An intuitive approach to cooking. That’s the biggest takeaway Alain Devahive acquired from buzzing alongside his grandmother in the kitchen as a young boy. Like in many Spanish households, his childhood home honoured culinary tradition and a passion for food, cultivating his ambition of being a chef at an early age.
In 1994, shortly after enrolling in Barcelona Cooking School, he came across El Bulli: The Taste of the Mediterranean—a cookbook by Ferran Adrià, chef-owner of the now-defunct three-Michelin-starred El Bulli restaurant. “It seduced me completely,” recounts Devahive, who sent in an application for an internship posthaste. He got the job and was also offered a full-time position upon graduation.
Over the next decade, he rose through the ranks from apprentice to head chef, and through involvement with the restaurant’s food research laboratory and catering arm, learnt to rationalise ideas and think expansively. “We questioned and reviewed everything,” he says, adding that one of his jobs entailed disseminating avant-garde techniques to chefs around the world. “We’re talking about perhaps the most creative team in modern gastronomy, so I picked up many revolutionary concepts.”
Until its closure in 2011, El Bulli was repeatedly voted the world’s best restaurant for its molecular gastronomy, receiving one million reservations for its 8,000 annual dining slots at one point.
In 2012, Devahive arrived in Singapore to take on the executive chef role at the now-shuttered Catalunya restaurant, an experience he describes as “fantastic and unforgettable”. Seven years later, he opened Olivia Restaurant & Lounge along Keong Saik Road. The eatery serves Catalan cuisine and has steadily gained a reputation as the go-to spot for Spanish fine dining here.
“I wanted it to be a spot where you can enjoy a pleasant space, good flavours, and professional but familiar service,” he explains. “There is a multitude of high-quality, South-east Asian cuisines to be found in every corner of the country and we wanted to add to the offerings.”
But he isn’t resting on his laurels. His new venture is Noa Lounge, a Mediterranean restaurant situated at Mondrian Singapore Duxton that offers a fusion of Eastern Mediterranean, Southern European and North African flavours. “Noa is different from Olivia. The food and interior design reflect this,” he emphasises.
The key to innovation, he reckons, is passion combined with talent, perseverance, and technical and cultural knowledge. Devahive disagrees with the widely-held belief that there is an over-saturation in F&B concepts both locally and in other capital cities.
“Like many other disciplines, gastronomy is constantly developing. Human creativity is limitless. There will always be fresh paths to walk, and new brilliant and sensitive minds.”
Alain Devahive on the boundless potential in culinary concepts
In his experience, tenacity, enthusiasm, and confidence are the keys to success. Self-development at a measured pace, too. It is advice he both preaches and practises. When not running his kitchens, he unwinds through meals with family. His comfort food of choice is local hawker fare.
“Just yesterday, we ate at East Coast Lagoon Food Village. We had wanton noodles, prawns with garlic and butter, and oyster omelette with carrot cake.”
Art director: Chia Wei Choong
Videographer: Alicia Chong
Photographer: Mun Kong
Photographer’s assistant: Alfred Phang
Hair: Jenny Ng
Makeup: Keith Bryant Lee using Shiseido
