This was part of an engagement for a concept launch — a fine-dining Asian restaurant in the realm of fairly highbrow gastronomy.

What the client wanted:

• Mentions of attention paid to health and well-being in the overall messaging — specifically, “some”
• To lend credence to the chef at helm (who, I discovered, has unfairly had some pretty bad luck with opening restaurants. He really loves what he does, he’s good at it, and he’s a cool guy) — and by extension the restaurant
• To avoid a number of sensitive spots (NDA: I can tell you they exist but I cannot tell you what they are)

What I did:

• Research on the chef (I stalked his socials too.)
• Check-ins with the client to lay down the framework
• Organising (a lot of) information, highlighting key points, articulating insights
• Brain-birthing the messaging pillars

About ASU

ASU is conceptualised as a space for Chef Ace’s research and experimentation. He seeks to discover depths of Asian culture and cuisine, to generate a library of new Asian flavours and ideas, and to preserve lesser-known traditions that could be lost to time.

Chef Ace and his team present innovative gastronomy, based on ideologies of eating through the seasons and crafting dishes from scratch.

Ensuring that every dish delivers on taste, ASU bridges notions of “indulgent” and “healthful” food.

• ASU’s cuisine acts as a mid- to long-term blueprint for prescriptive gastronomy.

Space

The design brief described a monastic feel, conveying the concept of simple living and eating well. The focus is on deeply understanding traditional Asian ingredients and techniques to create innovative, progressive Asian cuisine, drawing inspiration from traditional recipes.

• As such, every design choice balances the old and new, the familiar and innovative.
• The design of the space is evocative of reflection, simplicity, and peace. Each design element is chosen to welcome guests into a serene environment celebrating beauty in simplicity and elegance in nature.

About Chef Ace Tan

Early Life Influences

• Chef Ace remembers being spoilt for choice when it came to food in his childhood, as his home was located in the midst of three hawker centres at Redhill, Bukit Merah View, and Bukit Merah Central. He loved exploring the different options available.

• Some of Chef Ace’s earliest food memories stem from accompanying his parents and grandmother to the wet market. During these trips, he found himself intrigued by sights and scents of the ingredients on display.

• Every Sunday, Chef Ace and his family would visit his maternal grandmother at her home in Telok Blangah. Chef Ace’s grandmother would whip up dishes from her Hokkien heritage, such as Ngoh Hiang, Hokkien Mee, and Png Kueh. Looking back, Chef Ace regards the food as strikingly nostalgic.

• Chef Ace’s aunt, who had worked in Japan, would cook and share meals of simple Japanese fare (such as miso soup and grilled fish served with Japanese rice) on a weekly basis. Chef Ace remembers being awed by the umami flavours.

• Chef Ace’s uncle and aunts used to run a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) shop within Tanjong Pagar. Whenever Chef Ace visited to meet his relatives, they would share about the health benefits of the herbs and foods they had on hand.
  • Chef Ace was always encouraged to eat healthy and clean. He often had health-boosting foods and drinks like goji berries, Ling Yang tea, Luo Han Guo tea, and other herbal drinks. The exposure to these foods and drinks nurtured a taste for these flavours.

Adulthood — Career

• Chef Ace’s parents wished for him to pursue the life path of a lawyer, executive, or doctor. As such, he set out on a conventional path of education and work.

• Ace first pursued a career in advertising, but took a break after it became clear to him that his passions lay elsewhere. During the break from work, he found himself constantly watching cooking videos as entertainment.
• It occurred to him that he had always loved food, and always been very particular about it.
  • For example, while cooking instant noodles, he would go to the lengths of preparing two pots: one to boil the noodles, one filled with cold water to shock the noodles and retain their chewy texture. This was a practice he had observed and questioned in his youth, from seeing hawkers prep Wanton Mee.
  • This curiosity about food had been present since childhood, extending to ruminating on how a single recipe could have so many variations. It led him to the conclusion that with just one recipe, the possibilities are endless; the recipe can be expanded upon and interpreted differently.

