057Having a lot of free time during the weekends,
he would stage in restaurants – the first being
Garibaldi where he was given every single job but
cooking to begin with. “A good chef has to be a
visionary – to create his own style of food but also
focus on what customers will enjoy. My avant garde
journey started when a friend of mine bought me
a modernist cuisine set. I fell in love with it and
like everyone else,” he says. He elaborates, “I
want to champion Singaporean cuisine. I want to
define the cuisine in my own style. I’ve got my sifu
(master) who’s happy to pass his old recipes to me
to upgrade them. He’s the first to taste everything
I cook. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices – I put in all my
savings to open a restaurant and broke up with my
then girlfriends a few times. I can’t leave my team
behind: I can’t be out there watching a movie when
they’re working so hard for me. It’s not fair and add
the end of the day it’s about being a leader. I want
to become the world’s best chef.”
Don’t give up – keep cooking.
It’s a tough industry and if you
want to be in the kitchen, you’ve
got to stick to it. Are you willing
to make the sacrifices?
Han Li Guang2017W
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soft shell ‘chili crab’
by Chef Han Li Guang