UP-CLOSE: BEIJING ON THE WORLD STAGE

OBSESSION: HIT & RUN, SHOP LUXE, JESUS PHONE

ARTSCENE: FARFLUNG GALLERIES

GET IN STEP: SPRING FIESTA, TIME LAID BARE

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24+25

OB

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THE TAIL END OF ORCHARD ROAD IS TAKING ON A NEW, EXCLUSIVE LEASE OF LIFE, THANKS TO A SLEW OF HIGH-END RESIDENCES AND HOTELS IN THE AREA

SHOP LU ESTORY LIN WEIWEN PHOTOS GLITTERATI , FRANCK MULLER

IT’S been described as a secret treasure trove

among the moneyed class and well heeled. It is

here at a corner of Tudor Court that an array of

bejewelled gowns and personalised attention

beckon to the glam set. No wonder then that

the new cocktail-and-evening-wear Glitterati

boutique is a must-visit for local celebs before

they set foot on the red carpet.

“My shoppers l ike the pr ivate shopping

ambience and the undivided, personalised

attention I give them,” says owner Latika Alok.

“I assist them from selection to fi tting.”

Glitterati sprouted from Alok’s home. A

decade ago, she was offering such sartorial

services from her living room, entertaining her

wealthy clientele with coffee and tea. Her aim

was to have a shop “located next to a busy mall,

but in a quiet corner where I could replicate

and implement my successful concept of ladies

shopping in a relaxed atmosphere”. And she’s

certainly achieved her goal with her current

shop in the quiet enclave that is Tudor Court.

Ironically, her “quiet corner” may soon have

its decibels raised with the burgeoning of

luxury apartments like SC Global’s BLVD and

ultra high-end hotels like St Regis— all of which

are set to lure the well heeled into this area of

Orchard Road.

This new buzz along the traditionally quieter

part of Orchard Road—which stretches from

Wheelock Place to Tanglin Mall—didn’t come by

chance. Fast to seize the potential of the area,

niche retailers have parked themselves with a

prestigious Orchard Road address here, even

before the action has begun.

GET TING INTO

THE GAME

If your fashion instincts

go beyond your

wardrobe and into

the bedroom, here’s

one more reason

to cheer. Luxury

bed and mattress

marque, Hästens, has

opened at One Nassim

Road—where fans

can easily fork out a

six-fi gure sum for a

good night’s sleep.

The Swedish bed

manufacturer—which

has been in business

since 1852—makes

beds that cost

anywhere from

S$6,000 to S$120,000.

The magic, they say,

is in the horsehair.

Unlike lesser cousins

often constructed with

manmade materials

such as latex, Hästens’

beds are described as

completely organic,

with cotton, fl ax and

horsehair to wick away

moisture. Other new

players in the vicinity

include its neighbour,

fi ne furnishings store

Atmosphere, and

Vanilla Home, which

specialises in lighting

and furniture imported

from Europe, which

has set up shop in

Palais Renaissance.

Take Delfi Orchard, home to an eclectic mix

of beauty salons, bridal shops and jewellery

stores. These days, there is something a tad

more sparkly and high-end about the typically

quiet mall that should capture your attention.

That’s the illuminative, tinted glass storefront

of luxury watchmaker Franck Muller, who now

boasts a 1,900-sq-ft boutique there.

To make its customers feel at home, its

inter ior is fashioned l ike a lush, pr ivate

residence, complete with a long dining table-like

show space. Mr Tay Liam Wee, group managing

director of Sincere Watch—who introduced the

Franck Muller boutique—says the store’s home-

style interior allows “customers to browse

the latest collections from the brand leisurely

without feeling intimidated”.

To lend an edge to the brand’s exclusivity, the

boutique also “stocks exclusive limited edition

watches and jewellery collections not available

in any other stores”.

“The opening of St Regis and many high-end

brands here over the last two years has livened

up this part of Orchard Road,” adds Tay. “We

believe this area is slowly gaining a reputation

as a premium shopping area for exclusive luxury

brands.” It could be the start of Singapore’s own

Rodeo Drive, if you will.

