Deep in the Weeds - A Food Podcast with Anthony Huckstep · A Deep in the Weeds Production

Dave Pynt (Burnt Ends, Singapore) - Can stand the heat

·34 min·1 clip

Burnt Ends began with four-ton ovens, a railway arch, and a first night that ran out of food.

Anthony Huckstep opens the conversation by framing Dave Pynt as the founder and chef of Burnt Ends in Singapore. He asks how things are going in a city that never really slows down. Pynt says Singapore is busy, with new restaurants opening, others closing, and a constant push to keep the team entertained. Huckstep then presses on the pressure from big international names coming into town, and Pynt gives a blunt answer about where that leaves you in the mix. The conversation then shifts to the move to Europe and the places that shaped him. Pynt says that after getting to Sydney, he felt there was a much wider world to explore. Noma comes up as a major stop. He says he flew in for a three-month stage, ended up staying for five months, and found the kitchen influential because of the way it worked within a regional frame. The box, as he describes it, forced creativity around time and place instead of trying to do everything from everywhere. He also remembers the energy there as the highest he had seen in any kitchen or restaurant. He does not romanticize the experience. He paid for himself to be there, slept on floors at times, rode bikes, and ate at work when he wanted to save money. Huckstep then moves the story to London and how Burnt Ends came together. Pynt starts to trace that next phase as part of the restaurant’s origin story. Even as the conversation moves through geography, it stays focused on hospitality as a living craft. Pynt keeps returning to restaurants as places where good food, good drinks, good service, and a good time belong together. He talks less like a brand builder and more like someone measuring a room by how it feels when it is working. The episode also shows how much he values the team around him. Singapore gets described as a place with constant movement and constant competition, which means keeping people busy and entertained becomes part of the job. That pressure is not treated as glamour. It is treated as the reality of the work. Huckstep’s questions let Pynt move from venue details to the wider lessons underneath them. The conversation keeps circling back to craft, timing, and atmosphere. By the end, the through-line is clear. Pynt sees hospitality as a simple test of whether people are having a good time. He says that when the room works, it makes him happy too. The closing exchange lands on that same note. The job is demanding, but the purpose stays uncomplicated: make people happy and the rest makes sense.

As heard by us

A chef story that keeps its focus on the room, not the ego.

Dave Pint's conversation works best when it treats hospitality as plain work with hard standards: keep people happy, keep the room alive, and make sure the food, drinks, and service all hold together.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how a world-stage chef keeps circling back to the basics of making people have a good time.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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