employed as a consultant chef, and helped to develop the restaurant's menu based on his recipes.

He attributed the closure of the venture to how the food was not prepared according to how he demonstrated.

Second failure

But that wasn't the only failure that he experienced in Singapore.

In July 2018, the New Straits Times reported that his other restaurant in Singapore, Chef Wan's Kitchen, had ceased operations.

Similar to his previous outing in Singapore, he blamed the closure of the restaurant, a joint-venture with a Singaporean businessman, on the failure of the culinary team to follow his recipes:

"The culinary team just did not follow my recipes according to specification, and as a result, many diners were not satisfied."

He added that he might have been too busy in Kuala Lumpur to keep an eye on his Singaporean business.

Related story:

Top image from Chef Wan Facebook page

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