Indeed, over at the posh corridors of The

Shopping Gallery at Hilton Hotel, retailers are

going all out to ramp up their visibility before

the Formula One crowd zooms into town. It

has embarked on its fi rst advertising campaign

called ‘Fashion High, Fashion Life’, to market

the hotel as a luxury shopping destination,

splashing a six-figure bill along the way. And

why not—when you boast of first-tier luxury

brands like Missoni, Armani, Donna Karan and

Dolce & Gabbana.

Indeed, fashion has a way of coming full

circle and it was, after all, here that Singapore

got its f irst whiff of high fashion. It would

certainly seem f itt ing that this shopping

gallery could be the spark that will ignite the

beginnings of a Rodeo Drive for Singapore

further up the same street.

46+47 D

ESIG

N

GARBAGE GOT A RE-TELLING AT UTTERUBBISH, THE MAIN EVENT AT THE

BRINGING IN

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STORY ANITA KAPOOR I MAGES SINGAPORE DESIGN FESTIVAL

There are always two camps when it comes to

large creative outputs in this city-state—for or

against. There’s hardly ever a group in middle

ground, for usually, there’s little to fi ll that in-

between space.

The Singapore Design Festival 2007 may just

have been that middle ground for once. Perhaps

one of the most comprehensively curated

creative festivals to date, there was a certain

sense of things having fi nally come together as

an actual platform: from venues to participants,

from paraphernalia to partners, and a vibe of

trust and intuition not guided by red tape. That

the festival isn’t just all showcases, products

and boring lectures is certainly a step in a wider

direction. Call it a shedding of old skin.

In particular, Utterubbish: A Collection of Useless

Ideas was a gem, embracing both the global design

trend for clever rubbish redemption—in other

words, recycling—and the emerging movement

of design consciousness. Essentially a collection

of some of the hottest talents in the international

and local design scene, Utterubbish was a

comprehensive showing of big name designers,

each working within the ethos and interaction of

self, world and society.

THE TRASH

“WE’RE NOT SEEKING HUGE

FUNDAMENTAL SHIFTS WITH THIS

EXHIBITION, RATHER ENGAGEMENT

OF PEOPLE AND TO KICK-START

AWARENESS OF HOW SMALL

CHANGES CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

IT’S ABOUT PROVOKING A SENSE OF

THE BIGGER PICTURE”

- JACKSON TAN, CURATOR OF

UTTERUBBISH: A COLLECTION OF

USELESS IDEAS

With its roots obviously in contemporary

art practices, Utterubbish replaced the maxim

“reduce, reuse and recycle” with the far more

fashionable “less is more” theme, but with

a greater sense of the absurd, the witty, the

uninhibited and the rule-less.

With Jackson Tan, co-founder of award-

winning design house Black, being the star

curator, it’s not hard to see how the right names

came to be in all the right spaces.

“I think there’s a larger international outlook

here than ever before,” says Tan. “It no longer

means that a designer working in Singapore

is necessarily Singaporean or has to be—we’re

slowly emerging as a design-oriented city as

a whole.”

Utterubbish, he says, challenges the idea

that ideas are useless until made useful. “Lots

of exhibitions are utter rubbish—no value, no

information. You’re in and out in a matter of

minutes. We wanted to create something people

would spend time and money on, interact with

and take a little something home from. This

was our intention from the very beginning.”

And designers certainly responded to

his calling.

SINGAPORE DESIGN FESTIVAL 2007

The list of participants read like a veritable

who’s who on the cutting edge: US web designer

Jonathan Harris and his iconic We Feel Fine

website and search engine that stakes out the

state of human emotions across the globe

by picking up expressions used in blogs; the

Artecnica collective of designers that pairs

celebrated products and designers with skilled

artisans. Then there is the “Do” project of

witty images by Dutch communications firm

Kesselskramer that depicts a series of products

that require people interaction to come

alive—a Do Hit chair that looks better after it’s

been bashed up, a Do Thow vase that never

breaks; and Spanish designer Marti Guixe’s

thought-provoking collection of clay food with

instructions—the 7 Step Cookie, Hands Free

Lollipop and ICakes each reflective of actions

and attitudes to food.

