Before skyscrapers and smart tech defined Singapore’s skyline, it was spice that shaped the city’s destiny. Nestled along ancient maritime trade routes, Singapore was once the beating heart of Southeast Asia’s spice trade—its ports overflowing with nutmeg, cloves, and peppercorns destined for kitchens across the world. Today, that story comes full circle with “Mondrian Imagines: SPICE”, a multi-sensory, culturally rich initiative launched by Mondrian Singapore Duxton, just in time for SG60 and National Day celebrations.
More than just a hotel campaign, SPICE is the debut theme of Mondrian Imagines, a global platform that invites each Mondrian property to explore progressive ideas through local culture, art, and storytelling. And in Singapore, spice—long regarded as both commodity and cultural connector—was the obvious place to start.
“Singapore has always been a confluence of cultures, a city built on trade, transformation, and taste,” says General Manager of Mondrian Singapore Duxton Guillaume Gallas. “Duxton, with its layered history, from nutmeg plantation to vibrant shophouse enclave, is a microcosm of that evolution.
“SPICE felt like a natural first chapter where it is more than seasoning; but it carries heritage, story and identity. It reminds us that luxury isn’t just aesthetics, but also depth, history, and soul.”
Tucked in the buzzy Duxton neighbourhood and surrounded by some of Singapore’s most storied streets, Mondrian Singapore has created a series of immersive experiences that take guests on a journey through the city’s spice-soaked past; beyond the plate and into the senses.
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Each Thursday, hotel guests are welcomed at the Canyon Club with the Spiced Hibiscus Fizz, a cocktail combining ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and hibiscus—ingredients chosen not only for flavour, but for their cooling properties in Singapore’s tropical climate. In-room, guests find curated cards detailing the history of key local spices, and a bespoke spice-scented candle for turndown, ensuring their stay ends on a warm, fragrant note.
“A spicy stay is one that lingers,” Gallas explains. “It is that subtle scent of clove in your turndown candle, the tingling memory of a cocktail you’d never thought to try, the story behind a salt blend that now sits in your suitcase. It is playful, unexpected, memorable.”
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Much of the SPICE programme’s appeal lies in its local partnerships, chief among them, a collaboration with Anthony The Spice Maker, a second-generation spice blender known for keeping Singapore’s culinary heritage alive. Together with head bartender Adrian Besa, Anthony hosts a quarterly cocktail workshop at the hotel’s Jungle Ballroom where participants are invited to taste, touch, play, and learn. Here, guests learn to mix two drinks (one stirred, one shaken) using a seven-spice blend that includes green szechuan, makrut lime, nutmeg, and more. They leave with not just a deeper understanding of spice profiles, but two custom-labelled bottled cocktails and a new appreciation for flavour as memory.
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At Bottega di Carna, Mondrian’s signature Italian steakhouse helmed by Dario Cecchini, the theme continues with a bold dish: Aged beef, grilled over flame and rubbed in a bak kut teh spice blend. It features an Oriental Five Spice & Treasure Salt, crafted with fennel, star anise, cinnamon and Sichuan pepper.
It’s a modern twist on a Singaporean staple—one that fuses tradition with rebellion. “Rebellion in luxury today means rewriting the rules,” says Gallas. “It’s about breaking away from the expected, the polished scripts, the traditional do-not-disturb approach. For us, that looks like a spiced cocktail, or a bold twist on bak kut teh in a beef-forward Italian eatery.”
With our nation’s diamond jubilee around the corner, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. “SG60 gives us a moment of reflection—looking back at how far we have come, and forward to what is next. That duality of what SPICE captures is heritage and progression.”
For Gallas, the project is both a personal and professional evolution. “This journey has taught me that hospitality must be meaningful. Storytelling isn’t just decoration, it’s the soul of what we do. And Singapore, so rich in nuance, resilience, and reinvention, reminds me that our role as hoteliers isn’t just to serve, but to reflect.”