From its bakery cafes and kitchens to all-day dining restaurants, popular home-grown Singaporean restaurant and bakery chain, Cedele, believes in preparing pure, purposeful food and providing nutritionally dense alternatives to Singaporeans, amidst a warm, welcoming environment.

A familiar household name in Singapore 

With more than 30 outlets across Singapore, the 22-year-old industry veteran has become a familiar name and trusted brand associated with healthier breads and cakes and serving food prepared with love and care.

Said Yeap Cheng Guat, founder of Cedele, “It has been a fulfilling journey over the past decades in creating nourishing eats for one’s overall wellbeing. Hearing how customers keep coming back for our breads when they are sick, or cancer patients revealing how our food works for them, it inspires me to keep churning out new and improved recipes for my customers and makes what I love doing more meaningful and purposeful.”

A new greener menu and increased vegan options

And now, Cedele has re-launched their popular all-day dining outlet at Wheelock Place in Orchard Road, with a newer facade and greener menu, testament to their continued care and commitment to their customers – whilst remaining honest and true to their tagline: eat well, be well.

The inspiration for the revamp had been to create a separate retail and dining experience for customers to step into, with its brightly-lit frontage that presents shelves lined with the brand’s famous handcrafted pastries, home-baked cakes and signature fat-free breads.

Then on the other hand, the dining section is designed to enhance the customer experience and engage interaction, with a long counter at the cashier and a side bar well-stocked with labels from non-alcoholic sparkling wines to gluten-free craft beers.

Invited to check out Cedele’s Wheelock Place outlet

Together with my photographer, Chin, I had been recently invited to check out the Cedele Wheelock Place outlet – as well as to try the items from their improved menu, which focuses on plant-based alternatives, with one-third of the eatery’s new items comprising of vegan dishes designed to boost the overall well-being of customers and spur a greener lifestyle.  

The new dishes are prepared using the same honest cooking methods and time-tried recipes using responsibly-sourced quality ingredients that Cedele has become famous for.

Beverages

To kick off the meal, we were served a welcome drink, called Seedlip, and which Cedele is marketing as the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirit.

I have to admit that the Seedlip drink was rather interesting. It had a slight sourish, citrusy and refreshing note, which seemed to remind me a little of ginger beer. I have never tasted anything exactly like it, and this was a great way to start the meal.

Besides the Seedlip drink, I also tried one of Cedele’s Kombucha beverages – which is a fermented, slightly alcoholic, lightly effervescent tea drink intended as a functional beverage for its supposed health benefits to improve gut health.

There had been three different flavours, original, ginger passion and berried peaches. I am a fruit lover, so I chose the berried peaches flavour, which is supposed to contain plenty of antioxidants. 

I must say that I quite enjoyed this drink. It had a hint of a sour note, possibly from the berries, whilst being mildly sweet at the same time. Overall I have to say it was a very refreshing beverage and great for sipping on throughout the meal.

Starters

For the starters, we were presented with four distinctively different dishes, which were all vegan.

And these were as follows.

• Quinoa Cauliflower Falafel
• Cauliflower Almond Poppers
• Pakora Vegetable Fritters
• Furikake Tofu

I thought that all four dishes had been rather intriguing.

The Quinoa Cauliflower Falafel was quite unusual. Prepared with a side serving of cashew dip and lemon squeeze, it had a soft, mushy texture with a hint of a savoury flavour that does not really come out at me. The bread crumbed outer layer added a slight crunch to the appetiser.

For the Cauliflower Almond Poppers, these had reminded me of a vegan version of spicy chicken nuggets. The deep-fried cauliflower inside tasted fairly mild on its own, with the seasoning that it had been fried with, giving it a hint of a spicy note. It was surprisingly delicious; I have to say that I didn’t know that cauliflower could taste so good.

As for the Pakora Vegetable Fritters, this too, was enjoyable. I quite liked the contrast of the different vegetables melded together, with the combination of flavours blending in and complementing one another quite well. And again, the batter provided a slight crispy note to this appetiser, giving the item some texture.