Also in the house were French trash

photographers Bruno Mouron and Pascal

Rostain whose Trash photo series of famous

people’s garbage (Madonna, Ronald Reagan

etc) serves up a visual reflection of private

lives and attitudes, as well as Japan’s Treasured

Trash art and design collective which operates

on the “one man’s trash is another’s treasure”

moniker. There were also innovative, essential

building materials made from waste products

and recycled furniture from materials as varied

a road signs and magazines.

Amid the international wunderkinds, local

standouts came in the form of Shing’s Argentum

jewellery design collection, evocatively created

from waste scraps of jewellery metal; and

another sublime Little Red Dots showing: an

ethereal plastic fan installation equipped

with sensors triggered by human movement.

There were other local players for certain, but

while they responded to the theme directly,

their showing seemed too literal and lacked

substance. Particularly disappointing was

architectural f irm WOHA’s scrap carpet

contribution, fashion label Woods and Woods

clothing covered furniture, Kinetic’s showing

of their already much-hyped Refi ll bottle range,

and Asylum’s junkmail notebook covers.

So was it any good? Well yes, and no.

Utterubbish certainly broke new ground in

bringing together a treasure trove of the major

and alternative players in the international and

local design fi eld. Design clichés were rare and

every space seemed in seamless co-existence

with its product or concept—plus it took a

solid hour to walk through and had the sort of

positive rhythm that alleviates the brain drain

which comes from seeing so many images,

products and ideas in one place.

On the other hand, there lacked a stronger,

bolder showing of local talent—why not

include a few more unknowns, less inner circle

contributors, and forays with unusual artistic

genres? And the contemporary and mixed

media art scene seemed all but left out of the

mix. We’ve got the cache, so why aren’t we

using it?

An essential thought for the next one

perhaps, for there certainly should be a next

one, but with a more confident emphasis on

local talent, versus the talent of picking the

right people to show.

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The big Dutchman sitting on the sofa across

from me mimes the action of stuffing small

round objects into a tight bag and makes a

whooshing sound with his lips.

“I put the eggs into the condom, and then I

suck the air out,” Marcel Wanders, the celebrated

designer with a playful and quirky disposition,

explains with a smile.

The 44-year-old Wanders is describing his

inventive method of creating a mould for his

Egg Vase, the fortuitous result of what he terms

“a failed experiment”.

“My intention was to use two materials—latex

and eggs—that were brittle and thin, infuse

porcelain with these qualities. In the end, it

looks like a clumsy fat thing,” he concludes. “It’s

funny, but it’s also turned out quite beautiful.”

One can also apply those adjectives, funny

and beautiful, to the story of Marcel Wanders,

who has built a reputation for being pleasantly

offbeat, as well as highly prolifi c.

He has an intimidatingly long and detailed

CV, charting a litany of contemporary artistic

achievements in the arena of home interiors,

that is punctuated by his being named Designer

of the Year 2005/2006 at the Elle Decoration

International Design Awards.

48+

49 DES

IGN DESIGN WAN His works are striking in their peculiar genius,

such as the Knotted Chair that cast him on the

world stage of international design in 1996; his

Airborne Snotty Vase, based on the shape of

mucus particles emitted during a sneeze; his

One Minute Sculpture, formed by hand in just

60 seconds; and, of course, his Egg Vase.

Wanders was recently in town for the launch

of his Moooi design label and Boutique furniture

line at the Space furniture store, an event that

is part of the Singapore Design Festival, and to

present a lecture at LaSalle College of the Arts.

He has the physique and presence to match

his massive reputation, and he looms over

anyone who doesn’t stand anywhere near six-

foot-four.

Softening his imposing exterior with his

charm, Wanders is carefree and candid when

talking about his formative years, discussing his

heroes and offering insight into what gives an

established designer satisfaction—or chagrin.

“ It ’s fun to work hard,” he says in a l l

seriousness. “I have one goal, which is to be a

good designer. I’m able to do a fantastic job, work

on my projects, inspire the world in my way. If I

shouldn’t be happy, then who should?”

As a teenager, Wanders would not have

imagined how design would enrich his life.

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DERS

Up until he was 17, when a friend pointed it

out to him, he had practically zero knowledge of

what good design constituted. After six months of

studying design in Eindhoven, he was “hooked”.

