High Life

HIGH LIFE #15 Dec 2017 51 I t is difficult for anyone not to notice André Chiang when in his presence. Tall and confident, the Taiwanese chef – who has garnered worldwide fame after spending a number of years learning and training in France and beyond – has recently announced that he will be closing Restaurant André in Singapore to dedicate his time to discoveringmore about Chinese cuisine. “I am more well known in Europe than in China and the fact that I am the only Chinese chef who has established a restaurant regarded as one of ‘The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ disappoints me. There should be more Chinese who are good enough to be recognized on that list,” he says. “There should be more chefs like André. “I left Taiwan when I was 13 and feel like I don’t know much about where I am from. That is one of the reasons I want to go back, to see what I can do to train chefs and acquire knowledge about this part of the world. I have already organized dialogues with masters of Sichuan and Shanghaiese cuisine and that should be the start of my journey.”