Dylan is the founder, Chef and all-round man behind the scenes at Fuze – one of Edinburgh’s latest (and most delicious) small-batch dine at home delivery services. Dylan has worked in a professional kitchen for 10 years with his most recent position at Six by Nico, before embarking upon his own business venture. Read our Q&A to discover more.
And please give Fuze a try – whether you’re a vegetarian or not we are confident you won’t be disappointed.
What was the catalyst for you to embark upon your solo venture?
For years I’ve cooked in other restaurants but I have always wanted to open my own place. I come from a family of entrepreneurs hence why I went to study business at University and so it has always felt natural for me to eventually start my own food business after gaining some skills and knowledge working in kitchens. It has also been my intent for a long time to try to build my own food business from the ground up without any family funding but this has been very difficult. It was only when dine at home boxes became really popular that I got my opportunity to start something from home.
Your cooking style is very much influenced by the street food of Singapore, why do you think Asia presents so many delicious dishes?
I’m half Singaporean and I’ve spent a lot of time over there with my Gran. Her home cooking and Singapore’s Hawker centre street food is what originally got me interested in food. I just feel the whole culture around food there is so captivating. Food there is viewed as a highly sociable experience and I think this means the food develops a lot more character and taste. For instance, even though Singapore is the 4th most expensive city in the world, the standard price of laksa noodle soup is just £3. Most people there don’t seem to make food to get rich, they do it to share their skills and their passion for cooking. And there’s a lot of them. More vendors mean more competition which pushes all the individual cooks to constantly improve, innovate and perfect their dishes.
All your dishes are vegetarian, are you vegetarian? And why did you choose to go with a vegetarian menu?
Yes I am Vegetarian. Mostly I just wanted to prove to people that good food doesn’t stop with meat. From my perspective, my diet has improved a lot since I follow a vegetarian eating plan and I believe that the dishes I eat now are a lot more flavoursome than when I ate meat, so I always disagree with people when they think that as vegetarian my diet must be bland.
The FUZE menu theme changes monthly, where do you find inspiration for each of the new dishes?
Initially, I tried to pick cuisines that are, historically and geographically, quite far apart. This tended to work really well for the food because the flavour profiles often are very different from each other and complimented each other really well. Recently, however, I’m leaning towards showcasing real-life fusion foods as people have seemed to take more of an interest. I feel like fusion food has got a bad reputation recently but many people don’t realise that historically it has happened a lot and to created some wonderful new dishes. I’ve travelled a lot, especially throughout Asia so most of the food on my menus is food that I have eaten in different countries. Mostly I just try to bring new foods to Edinburgh that haven’t been seen before.
How have you adapted to cooking in your own kitchen for your own enjoyment to that of paying customers?
It’s good in some ways but also bad in other ways. I do like working in a kitchen that is a bit more pleasing to the eye and that has a window! But also it means that I have to clean it a lot more rigorously (in restaurant kitchens mostly everything is stainless steel and easy to clean!) I’m not sure how much longer my little kitchen can take with cooking at such a high volume so I’m definitely looking at moving into another kitchen soon.
As for mental attitude, it’s probably the same with everything in that I could be a lot more organised but I’m just not for some reason! The hardest thing is probably spending most of the week working on the social media, website (like an office job) then switching on Thursdays and Fridays to cooking all day and running around like a lunatic trying to deliver food on time. Other than that I’m really enjoying doing all the different things other than just cooking.
What has been your most poignant moment in the FUZE journey to date?
Selling out the Singapore menu. I was quite anxious at the start of August because my previous menu (America/ China) wasn’t particularly popular and it also coincided with the full reopening of restaurants so I was starting to think maybe FUZE would no longer be viable. Add to this that Singapore food is not that well known about here in the U.K so I wasn’t sure it would do well either, but if it was going to be the last menu I wanted to do my favourite cuisine. I’m thrilled to say, however, it sold out pretty quickly and even after adding another three weeks on I only have three spaces left. It’s definitely my happiest moment and has spurred me on to keep going. I could be getting carried away with it all but I am hoping that if I do open a place it can be focused on Singapore cuisine.
What’s next for FUZE?
My main objective is to get out of the house and to open a place in Edinburgh. I would definitely continue the dine-at-home kits because I do have quite a few customers that order every month and would love to repay their loyalty and support. Most of them are people that like restaurant quality food but can’t or don’t want to go out, whether it’s covid concerns, having kids, or distance to travel. It would be a dream for me to open up a place that showcases the fusion dishes that Singapore has.
Top-tip for a first-time visitor to Edinburgh?
Bring your shorts, umbrella and your camera.
Where is your own Hidden Edinburgh?
Cameo Picturehouse.