“This is it, this was what I want to do. I decided

that I would be very good in design,” he says,

“then they kicked me out of school because I

wasn’t good enough!”

But rejection strengthened Wanders’ resolve,

fuelled his enthusiasm, and the rest was

history. He would proceed to work on projects

dealing with interiors, furniture, architecture,

fashion, accessories and textiles, establishing

his name by producing an impressive array of

work under labels of Droog Design, Mandarina

Duck, Cappellini, Flos, B&B Italia, among others.

His designs have a recurr ing theme of

humanism, such that they must be conceived

to serve the needs of his “audience”, as he puts

it, and his concepts are crystallised with aid

from his freewheeling imagination and his

distinctive sense of humour.

“A good source (of ideas) for me is when I

misinterpret what I see. I see something and

then fl ip it inside out. Designers are constantly

trying to see the world differently, to see the

world the way it is not.”

ARMED WITH A FREEWHEELING IMAGINATION AND A SENSE OF HUMOUR, MARCEL WANDERS MAKE WONDERS OUT OF ALL THINGS FUNNY STORY YONG SHU CHIANG I MAGES MARCEL WANDERS, SPACE FURNITURE

Arguably, the world has been enlivened

by innovative works by designers the ilk of

Wanders, who admires the husband-and-wife

design team of Charles and Ray Eames, and

considers Philippe Starck the number one

designer today.

For Wanders, validation of his craft can be

found in the eyes of the people who view and

appreciate his works.

Most gratifying, beyond demand to purchase

his works, is when the ideas he infuses within

his designs are understood by his audience.

“If I like my design and no one else likes it, that’d

be terrible,” he says. “I’d be very disappointed and

I’d kick it out.”

As for inspiring future generations, Wanders

stresses that he is in no position to teach creativity

or tell aspiring designers how to fi nd their muse.

“I think if they like or appreciate the spirit with

which I work, then that’s the most important

thing,” he says.

“I may be creative, but I’m also determined. If

I were a potato seller, I’d be the best that I could

be. That’s my mindset, to push forward as much

as I can.”

And to continue making funny ideas turn

into beautiful designs.

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If the modern-ancient city of Beijing were a

giddy debutante, then the upcoming Olympic

Games, when the world casts its eye intently upon

the Chinese capital, could be described as its grand

coming-out party. One would not have called the

old Beijing a plain Jane, though her dress sense

and perspectives—so to speak—were somewhat

on the traditional side. After a makeover long in

the making, commencing after economic reforms

in the late 1970s, and accelerated by the 2001

announcement of the impending Beijing Games,

the city is now nearly ready for its close-up.

By the time the Olympiad begins in August

2008, it will be a more modern, more confident

Beijing on show. While a source of pride, the city is

also something that Beijingers and some Chinese

people ironically have mixed feelings about.

CULTURAL CENTRE Ask any native and they

will tell you that historic Beijing, one of China’s

Four Great Ancient Capitals, is the undoubted

cultural centre of the country. They will also likely

recommend you visit any number of enduring

cultural sites, such as the UNESCO-lauded

Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven; the always

intriguing and newly minted member of the New

Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall; and

the “national ruins” of Yuan Ming Yuan, otherwise

known as the Old Summer Palace.

But there are many modern elements of Beijing

that have sprouted up in recent decades, which

may surprise those who have not seen the city in

a good many years. Zhejiang native Arthur Wang,

36, has lived for 11 years in Beijing, where he is

senior brand development manager of a multi-

national company. He calls the city “culturally

rich and diversified”, a place where top talents

gather. The biggest change he’s observed in the

city: infrastructure.

The elements of change include new transport-

ation options—beyond ubiquitous bicycles—in the

form of the still-developing subway system, and

new residential and office buildings, in the form

of high-rises offering a controversially mixed bag

of old, new and nondescript architecture. A sign of

the times can be seen on Beijing’s roads, which is

now home to more and more luxury cars, including

the world’s largest fleet of Bentley Mulliner 728

limousines, the most expensive car available to

man at US$1.2million each ($1.7 million).

