Opinion: Milestone wins in Singapore’s Michelin Guide 2024 marred by lack of a proper ceremony

Despite the absence of an in-person event, this year’s Michelin Guide Singapore results, which was announced on Tuesday, delivered a fair share of surprises and significant wins in the closely watched starred restaurant category. 

The annual restaurant list, assembled by the famously anonymous inspectors who work for the French tyre giant, saw eight former one-starred restaurants drop out. This means that about one-fifth of last year’s one-starred recipients were shaved off, which is quite a shake-up given that the removals tend to be limited to two or three restaurants in previous editions.

This year’s high drop-outs are reflective of Singapore’s sluggish restaurant landscape. Some fine-dining restaurants here have reported slower and somewhat erratic business, which sees restaurants packed for days, followed by pangs of empty scenes. 

Besides the weakened economic outlook and tighter dining budgets, other factors have also led to restaurants like 28 Wilkie and Braci pulling down their shutters.

Brand-name chefs have not been spared either. La Dame de Pic Singapore at Raffles Hotel by renowned French chef Anne-Sophie Pic, which received its star just two years ago, has called it a day last month, while contemporary European restaurant Table65 by Dutch chef Richard van Oostenbarge closed down quietly in Resorts World Sentosa, bringing the integrated resort’s Michelin-starred dining history to an end. 

Meta’s long-awaited promotion

While the Guide takes away stars, it also gives. Most noticeably, contemporary Korean restaurant Meta on Mohamed Sultan Road had a promotion that was a long time coming. It had steadfastly held on to its one star for the past seven years. 

Over the years, chef Sun Kim has switched to a contemporary Korean route and refined his culinary flair by highlighting Korean traditions and ingredients through Western and Japanese techniques. 

Sun is also a leading figure in the local chefs’ circle — two of his former staff have gone on to helm starred restaurants: Kevin Wong of Seroja and Louis Han of Nae:um. He also partnered chef Mano Thevar of two-starred Thevar to open Korean-Indian restaurant Tambi last year. 

For Sun, climbing up the ranks took seven years to achieve — there has to be a faster runway for deserving Singapore restaurants to progress through the ranks. Promotions are usually made from within the Guide’s selection. I am hopeful that one or two restaurants are capable of reaching two-starred status next year. Besides, some occupants of the one-starred category have outlived their presence over the years, and a spruce-up is needed to inject more life and relevance into the list. 

Spotlight on Singapore cuisine and talent 

Another highlight of this year’s results is chef Malcolm Lee becoming the first Singaporean chef to have two restaurants with Michelin stars in a year. Besides one-starred Peranakan restaurant Candlenut, Pangium, his fine-dining restaurant that delves into Straits cuisine and long-lost recipes, received a star this year. This is a milestone win and recognition for Singapore’s heritage cuisine. 

It is somewhat ironic that Singaporean culinary talents are celebrated more by overseas editions of the Red Guide than its Singapore edition. Take Jimmy Lin’s JL Studio in Taiwan, which received three stars last year and more recently, chef Mathew Leong, who led Re-Naa in Norway to its third star. 

For years, chefs Malcolm Lee, Jason Tan of Euphoria (and formerly Corner House) and Han Liguang of Labyrinth have been the poster boys of homegrown chefs heading Michelin-starred restaurants. It is heartening to see more joining the fold, such as Yew Eng Tong, who took over the reins at Alma last December and managed to retain the restaurant’s one-starred accolade, Nicolas Tam of one-starred Willow, and Melvin Chou, who has headed Tokyo-Italian restaurant Terra for over two years.

Making things sweeter this year is fellow Singaporean chef Seth Lai of contemporary European restaurant Ce Soir bagging the Young Chef Award.

While the day of a Singaporean chef helming a two or three-Michelin-starred restaurant is still very much a work in progress, one can be optimistic about these inroads that are being made. More support should be given to our homegrown talents who are excelling at a top-notch level in a competitive industry in their home ground. 

Something amiss without an event

Having an in-person award ceremony, like what the Guide typically does for its starred restaurant announcements, would have been a great source of support for the Singapore chef community. However, there was none this year. Michelin announced the results on its website and social media platforms. There wasn’t even a virtual ceremony like the one held in 2021 due to pandemic restrictions.

The local dining fraternity had to rely on social media to get dibs on the reactions from chefs on their wins. Michelin Guide’s Singapore-based team visited restaurants to dish out trophies to the winners of the special awards that recognise F&B talents. It would have been better if at least that segment was live-streamed. 

With the challenging economic climate for restaurants, having a proper awards ceremony would have been a morale booster for chefs to get together and celebrate their achievements. Having reported at the Michelin Guide ceremonies for the past seven years, I’ve witnessed sheer joy (and some tears) erupt from chefs, who often huddled together on stage and took photographs with the Bibendum mascot. These high-spirited scenes were sorely absent from this year’s low-key announcement. 

Ever being so resourceful, some members of the dining industry will throw a ground-up celebratory party next month to make up for the absence of an official celebration. It is this tight-knit camaraderie that will help uplift our chefs to continue their drive to innovate and elevate their cuisine, delivering sublime dining experiences that we can continue to savour. 

Listen: The Peak's Dining Lead Kenneth Goh discusses the Michelin Guide Singapore 2024 results on MoneyFM 89.3