Singapore chefs turn up the heat

Home-grown chefs are taking centre stage, with many of them helming restaurants that run the gamut from casual to upscale

- Tan Hsueh Yun

Chef Inderpal Singh grew up watching his parents cook on a grand scale. "My father has 13 brothers and sisters; we were always having people over for food," the 36-year-old says. From age eight, he would go to the Sikh temple every Sunday with his parents, where they would make chapati using up to 30kg of flour.

He says: "I would see these burly men cooking big pots of dhal. They would add something, and the smell would change. Add something else, and it would change again. That was magical. I always knew I wanted to cook."

He was accepted to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2010 after national service, and started learning French. But his parents, both civil servants, baulked, so he did not go.

Where: 01-01 Lumiere, 2 Mistri Road Open: 11am to 10pm (Mondays to Saturdays), closed on Sundays and public holidays Info: Call 9743-0116 or go to @americanmasshall on Instagram You could say that veteran chef Heman Tan has come full circle in his career. The 56-year-old was semi-retired. His previous restaurant, Moonbow, which served upscale modern European food with Asian accents in the Dempsey restaurant enclave, was sold in 2022.

When the opportunity came up to develop a new restaurant brand with Jas Prestige, which operates foodcourts, coffee shops and restaurants, he thought about how he fell in love with American food when he was 19. It was in Bath in the United Kingdom, and he worked there for three years as a cook in a restaurant serving ribs, burgers and pizza.

He says: "That's where I learnt to make barbecue sauce. American restaurants in Singapore started to disappear after Covid-19. Because I miss American food a lot, I thought to bring it back with an Asian touch. Places like Billy Bombers, Dan Ryan's and Breeks — I miss their food."