58+59 VO

YAG

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STORY YONG SHU CHIANG I MAGES STOCKXCHNG, COMMUNE BY THE GREAT WALL, BENTLEY

BEIJING THE CHINESE CAPITAL GOES FOR A MASSIVE MAKEOVER AS

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LUXURY LIVING Consider this: 800 years of

shopping heritage. Beijing can certainly lay claim

to the title of a great shopping city, having been a

centre for international commerce since the times

of the Yuan Dynasty, during the 13th and 14th

century. Today, there are countless retail outlets

in the city, numbering tens of thousands perhaps,

within its many streets and hutongs (narrow

alleyways) and the most famous among them

are Wangfujing, Dongdanbei, Longfusi, Xidanbei,

Qianmen and Xiusuhi streets, and Liulichang

Cultural Street.

There’s little wonder about this proliferation

of retail stores, from bargain stalls to exclusive

boutiques. Wages are rising, and the average

income in Beijing was between 3,000 and 4,000

yuan a month ($780), at least 10 per cent growth

from 2006 to 2007.

As such, a fondness for luxury goods is

increasingly endemic in China, which accounted

for 12 per cent of the global market for such goods

in 2006, and is expected be overtake the United

States as the world’s second-largest consumer in

this market by 2015.

In Beijing, the search for upmarket fare begins

and ends at the shopping arcade at the five-star

Peninsula Beijing (formerly The Palace Hotel),

recently refurbished for four years to the tune of

US$35 million. Located on Wangfujing, the hotel—

with a strikingly opulent traditional exterior—and

its three-level retail area, once dubbed by the

International Herald Tribune as the “Great Mall of

China”, is home to 50 premium brands, including

D&G, Versace, YSL, Hermes, Harry Winston, LV,

Prada and more.

What’s more, bespoke service, such as that

offered by the Peninsula, is on the up.

“People are becoming more open to western

culture and also a more ‘consumer-centred’ kind

of service philosophy,” said Wang.

Other classic luxury options in Beijing include

the Grand Hotel, a favourite of foreign dignitaries;

St Regis, a Conde Nast Gold List selection; Raffles,

in a 1900s colonial building new to the Raffles

family; and two Kempinski-run accommodations,

the Lufthansa Center, with its European-styled

hospitality, and Commune by the Great Wall, a

private collection of contemporary architecture

designed by 12 Asian architects, located near the

UP-CLOSE THE UPCOMING BEIJING OLYMPICS PROPELS THE NATION ONTO THE WORLD STAGE

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Shuiguan section of the Great Wall. The latter was

named “A New Architectural Wonder of China” by

BusinessWeek in 2005. Even more exclusive is The

China Club, which offers its members eight suites

within its premises, a courtyard-styled former

royal palace built in the 16th century.

ARTS AND BOHEMIA In the art world, Chinese

contemporary art is the hot, or haute, flavour

right now.

Quite rightly, people are worried whether money

is ruining the pursuit of artistic excellence, after

painter Yue Minjun’s Execution sold for £2.9 million

($8.5 million) at Sotheby’s, a record for a work by

a Chinese contemporary artist. For art lovers and

collectors, Beijing’s booming contemporary art

scene is dynamic and exciting. There are gems to

be found, for sure, but some critics bemoan the

proliferation of mediocre, uninspired works aimed

at cashing in on global demand.

One of the arts enclaves worth visiting is the

798 Art Zone, also known as the Dashanzi art

district, in the Chaoyang District, where numerous

trendy galleries such as Arts Scene Beijing, Today,

the Galleria Continua and the newly opened

Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) are

located. The art zone, curiously enough, used to be

a German munitions complex. Now, it’s drawing

comparisons to New York’s fashionably bohemian

Greenwich Village and SoHo neighbourhoods, and

it hosts exhibitions such as ’85 New Wave: The Birth

of Chinese Contemporary Art at UCCA.

OLYMPIC COSMETICS Dressing up, with any

number of stunning accessories at exorbitant cost,

becomes a priority when an important social event

beckons. For Beijing, the Olympics has entailed an

incredible outlay. Old street signs replaced with

new ones bearing English names are a symptom

of the beautifi cation and improvement measures.

New residential and commercial structures are also

joined on the landscape by brand-new sporting

facilities such as the Beijing National Stadium,

nicknamed “Bird Nest” for its latticed skeletal

structure; and the Beijing National Aquatics

Centre, nicknamed the “Water Cube” or [H2O]3, for

its blockish design.