The Furikake Tofu, which was topped with Balsamic date dressing and vegan Furikake, had a hint of a salty, savoury note combined with a hint of sweetness coming from the dates, as well a uniquely and refreshing flavour which I was unable to place. The texture of the tofu itself was quite soft, as it should be.

Salad

After we were done with the appetisers, we were each given a Tiger Prawn Kombucha Kale Salad as a side dish. The tiger prawn tasted firm and fresh, and the kale too, was fresh and crunchy, with the sour notes from the homemade Kombucha orange-flavoured dressing surprisingly blending in very well, adding another layer of flavours to the salad.

Both the tiger prawns and the kale are sourced locally, the prawns coming from Ah Hua Kelong and the kale from Sustenir Agriculture.

Besides the increase in vegan choices, this too, is one of the key highlights in Cedele’s revamped Wheelock Place menu – the creative combination of special ingredients in collaboration with local and regional suppliers who share Cedele’s mission to create a positive social and environmental impact on the communities that they service.

Main Courses

For our choice of mains, we were given a list of eight different options, which were as follows:

• Softshell Crab Burger
• Beetroot Avocado Burger (Vegan)
• Rosemary Sea Salt chicken
• Cauliflower 2-ways (Vegan)
• Portobello Garlic Jasberry Rice Bowl (Vegan)
• Sunshine Fish & Prawn Pilaf Rice Bowl
• Crab Kerabu
• Supergreen Omelette
• Steak Bolognese
• Truffled Mushroom Medley (Vegan)
• Portobello Pumpkin Risotto (Vegan)

I picked the Crab Kerabu, which was crispy soft-shell crab served on a bed of organic jasberry rice and topped with crab meat, kaffir lime and toasted desiccated coconut.

This had been surprisingly delicious – that I polished off everything on my plate. This had been my first time tasting the organic jasberry rice, which takes on a dark purple colour and is a 100% organic and non-GMO wholegrain superfood high in antioxidants (40 times more than brown rice, 4 times more than quinoa and 7 times more than kale). This special breed of rice is produced by Jasberry, a Thai social enterprise that supports small-scale farmers to improve their livelihood and communities.

The jasberry rice has a slightly chewy texture, reminding me of brown rice, yet it was not hard. And in terms of the flavour, it is much more interesting and yummy than brown rice, taking on a slightly sourish berry note that I had thought was pretty addictive. Think rice doused with the flavour of blueberries and raspberries – that was what the jasberry rice had reminded me of. It was a great combination.

The sourish notes from the rice were also strengthened with the addition of a hint of Kaffir lime in the dish, which I thought had blended in very well with the flavour profiles of the meal.

As well, I thought the rice combined well with the soft shell crab, which was deliciously crunchy on the outside and the meat was warm, soft and moist on the inside. It was a great combination. Unfortunately, I felt that the batter had been a tad on the oily side, though.

And Chin, on the other hand, selected one of the new vegan items – the Beetroot Avocado Burger. Comprising of a homemade beetroot patty, avocado, spiced tomato chutney and spinach bap, this is Cedele’s version of the Impossible Burger and is served together with fries on the side. I had been rather curious about this dish, so I tried some of it.

The beetroot patty is significantly softer than your typical burger patty, and with a slight hint of a beetroot flavour when I bite into it. However Chin remarked that the beetroot taste could have been somewhat stronger.

Due to its texture, I thought that the beetroot burger patty doesn’t really hold up very well and can get quite messy, falling apart on the plate, when eaten with a knife and fork.

As well, the burger bun was also different to the usual burger bread – the texture was soft to the taste buds, yet the bun was able to hold its shape well and does not get soggy easily. However I could not place exactly what the predominant ingredient of the bun was.

Desserts

To end off our meal on a sweet note, we were given three of the new healthier bakes from Cedele’s Christmas catalogue.

Keeping true to their roots of using only real, whole food ingredients in their bakes, combined with their continued attention to customers with dietary preferences, each item on the dessert menu is crafted with care and intention to be good – physically, mentally and emotionally.

