Ahead of this year’s Seafood Dinner, NBAS invited founder Frank Naesheim to reflect on the beginnings of the event and the journey that followed. This article captures the story behind one of the most cherished traditions in the Norwegian business community in Singapore.
What they created was a Cod Dinner.
From Cod Dinner to a Growing Tradition
It was ambitious for its time. A three-to-four course dinner built around cod and roe, fish soup, and carefully sourced skrei, all brought in from Norway. They expected perhaps 100, maybe 150 guests. Instead, more than 300 people showed up the first year. The year after, even more came. The response was overwhelming.
From the outset, the Cod Dinner struck a chord with the Norwegian business community in Singapore. Companies brought colleagues, partners, and clients. It was informal, generous, and different from the traditional business events people were used to. Food, not speeches, was the centre of attention. It quickly became something people talked about and wanted to be part of.
At the time, Frank ran Snorre Food and travelled extensively across Asia as an ambassador for Norwegian seafood. He was used to working close to the plate, thinking like an à la carte chef. Otto, meanwhile, had been Executive Chef at the Fairmont since the mid-1980s, known for thinking at a different scale and for building systems that made quality possible for large numbers of guests.
The success of the Cod Dinner revealed something important. Together, Frank and Otto were working in ways that were new at the time, pioneering a collaboration that combined enthusiasm for seafood with methods that made scale possible. They challenged each other, complemented each other, and thought out loud together.
After two successful Cod Dinners, Ambassador Solem challenged them again, this time to think bigger.
By then, Frank and Otto already knew they could deliver seafood experiences at scale together. They had proven it years earlier, when they worked side by side on an ambitious Norwegian salmon buffet in Singapore, serving hundreds of guests. That experience, combined with the strong response to the Cod Dinner, opened the door to something new.
The Seafood Dinner Is Born
In 1998, the Seafood Dinner was born. As founders, Frank and Otto could not have imagined how deeply it would take root, or how long it would endure.
With the support of the Norwegian Embassy, Frank and Otto were invited to think bigger and were given the creative space to develop the concept further. The first Seafood Dinner sold out immediately, with just over 500 guests. From the very beginning, it attracted the Norwegian business community in a way few events had before. Companies brought leadership teams, employees, clients, and networks. It became a shared experience across industries and seniority, informal, welcoming, and centred on food.
Momentum built quickly. The following year, the event expanded into the full ballroom, welcoming more than 1,000 guests. Tickets sold out year after year. For many, the Seafood Dinner became a fixed point in the calendar, something people looked forward to, talked about, and planned travel around. Invitations became sought after. Being there mattered.
Protecting the “Magic Moment”
As demand grew, Frank made a decision that would shape the future of the event. He drew a firm line at 1,000 guests.
It was not about limiting success. It was about protecting quality.
Frank and Otto recognised early on that the “magic moment” is everything. It is the moment guests arrive hungry and the food is ready. If people are kept waiting too long, for speeches or formalities, the food suffers. This, in their view, had to remain a food-driven event. Nothing should steal that moment.
A few principles became non-negotiable. The seafood had to be at the centre of the room. Cold food had to be cold. Hot food had to be hot. Everything had to be prepared as close to the moment of serving as possible.
These principles, laid down early, became the foundation that allowed the dinner to grow without losing its character.
A Culinary Community at Scale
Building on that momentum, the Seafood Dinner quickly became known for its culinary ambition. Frank and Otto, together with the dinner itself, became the talk of the town in Norway, attracting top culinary talent from both Norway and Singapore. Guest chefs joined to prepare exceptional food at live stations, demonstrating that cuisine at the highest level could be delivered for as many as 1,000 guests.
Over the years, we have been honoured to welcome a long line of recognised guest chefs from both Norway and Singapore.
Behind the Scenes
To understand what this level of ambition requires in practice, it helps to look behind the scenes. Fresh seafood is flown in from Norway under some of the tightest timelines possible. In some cases, the sashimi served on Friday night was still swimming in Norwegian waters earlier the same week.
When shipments arrive on the day of the dinner itself, it is all hands on deck. From Frank’s perspective, it is this combination of ambition and shared effort that has made the journey deeply rewarding.
Continuity, Then and Now
As the Seafood Dinner matured, Otto eventually stepped back following his retirement. Continuity was secured through Frank and Snorre Food, who remained closely involved and ensured that the standards, structure, and philosophy of the dinner were carried forward. Through changes in partners, kitchens, and operating conditions, that long-term stewardship has been central to the dinner’s ability to endure without losing its character.
Today, nearly three decades on, the Seafood Dinner remains deeply rooted in Singapore. It is still sold out, still anticipated, and still a central meeting point for the Norwegian business community. Beyond Singapore, the concept has also taken shape in local versions across the region, brought there by Frank over the years, including Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
Almost 30 years after it began, the Seafood Dinner stands as a tradition built to last. Founded by Frank and Otto, and developed through decades of commitment, it continues today with a strong core team, including Markus in a leading role.
As a community, we are grateful for what has been built and sustained, and we look forward to celebrating the Seafood Dinner for many years to come. This year, we also celebrate the opportunity to see Frank and Otto back on the floor as chefs, a reminder of the craft and collaboration at the heart of it all.
The Norwegian Business Association Singapore is honoured to be the host and organiser of the Norwegian seafood dinner, in partnership with the Norwegian Embassy Singapore and Innovation Norway.
RELATED STORY
How Frank and Otto Met
The collaboration that would later shape the Seafood Dinner did not begin with cod, skrei, or a ballroom filled with guests. It began years earlier, almost by coincidence, in Singapore.
In 1990, Singapore hosted the World Congress of Chefs, a global gathering that brought culinary organisations from around the world together. As part of the programme, an ambitious Norwegian salmon showcase was planned: a large-scale buffet featuring 120 different salmon dishes. Frank Naesheim and Otto Weibel were both involved, and for the first time, they found themselves working closely side by side.
The project was ambitious by any standard. The organisers struggled with how to make the scale of the plan work in practice. The way Frank and Otto approached the task was clearly complementary. Frank worked close to the plate, thinking like an à la carte chef, while Otto looked at the challenge from a broader perspective, focused on organisation and scale. At that point, Otto stepped in and proposed a new way of organising the work. It was a pioneering approach that mobilised large teams while preserving quality, and once implemented, everything came together. Hundreds of guests were served, and the salmon buffet became a major success.
Frank remembers this as a defining moment. Until then, his understanding of excellence was rooted in the à la carte kitchen, where quality is often measured dish by dish and guest by guest. Seeing how Otto was able to apply the same level of craftsmanship at a completely different scale left a lasting impression. Otto was doing something few had done before, introducing new ways of thinking that made high-quality dining experiences possible for many.
They challenged each other, complemented each other, and thought out loud together. The collaboration shared the same passion for ingredients and craft. When the project ended, they returned to their respective work, but the memory of what they had achieved together remained.
Several years later, Frank and Otto were invited to create what became the Cod Dinner. It was ambitious and successful in its own right, but the scale remained limited. It was only when they were later challenged to think beyond the Cod Dinner and develop something larger that the memory of their earlier collaboration resurfaced. The experience from 1990 had shown them what was possible when they combined their strengths at scale.
That shared experience became an important foundation for what followed. When the Seafood Dinner was created in 1998, it was not the beginning of their collaboration, but the moment when earlier learnings were brought together in a new way.
Interested to be part of the Iconic Norwegian Seafood Dinner this year?
More information: The Norwegian Seafood Dinner
Contact: admin@nbas.org.sg