At the back of the room, three television screens hang above a charcoal grill and electric stove, indicating this isn’t your typical fine dining restaurant. Behind the wooden counter are three chefs, atypical for a restaurant that only seats eight.
Photo: Cher Him.
“More [chefs] are always better,” says Justin Foo, one-third of the trio behind Maison Shuko, the latest jewel in the Zouk Group’s dining portfolio.
Foo’s partners are Angus Chow, the 2018 and 2020 World Gourmet Summit MKN Chef of the Year, and Jeremmy Chiam, former chef-owner of Le Binchotan. Every evening, within the intimate confines of the restaurant, they whip up an eight-course menu highlighting local produce.
There are several restaurants that use ingredients sourced from farms in Singapore. None, however, have Maison Shuko’s storytelling finesse. Before each course, short videos transport diners to locations like Ah Hua Kelong, Long Kuan Hung Crocodile Farm and Hay Dairies, showcasing the dishes’ origins.
“There is excellent produce in this country that many people are unaware of. We want to celebrate these ingredients,” says Chow.
“Our intimate space allows us to know diners better. We want to be ourselves and we encourage anyone who steps through our doors to dispense with formality, too.
Jeremmy Chiam
Beyond that, the chefs also want to future-proof the restaurant. Foo notes that Covid-19 and our northern neighbour’s recent chicken import restrictions revealed the importance of self-sustenance.
“We must rely on our own backyard. We need the assurance that there will always be food for us to cook and serve.
While the game is local produce, the name Maison Shuko is French-Japanese to highlight Foo’s and Chow’s respective cooking backgrounds. The word “shuko” is also a portmanteau of their last names, but in Japanese. “You feel like you’re coming into our cosy home for a meal, hence maison, or ‘the house of’,” explains Chiam, who handles the front of, well, the house.
And like any home, the small touches elevate the dining experience. The smell of sandalwood wafts from the small finger towels. A crocodile figurine sits on the shelf. Sometimes, the chefs crack open their personal alcohol collection for diners. Whisky aficionado Foo shared multiple drams of a Cortoisie single malt he got from France with me after I shared my love for the liquid with him.
Chiam believes this helps build a closer rapport with their customers. The F&B veteran understands the appeal of big, fancy restaurants, but laments the death of the relationship the moment the customer leaves the premises. “Relationships are important for any business and even more so for the F&B industry. Our intimate space allows us to know diners better. We want to be ourselves and we encourage anyone who steps through our doors to dispense with formality, too.”
Photo: Cher Him.
Foo is even toying with the idea to recreate the Maison Shuko experience at the local farms, so diners will know where their food comes from.
While the chefs don’t shun ingredients from far away — Chow’s signature truffle and chicken yolk somen, which contains bits from France and Japan and has won multiple awards, remains a decadent delight — they are talking with farms around the region to import their produce. “There is surprising stuff growing in places like Malaysia that you think can only come from temperate countries,” says Foo. The goal is to showcase South-east Asia’s diversity and eventually open Maison Shuko outposts in neighbouring countries.
And in the spirit of diversity, the three of them welcome disagreements. Foo wants to avoid groupthink and believes that differences strengthen the collective. “We never fight. We might disagree, but we always work together to find solutions,” Foo says. “All of us have strong opinions but that’s only because we want to make Maison Shuko great.”
For them, greatness is not a Michelin star — the trio won’t turn it away if they receive it — but promoting Singaporean produce cooked by Singaporeans. They want to pass on their knowledge to the next generation of chefs and encourage their diners to look inwards. Our own backyard has everything we need.
Photography: Cher Him
Grooming: Kat Zhang, using Kevin.Murphy & M.A.C Cosmetics
