YouTuber Mark Wiens Dishes About New Singapore-Focused Show, 'Food Affair'

Renowned YouTuber Mark Wiens has racked up over 9 million subscribers thanks to his food vlogs, and now he's bringing his exuberant personality and encyclopaedic knowledge of food to a new show, Food Affair with Mark Wiens.

The show also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership between the Singapore Tourism Board and Warner Bros. Discovery aimed at bringing more international visitors into the city. This week Harper's BAZAAR Singapore sat down with Wiens to talk more about this new six-part series, which will shine a spotlight on Singapore's diverse and unique food culture through the lens of local chefs, entrepreneurs and more.

Tell us a little bit more about the series, what viewers can expect, and how the series was conceived.

It's a food-based, non-scripted show that walks you through a story of Singapore's diversity of food culture - so diversity in terms of cuisine, but then also diversity in terms of level, from hawker food to fine dining. So each episode features a person who is an expert in that variety of cuisine, followed by going to a restaurant of a fine dining chef, and then leading to a hawker hero. So that's the main storyline. It was the idea of Eric Khoo and the team from Zhao Wei Films who produced the show. I think one of the common themes was being able to show that you can have an amazingly satisfying experience at a fine dining restaurant, but an equally amazing food experience at a very humble, hawker center.

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I'm sure you know the perspective international foreigners or tourists have of Singaporean food and local perspectives can be very different. What local perspectives will you elevate and give a voice to in the series?

The good thing about Singapore is that it is such a diverse city with amazing Malay food and Malay culture, but then Chinese influence, Indian influence. So one of the things I love about Singapore is this mix of so many different varieties of cuisine that has been both adapted to Singapore, but then also the authentic side, as well. And I think the show Food Affair does a great job of really highlighting some of the things that have formed the foundation of Singapore food culture. But then also highlighting some of the more modern approaches, like some of the fine dining chefs.

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What excites you about this growing globalisation and fusion of various cuisines that you see in fine dining?

I think another cool thing about Singapore is that it's very open to creativity and some of the chefs, like maybe in their home country, they wouldn't be as free to alter the cuisine to their tastes. Fine dining chefs are artists, they really have an idea that they want to get across. It's so personal to them. And so I think Singapore offers a great open and creative environment where people can really express themselves. Chefs can express themselves the way they want to without holding back. And I think Singaporeans are, because of the diversity of Singapore, also open to trying things.

For readers or viewers who aren't familiar with your work yet, you got your start on YouTube. Were you always passionate about food or what prompted the decision to try that?

I've always loved food ever since I can remember. I grew up in a family that loves to eat nice. So it was just natural for me to love food. My grandfather was a chef. I always loved culture and I always loved going to a new place to try new food, so I did like cooking as well, but I never really had a dream to be a chef. It was more like I liked the cultural aspect of food. Food brings back memories of hanging out with people, family, fun times. So when I graduated from university, then I said, okay, I'm gonna travel, especially to some countries where I enjoyed the food at restaurants, but I'd never been to that country. So how much better will it be to go to that country and try the food at the source?

I still didn't really have plans career wise. But at that time, back in 2008, 2009, blogs were quite new still. I started a blog where I would just take photos and post food and travel and whatever I did. But it was more like a personal journal online. And then I started getting more into informational blogging, like here's the information of how you can do this, or here's this restaurant, here's the details and the address. And then I thought, when you're just taking photos of food, you missed the atmosphere aspect of it. So I thought maybe I'll just take a point and shoot camera and just show like, okay, I'm sitting here on the street and he's cooking right there. Sometime around 2010 or so, I was just thinking, you know, internet will definitely improve from here, videos will improve from here, so I'm just gonna commit to making videos. And that was basically it.

How do you think your unique perspectives will shape the perspective of the show?

Well, it was a privilege to be able to grow up in many different cultures. I travel a lot with my family as well, so it was a privilege to have a foundation of learning about different cultures, learning about different foods, which allows me to have a very open mind when it comes to food and trying new things.

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So what prompted the decision to transition from YouTube to working with HBO Go on a totally different show?

I've been friends with Eric Khoo, who is the executive director, for quite a few years - and he's an amazing producer and director. I really respect him for what he does, but he's also a huge food lover. And for me, I'm always willing to try something new or try something different. It's a real learning opportunity, so it was an honour. But yeah, it was totally different from what I'm used to because I typically go with me and my wife. My family will just go and I'll just kind of explore the food, film ourselves. This was a lot more research involved. A lot more planning. A lot more production. The filming style was totally different in that I'm not just filming myself, but rather a whole team is there.

I'm sure your YouTube career wasn't always easy, especially first taking off, building your following, keeping that following, maintaining a presence. Could you speak more about the challenges that you faced as a YouTuber? Advice you would give to other food bloggers or YouTubers in general?

One of the things that translated well into doing Food Affair and more production is when you're vlogging by yourself and making video, people naturally look at you. I can speak for myself when I was first starting out. You feel a little uncomfortable like, oh man, people are looking at me. Can I say what I really want to say on camera? And people are looking at me all over the place. You grow to not really mind what people think about you. You just do what you're enjoying. Be honest and genuine and just be yourself. Whether it's a vlog or a personal video, if it's something you're not really loving, people will immediately notice.

Are there any specific chefs, food bloggers or anyone in the industry in Singapore who you really admire?

Yeah, it was really cool to be a part of Food Affair and meet so many chefs. I think almost all the chefs we featured in the show. For instance, Chef Malcolm and his real passion for showing Peranakan food in Singapore. He's really cool and he's really laid back and he just loves to eat.

I think of Chef Dave from Burnt Ends. He's such a cool guy. I mean Burnt Ends is quite a fine dining restaurant atmosphere. But you could picture him equally at Burnt Ends or in the backyard, like digging a hole and burying barbecue in the backyard.

And then Chef Rishi was also amazing. We had fish head curry together, which was a very memorable meal. And I think we both enjoy spicy foods. He has a restaurant called Kotuwa, which is a Sri Lankan restaurant. But then he also has his fine dining restaurant in Singapore called Cloudstreet.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.