• The rekindled connection to food brought with it other memories of his relatives preparing Chinese and Japanese cuisine for him in his childhood. Ace decided to pursue his passion for food, and pivoted to a career in the kitchen.

Professional Development

• Ma Maison Millennia Walk (Casual Japanese-Western) (2009 to 2010): Chef Ace was offered the role of heading the outlet. Here, he learnt how to run a kitchen, and grasped other operations and management activities.

• Buttero (Smart casual Italian) (2011 to 2014): Chef Ace held the position of Sous Chef on the opening team where his responsibilities involved designation of duties, general supervision of the kitchen, and supporting operational activities like cost analysis and menu planning.

• Pollen (Fine Contemporary Mediterranean) (2014 to 2015): Chef Ace worked with a team from across the globe, and was thus exposed to and learnt more about global cuisines, different chefs and their different approaches.

• Les Amis (Fine French Haute Cuisine) (2016): While waiting for Ards to open, Chef Ace applied for a role at Les Amis. Here, he was constantly challenged by the executive chef, which he welcomed as opportunities to learn and grow. He honed skills of time management, precision, and planning.

• Ards (Modern Asian) (2017):
  • Chef Ace planned the concept Ards as a space to delve deep into Asian cuisine and culture. Chef Ace and his partner Chef David Lee chose to serve Modern Asian cuisine as they felt that not many fine- dining establishments offered Modern Asian cuisine then.
  • The cuisine blended inspirations from different Asian culinary scenes, including regional flavours of Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It was an East-West fusion, integrating the flavours and dishes that Chef Ace and Chef David personally enjoyed.

• Flowerchild (Modern American, Modern European with Korean Influence) (2018 to 2019): After the closure of Ards, Chef Ace sent his resume to various neighbouring countries with the goal of exploring more of Asia. He joined Flowerchild in Korea, first as a consultant supporting menu development and then as an executive sous chef.
  • Together with the head chef, he developed and improved the menu, dedicating long hours to research and development to eventually launch an elevated Modern European menu, which featured Korean ingredients and flavours. The menu was well-received.
  • In Korea, Chef Ace also noticed how the locals would consciously seek and consume foods like ginseng chicken soup in summer to build their stamina, which fed into his health-forward outlook. As he routinely went hiking and would forage for herbs and other produce, he also developed heightened awareness of seasonality and its significance.

Defining Dietary Therapy

“Therapy”

Therapy is defined as remedial, rehabilitating, or curative processes for the restoration, maintenance, or promotion of a positive state of physical and mental well-being (i.e. “health”).

The words “therapy” and “treatment” overlap in a semantic field, and therefore can be synonymous.

• Moving rightwards in order, the connotative level of holism decreases. In other words, ”therapy” implies more broadly than “treatment” anything done to protect or improve one’s health.

“Dietary Therapy”

Dietary therapy, also known as “food therapy” and “nutrition therapy”, refers to the alteration or adoption of a diet to prevent or treat illness, or to restore and promote optimal health.

The practice is rooted in Chinese beliefs concerning the effects of food on the body, centred on concepts such as seasonal eating and moderation.

Although definitions of food therapy vary, some common tenets are:

• Medicine and food share a common origin, meaning food can be used to prevent or treat illness. As such, dietary therapy harnesses the natural benefits of food, especially when these ingredients are in their prime.
• Both medicine and food can be classified by their flavour and effects on the body. As such, ingredients can be purposefully selected or combined to treat illness or promote health.

Cuisine

• ASU’s menus are seasonal, two per season (one for the first half, one for the second half). Curating two menus per season allows for capitalisation on ingredients when they are at their true best, when the flavours are naturally richest, and health benefits are inherently most effective.

• Every dish on the menu begins with grounding in an Asian perspective — drawing inspiration from Chef Ace’s food memories, or Asian culinary traditions — then reimagined with global techniques. A consideration of well-being is woven into these dishes, such as by thoughtful incorporation of ingredients for their particular benefit(s). Collectively, these dishes are a revelation of Asian culture(s), history, food traditions, and flavours.