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Profile | Singaporean chef on how Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen introduced him to the restaurant industry, his grandmother’s cooking and why he loves black truffle

  • Aven Lau is the Singaporean chef de cuisine at Bâtard in Sai Ying Pun, on Hong Kong Island, and loves the hustle and bustle of a restaurant kitchen
  • The 28-year-old tells Bernice Chan how he learned to use ants as an ingredient in Denmark, why he loves truffles and where he learned to run a restaurant

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Aven Lau, chef de cuisine at Bâtard, talks about how he got into French fine dining despite having no experience, and why he loves black truffles. Photo: Jonathan Wong

What was your childhood like in Singapore? “My parents were always working so I lived with my grandmother. She cooked every day but was not the best cook. Whenever we ate out or got takeaway food, it always tasted so much better. I kept wondering, ‘What is she doing wrong? Why can’t she make it delicious?’

“When I was nine years old, I started helping her chop vegetables and crack eggs. By the time I was 12 years old, I could crack an egg with one hand. A year later, I went to secondary school and didn’t stay with my grandmother any more and stopped cooking.”

How did you get interested in cooking? “I got a diploma in marketing and, six months later, had to go into national service [in Singapore]. While waiting, I started watching YouTube videos on how to make pasta and eggs Benedict, and began making things at home. For four months before my national service, I worked in a cafe and learned some basics, like how to cook scrambled eggs and make paninis.

“At that time, I was watching Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. That’s how I got to understand the restaurant industry, but no one tells you that you work 16-hour days, six days a week.”

Roasted quail with morel mushrooms from Bâtard. Photo: Bâtard
Roasted quail with morel mushrooms from Bâtard. Photo: Bâtard

What did you do after national service? “I wanted to pursue a job in the kitchen. I would buy a duck breast from the supermarket and try to cook it. The dishes I made looked good on Instagram, but they didn’t taste good. It was local Singaporean duck and I didn’t know how to cook it, but it was fun.

Bernice Chan is a former SCMP Culture writer who is now based in Vancouver, Canada, where she writes compelling stories about food and drink, lifestyle, wellness and the Asian diaspora. She previously co-hosted the award-winning Eat Drink Asia podcast and received a SOPA honourable mention for a video story about a Jamaican-American looking for her Chinese grandfather.
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