The former was the result of a collaboration

between Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de

Meuron Architekten AG and China Architecture

Design & Research Group. With a seating capacity

of 80,000 people, it will be home to the opening

and closing ceremonies, the athletics events,

and the soccer finals. The latter, the world’s

largest structure wrapped with a type of plastic

polymer pillows, has a capacity of up to 17,000 for

swimming, diving and synchronised swimming

events. Its design won it an award at the Venice

Biennale in 2004, for most accomplished work in

the Atmosphere section of competition.

Without a doubt, the “Bird Nest” and “Water

Cube” fi gure to be two of the most photographed

structures during the Olympics. Elsewhere in

Beijing, in anticipation of the sporting delegates

set to arrive, as well as the burgeoning population

of the city—currently standing at a massive 17

million people—modern blocks of fl ats coming up

with amazing speed.

Some of the negatives of urban redevelopment

have been the haphazardness of city planning and

the apparent heavyhanded displacement of current

residents. Liu Hao, 37, a fi lmmaker from Shanghai

who has lived in the city since 1996, complains

that the city’s modern architectural elements are

“lifeless” and not “humanistic” enough. “The city

has lost its character, as developments do not take

into consideration the historical perspective, and

the continuation from that,” he says.

Elaine Zong, 30, a business development

manager for whom Beijing is her “second

hometown” of more than a decade, summed up

Liu’s sentiments succinctly: “It’s dismantle, build;

build, dismantle—over and over.”

“Life is getting better and better. But it is also

getting busier and busier. Beijing has improved for

sure, but we’re losing the spirit of what makes it

unique.” Such is the assessment of Zong, mixed

emotions captured in one statement.

Despite its headlong plunge into modernity, and

the residual problems of pollution and seemingly

ill-planned urban growth, Beijing remains an

alluring city in which change is a constant, and

the traditional and new are still finding ways to

coexist peacefully.

It’s like Beijing’s trying on a new look, and still

wondering if the makeover will be worth its cost in

the long run.

DESPITE ITS HEADLONG

PLUNGE INTO MODERNITY,

AND THE RESIDUAL

PROBLEMS OF POLLUTION

AND SEEMINGLY ILL-PLANNED

URBAN GROWTH, BEIJING

REMAINS AN ALLURING

CITY IN WHICH CHANGE

IS A CONSTANT, AND THE

TRADITIONAL AND NEW

ARE STILL FINDING WAYS

TO COEXIST PEACEFULLY

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You could say that Thomas Mayr has come a

long way from his farm days. As a young boy

growing up on his family farm in South Tyrol,

Italy, the young Mayr spent his days helping

his parents raise animals, which they later

slaughtered and turned into smoked and cured

meats like Speck and Kaminwurst. Today, as

resident chef of the revamped Le Amis, he

commands a crew of cooks and kitchen staff

at what has become the most expensive (and

thus, talked about) restaurant in town.

His hometown of South Tyrol is situated 40

minutes from the border to Austria. And Mayr,

like the rest of South Tyrol’s residents, is more

German than Italian at heart. This is evident

in the way he speaks—with measured tones,

in a clear, quiet voice that could be mistaken

for impassion if not for the warm twinkle that

radiates as he smiles softly with his eyes. Mayr

is not a man given to raising his voice—a rarity,

if you believe the tales of the every day commis

chef. Rather, his is a style that exudes calm and

precision—traits that his crew in the Les Amis

kitchen were at fi rst surprised by since Mayr’s

more exuberant predecessor had been known to

be the alpha male’s alpha male.

“Thomas is very German in the sense that

he’s very committed, responsible and reserved,”

says Les Amis’ group communications manager

Raymond Lim. “Before he joined us, he was the

executive chef of a small boutique hotel, so

he’s very organised.”

Indeed, before helming the range at Les Amis,

Mayr cut his teeth at a series of restaurants

around Europe and the United States. These

included stints at the two-Michelin-starred

Tantr is in Munich and at David Bouley’s

Danube Restaurant where he served as co-sous

chef. He also spent six months at the famed

Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, where he met his

wife, Esther.

