Andre Chiang to accept lifetime achievement award at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants
It's shaping up to be a banner year for Taiwanese chef Andre Chiang, who after being the toast of Singapore-town for leaving a small culinary legacy, has just been named Asia's 50 Best Restaurants Lifetime Achievement recipient - at the ripe old age of 41.
Ahead of the gala event that will be held in Macao next month, organizers announced that Chiang is this year's recipient of an award that honors a "chef's culinary journey to date."
On Valentine's Day earlier this month, Chiang shuttered his eponymously named Singapore eatery Restaurant Andre, which helped catapult the chef to international stardom. It was a shock announcement that shook Singapore's dynamic fine dining community. Over the course of eight years, Restaurant Andre earned two Michelin stars, and consistently ranked among the top restaurants in Asia on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants ranking.
But in a surprise statement, Chiang said he wanted to retire Restaurant Andre at its peak and focus his next efforts in his native Taiwan. "After thirty years of a professional culinary career, returning to where I was born forty years ago has always been my dream, passing on everything I have to the next generation in Taiwan and China is my duty, and providing young chefs a better education and culinary culture is an urgent priority for me," he said in a statement.
Indeed, despite his relatively young age, Chiang's career started at the age of 13, when he left school to train with his mother in her Chinese restaurant in Japan.
His culinary career would then take him to France, where he cooked under some of the country's top chefs including Jacques and Laurent Pourcel, Pierre Gagnaire, Michel Troisgros and Joel Robuchon. In 2010, Chiang opened Restaurant Andre where he honed his Octaphilosophy, a gastronomic philosophy that focuses on principles like salt, texture, unique, memory, purity, terroir, south and artisan.
The menu at Restaurant Andre was inspired by Southern French nouvelle cuisine, and explored texture, terroir and food memories.
Despite closing one of Singapore's buzziest dining destinations, Chiang revealed a new eatery will be resurrected in its place and open towards the end of the year as one of three new projects.
Chiang's restaurant portfolio includes Burnt Ends, MeatSmith, Bincho in Singapore, Porte 12 in Paris, RAW in Taipei and The Bridge in Chengdu.
Winners of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants will be announced at a gala event in Macao March 27.
ARTICLE TAKEN FROM AFP/ RELAX NEWS: vs/cd - Relaxnews
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