No Pan-Asian food, please: The man behind Hakkasan and Wagamama ramen sets up shop in Singapore

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SINGAPORE: The NCO Club at South Beach is the first destination in Southeast Asia to welcome a concept by Hong Kong born restaurateur Alan Yau – the man behind the Michelin-starred Hakkasan in London and global ramen chain Wagamama.

Madame Fan, which opens on Apr 23, is a 50s-cabaret-inspired space serving up signature dishes such as double boiled four treasure soup with sea cucumber, fish maw, dried scallop and crab meat; drunken crab rice noodle with 20-year-old Gu Yue Long Shan rice wine; and steamed Soon Hock with Ipoh soy and spring onion.

Yau, who has been honoured with an OBE, has done much to revolutionise Asian dining in the West, not just with the fine Chinese dining restaurant Hakkasan, which opened in 1999; but also ventures such as casual Thai restaurant Busaba Eathai and dim sum tea house Yauatcha.

When he first started out, said the 56-year-old restaurateur, Western audiences had a very general understanding of Asian food.

Now, he said, “they have a better understanding in terms of each country’s cuisine, or ethnic cuisine”.

“Before – and in some developing countries still – a Pan-Asian idea was sexy. I find that extremely irritating in terms of the conceptual framework linking various cross-boundary ethnic cuisines,” he said. “I think, in my earlier days, I didn’t have a problem with allowing a degree of bastardisation in the product. Now, I do care.”

To this end, he hopes his restaurant concepts, which stay firmly away from fusion food, will appeal to western audiences without alienating “the indigenous market”.

But although Western diners now better appreciate the differences in Asian cuisines, there is one aspect in which he thinks has been taken “too far”: The concept of sharing, especially in “trendy new age restaurants in the West”.

“I hate sharing,” Yau asserted. “I think certain food is not meant to be shared. For example, you cannot share dessert. Come on.” To have the waiter bring you one dessert and four spoons, he thinks, is “slightly obnoxious”. “Why would I share a dessert, say, with cream or custard or ice cream, with four parties? I really hate that idea.

“Secondly, I don’t like sharing because you feel obliged to eat just 20 percent of the dish you really like, and then having to eat the other stuff you think is okay. That’s why I think qualitative Chinese dining has shifted a lot in relation to the general family style of sharing.”

At Madame Fan, tables in the main dining area are kept small, and dishes can be divided up and served.

Dessert, needless to say, is served individually. The signature is the chocolate fondant with crumble and caramelised banana. Now, who would want to share that?

Madame Fan opens Apr 23, Tuesdays to Sundays for lunch and dinner. For reservations, call 6818 1921.