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SINGAPORE – Enter the fiery world of one-Michelin-starred modern grill restaurant Burnt Ends through the debut book of its Australian chef-partner Dave Pynt, 40.  Much like the acclaimed establishment that defies the rules with its bold and distinctive style of barbecue, the book – named after the restaurant – is not your typical cookbook.  Two years in the making, the 368-page hardcover tome about the story of the 11-year-old restaurant is told through illustrations by American comic artist Ryan Inzana.  The eatery started as a barbecue pop-up called Burnt Enz in London in 2012. It launched in Teck Lim Road in Singapore a year later and opened in Dempsey in December 2021. Its 9,000 sq ft space comprises a 40-seat dining area, 16-seat counter, 14-seat private-dining room, bar and bakery.  Burnt Ends has held its one Michelin star since 2018. It is ranked No. 68 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and No. 15 on The Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list.  The book also delves into 16 key techniques used in the restaurant and 70 recipes from its repertoire.  Limited-edition copies come in a 6.6kg matt-black metal box studded with 12 bronze skulls, the restaurant’s signature logo. The book will be cold-smoked with ironbark, signed by Pynt and personalised with the buyer’s name.  “We didn’t want to do a normal cookbook,” says Pynt, who co-wrote it with Australian food and travel journalist Max Veenhuyzen. “We didn’t want someone telling us how it should look and what it should be and do infinite amounts of recipe testing. We wanted the freedom to do things our way, and not just write my thoughts on cooking with fire plus five recipes.”  Articulating the techniques clearly was the hardest part, adds Pynt, who also manages Burnt Ends’ sister restaurant Meatsmith in Telok Ayer. These include the art of flame-grilling (for the char and lick of the flame), hard-grilling (for heat, char and colour) and soft-grilling (gentle, “soft” heat without much colour) used for cooking the restaurant’s king crab legs.  The Perth-born chef and father of two says: “Barbecued food isn’t just grilling or smoking. There are a lot of intricacies and technical details that go into what we do on a daily basis.” The recipes offer a current snapshot of what is being done at Burnt Ends. They include its famed Burnt Ends sanger (Australian slang for sandwich); egg tart (with smoked quail eggs and caviar); maitake mushroom porridge and egg yolk; and crab-stuffed suckling pig.  There are also recipes of the bakery’s popular berry tart and doughnuts, as well as base recipes for vinaigrettes, spice rubs and marinades.   And, yes, Pynt assures his fans that the most hotly requested recipe – beef marmalade – is also in the line-up.  There is a disclaimer in the book, he adds, that while the recipes work at Burnt Ends, they may have to be adapted for home-cooking. He says: “If you don’t have a four-tonne dual-cavity wood-burning oven, elevation grills and a s***load of skills from our team, and if you don’t get the same ingredients, it may not work.  “But you can learn some techniques along the way, have a bit of fun, take what we have and make it your own, have an experiment and be inspired by it.”  The book also highlights the people who have been an important part of the restaurant’s journey.  These include Pynt’s wife Katrina Wheeldon, who is Burnt Ends’ director of marketing; restaurant manager Thomas Koh; and restaurateur Loh Lik Peng, chief executive of restaurant and hotel group Unlisted Collection, which owns Burnt Ends.  Upcoming projects for Pynt include cooking with famed chef Massimo Bottura at the latter’s boutique hotel Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Italy, in September, followed by the Pair’d wine and food festival in Margaret River, Western Australia, in November.  He has also signed another five-year contract to continue running The Ledge by Dave Pynt, a beach barbecue restaurant at luxury hotel Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi.  In Singapore, some new local projects slated for end-2024 are under wraps for now.  Asked if there is another book in the works, Pynt’s immediate wry response is: “I hope not. I’ve said no books ever, now we’ve done one. “Burnt Ends isn’t just about food, it is not just a restaurant. I want to give people an understanding of us, to show who we are and what we do.”