The 82-year-old dancer who's not slowing down
Madam Rosalind Koh's schedule is packed. She attends dancing or singing classes daily, and spends some afternoons teaching seniors English, singing or dance exercises. But she's not tired, she says.
'I was so busy working in my 20s and 30s, there was no time to play,' the retired English teacher told CNA TODAY. 'Now is the time to play. Now, I can do things I enjoy and even make others happy.'
For Mdm Koh, age is a number and you are only as "old" as you let yourself be.
'I don't feel old at all. Some people may be 50, but they behave like they're 80 and don't want to go out,' she said. 'I think I'm living life to the fullest. I'm very contented and very happy.'
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As a young guy, I remember coming home from school and we'd have a delivery of a cardboard box of vegetables coming from local, organic farms on the front doorstep, and I'd pick it up: Potatoes, onions, carrots and leeks, all covered in dirt. Thirty years ago, we were getting these great organic ingredients delivered to the house. For me, it was just a way of life at the beginning, but, looking back, all of my life has been focused on great produce.' At the same time, he succeeded in evoking emotions through dishes that played on familiar British icons. For example, Fish and Chips has appeared in different incarnations over the years: Sometimes a mini tartlette of cod, sometimes a potato pancake with caviar. 'Day by day, menu by menu, we got to a great place, and we did win all the customers back. To receive the first Michelin star (in 2016) kind of put a stamp on it to say, okay, we're doing something right. Getting the second star in 2021 was a huge high point and life changing for me and for my team.' And, these days, the dining room is 'packed for lunch and dinner every day. In the last couple of years, I've really seen a lot of repeat guests.' It was about two years ago that he felt he really hit his stride, he said. A bit of a hiatus in 2022 thanks to the pandemic and the restaurant closing for a revamp meant he and the team had the opportunity to 'reset and reboot'. 'I took the opportunity to simplify, refine, and clean, and to retrain all the staff to work very closely as a restaurant team. That was a moment of clarity for myself and the team.' The cuisine has reached a new point of structure and clarity: 'Very clean flavours, very organised palettes, recognised ingredients on the plate,' Westaway said. 'I'm not a fan of going to a restaurant and not knowing what kind of jelly we're eating or weird ingredients on the plate. I love to use seasonal ingredients – in Spring, you might see a bit of white asparagus, green asparagus, morels and spring peas, and it's all recognisable, but the taste is elevated. We use some very, very elegant ingredients, but it's all just simply cooked and simply placed.' While in the past, 'if you had a fish and artichoke dish, perhaps we'd have an artichoke puree and roasted artichokes and artichoke sauce. Now, it's fish and artichoke – just the perfect elements on each dish to sing for themselves.' UPWARDS AND ONWARDS These days, apart from running the ship at Jaan supported by head chef Ng Guo Lun, Westaway has ventured into Vietnam and Indonesia together with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Last year, he and his team opened The Albion at Hotel des Arts Saigon – MGallery Collection in Ho Chi Minh City, and this year, they opened The Crown at Fairmont Jakarta in the Indonesian capital. 'I put in a head chef to liaise with directly, and they're functioning very well on their own. I would love to stay within our core and look at opening a couple more properties like these. That would be the dream,' Westaway said. 'In a fast-paced environment, I think the more you take on, the more you can find yourself achieving. It's very exciting.' Meanwhile, he spends his days running 20km at 5am, and indulging in late night suppers with his team. 'We work crazy hours, shoulder-to-shoulder all day. It's fun to break away and have a bit of team bonding time just to relax. We might go for a beer at Chijmes, or a late night chicken rice – Swee Kee, for me, is the best chicken rice around. Or, we might go to Tian Tian Seafood at Outram Road and have cereal prawns and xiao bai cai with garlic.' For a quick fix in between lunch and dinner services, 'we get murtabak with mutton curry, biryani and sugary tea at Zam Zam.' 'People come and go, but every person that has been in this restaurant over the years has a huge part on the growth of this restaurant.' Summing up the journey, he said: 'We've stamped our claim on modern British cuisine – my interpretation of what I believe it should be seen as today, and how it should be seen as in the future – trying to change people's expectations over the last 50 to 100 years. I've obviously evolved and grown myself, and I've really come to understand the style of food that I have always enjoyed, and now, I've got the confidence to share it. 'If I come to your house for dinner, you're not going to cook what I want. You want to cook what you want. And it's the same thing in a restaurant – the customers are coming to enjoy the food that I want to share. They come here for a special experience and something unique, and ideally items not re-create-able.' He added, 'It's been an amazing journey so far, and I look forward to the next 10 years.' JAAN BY KIRK WESTAWAY IN DISHES Here's a look at the restaurant's journey through its most memorable and evocative dishes, many of which have appeared on the menu in different forms and iterations over time. 'FISH AND CHIPS' 'A lot of people from England have told me that when they ate our Fish and Chips, it took them back to a memory on a pier in Brighton, under the rain, eating their fish and chips, listening to the seagulls in the background. To link a memory to any part of what we're doing is incredible. If, somehow, I can make a dish that connects with all of us and takes us back to a memory as a child or a family moment or travelling somewhere in the world, I think that's the biggest achievement you can ever aim for. It's very difficult, but when you when you get it, it's very special.' 'TOMATO' 'Sometimes, people tell me they closed their eyes, they tasted the tomato dish and it took them back to their garden in Aix-en-Provence, eating their tomatoes in the summer.' 'This dish connected to a lot of people over the years. That was probably one of the real connections to the emotional heart strings. You know, my mum used to make me eggs, and it's incredible — some people call them 'dippy eggs'; some people call them 'eggs and soldiers' — everyone in the world has their own form of eggs. It was really a talking point. I'd come over and say hello to all the diners, and they'd say, 'Ah, our mum used to make us these amazing eggs.' That egg was not intended to connect to people's childhood because it was my childhood, but it really did create a very nice trip down memory lane for many people who came and enjoyed it.' LEEK AND POTATO SOUP 'In England, leek and potato soup is loved whether it's made in spring or summer or winter or when you're sick. People love it. Regular guests have had it a few times and they say, 'Never change it. We love this. It's so warm and comforting, and we love it every time.' It took six months to a year to tweak and adjust it to the right levels of seasoning and a little bit of spice. It really does captivate a lot of people.'