The three dessert items that we tried were as follows:

• Scarlet Earl Grey Log Cake
• Belgium Chocolate Terrine
• Dark Chocolate Tiramisu Trifle

I was pleasantly surprised with the Scarlet Early Grey Log Cake – and this was much more delicious than I had anticipated. 

A luxurious earl grey infused 70 per cent dark chocolate truffle log rolled with a light red velvet cake, this is topped with earl grey mascarpone cream. The redness of the cake comes from using beetroot, which is high in fibre.

Good earl grey tea leaves are used to enhance the bergamot flavour of the cake, to balance the earthy flavour of the beetroot.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this interesting combination of ingredients but when I took my first forkful of cake, an earl grey flavour came out at me. This was the predominant flavour in the first few mouthfuls, but the more of the cake I ate, I noticed that the earl grey flavour gradually weakened, giving way to a hint of a chocolate flavour. 

Overall I have to say that the combination of flavours worked very well together and that the balance was great, with none of the flavours overpowering my senses. The earthy earl grey notes contrasted with the usage of the chocolate truffle in the very center, prevented this cake from being too sweet.

So as a result, this was a cake that is pretty light and easy to eat, without making you feel sick. As a result, I polished off my slice of cake.

Out of the three desserts that I was given, I would have to say that this one was probably my favourite one.

As for the Belgium Chocolate Terrine, this is an elegant gluten-free chocolate dessert made with 70 per cent couverture chocolate and finished with fresh raspberries and a touch of gold leaves.

This is a yummy dessert too, but I strongly recommend that you share this with a friend – because the chocolate flavour is very rich and intense. It comes out at you immediately, from the moment you take your first forkful of cake. Texture wise, the cake is rather dense and pretty solid.

While I usually love anything that has chocolate in it, I could only manage to eat about half of a slice of this cake before I began to feel jelak – due to the sheer richness of the cake.

There is also a slight hint of a raspberry flavour in this cake, too, but that is very subtle, and is easily drowned  out by the rich chocolate.

And last but not least, the Dark Chocolate Tiramisu Trifle, which I also tried, consisted of luscious chocolate cake steeped in rum and coffee, layered with light vanilla mascarpone cream and topped with chocolate shavings and fresh berries.

I polished off this dessert too, even though I was feeling rather full by this stage. It was a pleasant and addictively delicious dessert, though a tad sweet.

The texture had been smooth and very creamy, and with a mild rum note to it. While there had also been a subtle hint of coffee flavour too, this was not very strong, and seemed to have been drowned out by the other flavours.

There was more than enough to eat throughout the meal, and I was feeling rather stuffed by the end of it all, but the food was tasty and delicious and I have to say that I would definitely be back for more. 

Though I do not follow a vegan diet myself, some of Cedele’s vegan options had been more tasty and scrumptious than I could have imagined – and I would recommend them to family and friends regardless of whether they are vegans or not.

Besides the desserts that we had tried, some of Cedele’s other Christmas offerings include the Beetroot & Hibiscus Orange Pie and the Black Forest Minced Pie.

And as well, Cedele has a selection of limited-edition Premium Chocolate Collection Christmas cookies packed in a festive red box and with an assortment of intriguing flavours such as Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprint, Double Chocolate, Marble Chocolate and Spiced Chocolate Pistachio.

Like the cakes, each batch of Cedele’s artisanal cookies are made with love, using only organic and natural ingredients, and with no artificial flavours and preservatives.

As a parting Christmas gift, members of the media were given two boxes of these cookies to bring back home. And I simply couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the cookies and find out what they taste like.

Eating clean and making healthier food choices with Cedele

With their revamped menu, Cedele, a pioneer of healthier food options in Singapore, believe that it is not just food and how it is made, but how your choice of foods touch you and is better for you, that brings you back for more.

And they hope to educate and spread the message of eating clean, and prevention rather than cure.

Indeed, as one of the largest reputable food & beverage outlets in Singapore, Cedele has taken oh the responsibility to make healthier choices more accessible to Singaporeans with its wide selection of reasonably priced, premium quality food – whilst at the same time staying true to their vision and journey to lead and guide customers towards a cleaner and greener lifestyle they deserve, thereby positively impacting their mind, body and soul.