Big dreams in snow country

Chinese Singaporean Ken Chan is, by his own admission, "as Japanese as I can get". Born in Tokyo, where his father worked as a doctor, he spent the first six years of his life immersed in Japanese language, food and culture. He would return decades later to build a successful career in Tokyo, living there for nearly 20 years. Today, he speaks fluent Japanese, is married to a Japanese woman and straddles both Singaporean and Japanese worlds with ease.

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Even his style mirrors Japan's understated aesthetic. On the day of our lunch, he wears a crisp white shirt under a tailored blue jacket with a white pocket square, slim-cut, ankle-grazing trousers and clean white sneakers. It's a look that wouldn't be out of place on a weekend coffee run in Tokyo's chic Daikanyama district.

But while he blends effortlessly into the Japanese landscape, he is far from just another face in the crowd. He's playing a role in shaping the country's tourism future.

Over the past few years, Mr Chan's private equity firm, Patience Capital Group (PCG), has been buying up land in two mountainous regions in central Japan. His vision is to transform them into destinations to rival the likes of Aspen, Vail, Whistler and Courchevel.

"It's something I've planned and dreamed about for quite a while," says the affable 57-year-old.

We're meeting at Whitegrass, an elegant, one-Michelin-starred restaurant in the historic Chijmes building in Victoria Street.

Whitegrass serves French cuisine with a Japanese twist and is helmed by chef Takuya Yamashita, a friend of Mr Chan's. Their families often spend weekends together.

For our lunch, the chef has created something special: a "kid's meal for adults" evoking Mr Chan's childhood in Tokyo.

Instead of the usual refined French plates, we're served an interesting Japanese-Western mash-up: Napolitan pasta, hamburg, deep-fried Hokkaido scallop, edamame soup, focaccia and a silky egg pudding for dessert.

For Mr Chan, this is nostalgic comfort food, albeit elevated with Michelin-quality ingredients. The hamburg (beef patty), for instance, is made with prized Omi wagyu from Shiga prefecture and braised in red wine.

Japanese-Western fusion food was very popular when he was growing up in Tokyo, he says. Napolitan pasta, which combines a ketchup-based sauce with savoury ingredients, was invented by a Japanese chef in Yokohama, he adds.