HOW I BECAME A CHEF

Did I always know I wanted to become a chef?

Ever since I was a kid I’ve appreciated great food and quality ingredients. Growing up, I would spend a lot of time at my grandparents’ house who had an orchard and some vegetable patches and I truly believe that seeing where our food comes from and how it’s grown can make a great difference in how we appreciate food. But it wasn’t until I was studying International Business at OSU that I found myself spending way more time reading cook books rather than my actual study books. I would experiment in the kitchen all day and then hosted these big feasts in the evenings for all my friends, and eventually it just hit me that ‘This is exactly what I want to do in life!’. And so I quit International Business and went on to train to become a chef. 

The first restaurant I worked in was Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago which was considered one of the best kitchens in America - and the world - at the time. It was an absolutely life-changing experience, like getting my MBA from the Harvard of kitchens. Charlie was a meticulous teacher and mentor who taught me about resilience, grit and the pursuit of excellence in the kitchen. Till this day, I still consider Charlie to be one of the most important influences on my career as a chef. 

After my time spent training with Charlie Trotter, I travelled to Reims, France to train with Gerard Boyer in his three Michelin-starred Les Crayeres. I also had the opportunity to work with Daniel Boulud and Joachim Splichal before joining Raffles L’Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills as Executive Chef of JAAN, a restaurant which I also opened for them in Singapore. 

Fast forward a couple of decades, now having opened a number of restaurants across the globe, I often joke and say that those semesters of studying International Business did at least pay off in the end!