Second chance for Singapore icon
LAST week, beloved fine-dining Restaurant Andre’s closed down in Singapore, but chef Andre Chiang ( above) has revealed that a new eatery will be resurrected in its place.
Buried in a love letter penned on the restaurant’s final day, Chiang revealed plans to open an eatery that will serve “a new category of cuisine and concept” at the original site.
The fine-dining restaurant will open towards the end of this year, as one of three new projects set to expand his growing portfolio.
Chiang wrote: “Singapore, this goodbye, for I am not leaving.”
When the chef first revealed plans to shutter his eponymously-named restaurant last fall, it was a shock announcement that sent the local food community into mourning.
Tears were shed at the news. And strangely, they didn’t belong to Chiang.
“I have noticed how the community in Singapore has reacted more emotionally than I have,” he wrote. “I recall on many occasions how I have had to console our diners and guests at the dining table who were brought to tears, while sending them out the restaurant or in a taxi.”
Chiang released the love letter fittingly on Valentine’s Day, thanking diners and fans who helped catapult the 30-seat eatery, opened in 2010, to international stardom.
The two Michelin stars Restaurant Andre is currently ranked the second-best restaurant in Asia and 14th on the World’s Best Restaurants list by the UK-based Restaurant magazine.
Its menu is inspired by Southern French nouvelle cuisine and explores texture, terroir and food memories.
For the moment, Chiang is uprooting from Singapore to return to his native Taiwan, where he said he hopes to lead food education and strengthen the local culinary heritage over the next five to 10 years.
He will also be turning his focus to his Taipei restaurant RAW, and is working on three new projects set to open by the end of the year.
Chiang’s restaurant portfolio includes Burnt Ends, MeatSmith, Bincho in Singapore, Porte 12 in Paris, RAW in Taipei, and The Bridge in Chengdu. – AFP-Relaxnews is not