Asia’s Most Influential: The Tastemakers

CYNTHIA CHUA

Founder and chairman of Spa Esprit Group

Cynthia Chua has the Midas touch. The relentless entrepreneur is a tastemaker in the truest sense of the word. Since 1996, the savvy founder of the Spa Esprit Group has built an entire lifestyle empire encompassing some of the city’s most noteworthy F&B venues as well as beauty and wellness brands. The 16 brands (and counting) span over 100 outlets in 10 cities including Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Chua has an uncanny ability to give consumers what they don’t know they want yet. She has dynamically introduced new concepts—to much fanfare—into the Singaporean market such as natural wine bar Drunken Farmer, farm-to-table dining experiences Noka, and Open Farm Community, and gut-friendly and gluten-free venue The Butcher’s Wife. The group, one of the brunch and coffee culture pioneers in Singapore, opens the seventh Tiong Bahru Bakery at the foothills of the historic Fort Canning Hill in April, and a new Common Man Coffee Roasters in Joo Chiat this month.

RISHI NALEENDRA

Chef-owner of one Michelin-starred Cheek Bistro, fine dining restaurant Cloudstreet, and Kotuwa, Singapore’s first full-service Sri Lankan restaurant

What’s new for you this year?

Cloudstreet just opened in July 2019, and we still have a long way to go. We may extend and have a cold kitchen upstairs for pastry. We opened Kotuwa in December 2020 and it’s doing very well. You can’t get Sri Lankan food anywhere else here. After we settle in Singapore, we may take Kotuwa somewhere else like Australiait’d be nice for us to have something there.

Your restaurants have received various accolades. What’s your winning formula?

We have sacrificed our personal time so much. You just get better the more you work on something. In the last seven years in Singapore, we’ve just worked a lot and it’s paid off. All the awards—that’s amazing to have, but they don’t last forever. You have to be one step ahead. I’m not trying to compete with anyone else. You have to compete with yourself.

Also, investing in people—that’s the key. A lot of our staff have been with us since the start. It’s that kind of opportunity that you need to give to people and make sure they know the value of stepping up, being responsible, and having a sense of ownership. I’ve given them a lot of creative freedom with the menus, and I guess that gives them a lot of joy to stay on.

What else do you hope to achieve?

I’m just turning 36 and still have a long way to go. It’s a marathon, and I’m pacing myself. When I work for a place, there was always a purpose and it was never about money. I knew when the time is right, money will follow. It’s not just about passion and creativity that keeps you alive—it’s also being financially sustainable. I have to be savvy with the business side of things.

How did you face last year’s lockdown challenges?

I genuinely think 2020 was one of the best years that I’ve ever had in my career. It was so tough, but I think I’ve learnt the most last year. When there’s a problem, there’s opportunity. We got Kotuwa up and running, and I learnt how important branding practices are, and how to build up a business.

We had four days’ notice before the circuit breaker, and we were still thinking how to do Cloudstreet’s delivery. I can’t remember what triggered it, but I decided to do Sri Lankan food delivery. After our last service, Cloudstreet’s kitchen was a very different set-up. We had to get new kitchen equipment and we started doing Sri Lankan food. You should always have a plan, but you have to be able to change and adapt.

DAMIAN D’SILVA

Chef of Restaurant Kin

At a time when Singapore couldn’t possibly enjoy a more cosmopolitan dining scene, heritage cuisine stalwarts such as Damian D’Silva certainly and not least his championing of the preservation of Singapore’s heritage dishes. He painstakingly documents the country’s complex culinary history through the time-honoured dishes he serves at Restaurant Kin. Diners tucking into D’Silva’s piquant dishes are treated to a tapestry of flavours woven together by personal stories of yesteryears, a combination that takes Singaporean diners down the journey of remembering their own wonderfully unique and multicultural identities.