SINGAPORE — It may seem a wasted indulgence to take an eight-year-old to lunch on a S$148 menu by Paco Morales, one of the world’s most exciting young chefs (at least, according to elBulli legend Ferran Adria) or a meal by Ollie Dabbous, dubbed “the most gifted chef in Britain today”.

But, don’t be surprised if that is exactly what you see at some of the most anticipated meals at this year’s 4XFOUR event, Singapore’s original full-service pop-up dining experience, which features four acclaimed chefs over a four-week period (from now until Nov 20). Most of the sessions are already sold-out, thanks in part to the strength of this year’s line-up, which includes veterans such as Davide Scabin of two-Michelin-star Combal.Zero in Italy, Claude Bosi of two-Michelin-star Hibiscus in England, as well as Morales and Dabbous.

Interestingly, Dabbous said it is not uncommon to see children — some as young as eight years old — dining at his Michelin-starred restaurant in London, although it is usually at Saturday lunch.

“They always enjoy it, (as) the food we cook is very simple and restrained, low in salt and doesn’t use much spice,” he said.

However, Dabbous was in two minds about encouraging parents to bring their kids to experience more Michelin-quality fare. “It is good for kids to have their palette exposed to different tastes from an early age. That said, I think it would be a shame to expose children to too many adult pursuits too early in their life; there is plenty of time for that later on,” elaborated Dabbous, who also shared that he was in his teens when he found meals at such high-levels of dining useful. “I was already cooking for holiday jobs. It was a wake-up call as to how much I didn’t yet know!”

Children in Singapore, though, seem to be in a rather privileged position. “There are many parents who bring their children of varying ages to our different line-up of events,” said the spokesperson of Savour Events.

Over the past two editions of its 4XFOUR events, organisers have seen children from aged eight years to their teens dining with their families.

“We define children as any patron aged 12 years and below. Our visiting chef makes adjustments as he would for adults with dietary restrictions, so the menu is not age-dependent,” added the spokesperson.

While they did not “specifically encourage or discourage children”, the organisers were not expecting children to attend the debut event two years ago.

“Over the first week during the Tom Kerridge dinner, we were very surprised when we saw a few families who came with kids who looked about 12 or slightly older. When an eight-year-old came, we just had to speak with the parents because we were, honestly, quite pleasantly surprised that they were willing to bring an eight-year-old for a dinner that cost S$248 per head,” said the spokesperson, who also shared that the family enjoyed bringing their child “to different dining experiences as it was a way to expose their child to different social situations, and broaden their palate”.

Another parent said her teenaged children had dined at Michelin-starred pub The Hand And Flowers in the United Kingdom. They must have enjoyed the experience because when they learned about Kerridge’s stint in Singapore, they asked their mother to book the tickets for the family to dine together.

Savour Event’s spokesperson added that there were families at a few dinners last year who came with young children, which was why they introduced an option for diners to state the age of the child when they register online.

“This option was only recently developed following the trend we’ve noticed over the past couple of years where we’ve seen parents bring their children to either the SAVOUR show or 4XFOUR,” she said.

“We foresee this trend continuing, which is one of the reasons we are already planning SAVOUR Kids, a culinary event targeted at children between the ages of four and 10,” she added.

SAVOUR Kids is slated for June 2016. For more details about 4XFOUR, visit http://www.4xfour.sg/.

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