When it comes to local chefs, we are pretty convinced now that Bjorn Shen is a national treasure. Starting with the wonderfully conceived food at Artichoke (say what you will about the lines and service) and stalls at festivals like Savour, then the totally cool Artichoke cookbook, Chef Shen now is expanding with some pretty exciting projects this year.

He's dabbling in tons foodie events

Artichoke's been championing a bunch of one-off foodie events and this weekend has Bangkok Jerk-Off where two opposing cuisines come together. While guest chef Tim Ross-Watson cooks up a Caribbean fiesta with dishes like jerk chicken and BBQ ribs, Bjorn will be cooking up Thai fare in the form of som tum, wings and pork belly.

He's got his own double-coated ice cream

You may have heard of his cheekily-named ice cream stall, Neh Neh Pop. It's got its own booth in Artichoke restaurant and has flavor concoctions like mango sticky rice, a coconut rice pudding ice cream with fresh mango chunks in white chocolate dip and toasted coconut flakes. There are also flavors like strawberry pockie made with strawberry ripple ice cream, white chocolate dip and, you guessed it, Pocky sticks. 

He's launching a Thai-inspired eatery

Set to open in October, Shen's Thai-inspired chicken-centric eatery Bird Bird is currently a roving food stall in locations like The Refinery and Dream's garage sale. They've been dishing out bowls of minced chicken and crab curry dip with charred bread, chicken skin sundaes with coconut ice cream and chicken hot pockets.