In 2002, he returned to South Tyrol, where

he took the position of head chef at a small

“wellness” hotel. There, he created a menu of

vegetarian and vegan offerings using ingredients

grown in the hotel’s garden. It was a time of

returning to the basics, as Mayr milled his own

grains for his homemade bread and made just

about everything from scratch. A year later, he

accepted the position of executive chef at the

Parkhotel Laurin in Bolzano/Bozsn, where for

three and a half years, he managed the kitchens

for a 60-seat restaurant and a banquet room that

could fi t up to 200 diners.

64+65 G

OU

RMET

THAT’S WHAT LES AMIS RESIDENT CHEF THOMAS MAYR EXUDES AS HE TAKES THE HELM OF THE RESTAURANT AND AIMS FOR NEW HIGHS STORY ANNETTE TAN I MAGES LES AMIS

KITCHEN CALM

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THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE Mayr’s coming to

Singapore was serendipity. The Les Amis group

were searching for a chef for a venture in Macau

when they were referred to Mayr by a fellow chef.

Mid-way through the interview process, Les Amis’

erstwhile resident chef Gunther Hubrechsen,

announced his departure to set up his own

eponymous restaurant on Purvis Street under

the auspices of the Garibaldi Group. With a $2.5-

million renovation in the works, Les Amis found

itself with a position to fi ll, and Mayr became the

natural candidate having been fl own to Singapore

twice to cook trial dinners for Les Amis’ bosses.

“We felt that his foundation was very good,”

says Lim. “Thomas showed a style of cooking that

was baseline and safe.” But that certainly doesn’t

mean boring, as Mayr’s menu at Les Amis will

attest. One of his signature entrees, Crispy Fried

Egg Confi t, is already showing up on the plates of

other local restaurants. A quickly boiled egg, with

its insides still quivering, is fl ash fried and then

served with a dollop of sour cream bejewelled

with Oscietre caviar. When broken, the rich gold

of the yolk oozes gently onto the plate, while the

white all but maintains its form.

Another excellent entrée is Mayr’s Grilled

Scottish Diver Scallops with chanterelle

mushrooms, baby spinach and Lomo Iberico

(ham). An infi nitely posh variation of the scallops

and bacon combo, the meaty scallops were

intensely flavoursome—sweet and juicy—and

well matched with the slightly astringent greens

and nuanced ham.

One of the joys of working at a restaurant that

takes its produce seriously, says Mayr, is the ability

to fl y in ingredients from wherever in the world they

are best produced. “I work with the best produce a

chef could imagine. There are no restrictions. I can

buy produce from Japan, Australia, and Europe,”

he says. The only downside? “I can’t call up my

purveyors the day before I need my produce.”

When asked to classify the food he serves,

he replies: “Modern French. What is modern

French? It’s inf luenced by the availability of

ingredients. To me, classic French is heavy on

sauces, but my food is lighter here because

Asians like to eat lighter.”

To be sure, it ’s a formula for simplicity

that works. Despite its heavy price tags (hor

d’oeuvres start at $55 and climb up to $110,

while mains go for between $70 to $120), Les

Amis has been packing them in, thanks also to

its swish new look and excellent wine cellar that

boasts a $3-million stash of premium wines.

The boom in economy certainly helps as wine

spend at the restaurant has increased from 20

per cent to 50 per cent, reveals chef sommelier

and group manager Randy See. One food writer

recently called the restaurant the closest thing

to Michelin-style dining in Singapore—high

praise indeed, yet deservedly so.

Naturally, Mayr and the rest of the team aren’t

resting on their laurels. Mayr says: “My goal is to

have happy customers and business is doing very

well. But Les Amis under Gunther was listed 83

on the best restaurants of the world — defi nitely

a goal for me to maintain or hopefully to climb

up that ladder. It is a big responsibility and those

are big shoes to fi ll.”

If the response to the new Les Amis has

been anything to go by, the 34-year-old chef is

certainly on the right track.

ONE OF THE JOYS

OF WORKING AT A

RESTAURANT THAT

TAKES ITS PRODUCE

SERIOUSLY IS THE

ABILITY TO FLY IN

INGREDIENTS FROM

WHEREVER IN THE

WORLD THEY ARE

BEST PRODUCED

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