Latest news with #LesAmis
CNA
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNA
Michelin Guide Singapore 2025: Sushi Sakuta promoted to two stars, one restaurant gets its first star
The ninth edition of the Michelin Guide Singapore announced a total of 42 starred restaurants. The live ceremony was held Thursday night (Jul 24) at The Sands Grand Ballroom in Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. European restaurants Les Amis at Shaw Centre, Odette at National Gallery Singapore and Zen at Bukit Pasoh Road continue to dominate the three-star category. Les Amis' executive chef Sebastien Lepinoy said that despite being awarded three stars for the past six years, they cannot rest on their laurels. 'Around 40 per cent of our tourist guests come to our restaurant because of the guide. So every year we must push and improve our operations. We did a total renovation of our kitchen this year to keep it at top level.' This year, former one-star Sushi Sakuta joined the ranks of two-star recipients: Cloudstreet at Amoy Street, Jaan by Kirk Westaway in Swissotel The Stamford Singapore, Meta at Mohamed Sultan Road, One Fullerton's Saint Pierre and Shokouwa as well as Thevar, which just moved to 16 Mohamed Sultan Road. Among the 32 one-star winners was progressive Japanese restaurant Omakase @Stevens, whose head chef, Osaka native Kazuki Arimoto, was also named Young Chef of the Year. The 31-year-old, who started as sous chef at the restaurant in 2022 and took over the helm last year, joked that he was not that young and attributed his success to his team. He said: 'It's never a one-person effort. We work as a team to personalise the dining experience for our 16 customers. We change options for regulars so they taste something different each time.'
Time Out
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Michelin Guide Singapore 2025: Two Japanese restaurants win big this year
The Guide has spoken: 288 restaurants in Singapore are worthy of a spot on the coveted list this year, with one restaurant added to the one-star line-up, and another promoted to two-star status. Ahead of this evening's Michelin Guide 2025 awards ceremony in Marina Bay Sands, the Guide first released its Bib Gourmand 2025 picks last week, with 11 new eateries joining the ranks. 2025 marks the ninth year since the Michelin Guide landed in Singapore. And while it's no secret that the F&B industry suffered plenty of closures recently (this year has 32 one-star restaurants compared to 42 last year, mostly due to closures), tonight's ceremony proves once again that our tiny city is still chock-full of culinary giants. Receiving both the Young Chef Award and his first star is Kazuki Arimoto of Omakase @ Stevens, the fine-dining restaurant at Novotel Singapore on Stevens which specialises in omakase with French culinary inflexions. Then there's chef-owner Yoshio Sakuta of Sushi Sakuta, who walks down the carpet teary-eyed to receive his shiny new two-Michelin-star plaque – a bump from his one-star award last year. The intimate 10-seater restaurant offers a seasonal omakase menu exclusively serving Japanese fish, and demonstrates precision in using two varieties of Japanese rice and five types of sushi vinegar. New entries aside, most of the list remains the same, with the Michelin three-star category dominated by three familiar names in the fine-dining scene. You guessed it – once again, French restaurants Les Amis and Odette, as well as contemporary European restaurant Zén remain snug in the watertight three-star zone. This is Odette's seventh consecutive year receiving three stars and Les Amis' sixth. Meanwhile, Singapore's two Michelin Green Star awardees retain their titles – contemporary Southeast Asian Fiz and Seroja continue to go above and beyond in their efforts to source for sustainable ingredients, conserve energy and reduce food waste. They also deliver big on flavour and are consistent picks on our Time Out Singapore 50 best restaurants list. All in all, Singapore now has a whopping 288 establishments on the Michelin Guide, including three three-stars, seven two-stars, thirty-two one-star, 89 Bib Gourmand, two Green stars and 157 Michelin Selected venues. Check out the full Michelin Guide Singapore 2025 below – an asterisk (*) indicates that the restaurant is a new addition to the list. Three-star restaurants Les Amis Odette Zén Two-star restaurants Cloudstreet Jaan by Kirk Westaway Meta Saint Pierre Shoukouwa Sushi Sakuta* Thevar One-star restaurants Alma Araya Born Buona Terra Burnt Ends Candlenut Chaleur Cut Esora Euphoria Hamamoto Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle Iggy's Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine (Orchard) Jag Labyrinth Lei Garden Lerouy Ma Cuisine Marguerite Nae:um Nouri Omakase @ Stevens* Pangium Seroja Shisen Hanten Summer Palace Summer Pavilion Sushi Ichi Waku Ghin Whitegrass Willow
Business Insider
10-07-2025
- General
- Business Insider
She was a sous chef at a Michelin restaurant. Her grandmother's sudden dementia diagnosis made her rethink her career.
Chia Jin Fang used to work 14 hours daily as a chef in one of Singapore's top Michelin-starred restaurants. Burnout and her grandmother's sudden dementia diagnosis made her rethink her career. She now runs a small home-based café, selling $5 coffees and matcha while tending to her grandmother. When I entered the apartment unit in Singapore's far west, I almost thought I'd taken a wrong turn. Aside from a wooden bar cart with a sign and a coffee machine station, there was little indication that the apartment hosted a new café run by Chia Jin Fang, who until March cooked at a top restaurant. Chia guided me to the wooden dining table, which was sitting under a wooden cross on the wall. Lunar New Year decorations were still hanging from the walls in June. I spotted her 86-year-old grandmother hanging laundry. Chia's new workplace could not be more different from her kitchen in Les Amis, a three-Michelin-starred French restaurant in Orchard, Singapore's high-fashion shopping district. A fruitful but unhappy career in fine dining Chia fell into restaurants early, studying culinary arts at Singapore's Institute of Technical Education. Then followed a short internship at Les Amis, where she was converted to a full time chef in 2016. She loved how the menus changed with the seasons in France and that she could work with the best produce. But it was grueling work. "I'd leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and only be back home at midnight," Chia, 29, said. Although she got the weekends off, she slept through them to recharge. "Even though I loved what I did at Les Amis, I felt like I was wasting myself away," she said. Les Amis did not respond to a request for comment from BI. An unexpected diagnosis turned her world upside down The turning point for Chia was when her grandmother, who raised her, was diagnosed with dementia in December. Chia quit her job at Les Amis in March to take care of her grandmother. "Somehow it feels like the roles are reversed now, where I am the adult, she's like the kid because of her dementia, and I'm taking care of her," Chia said. Although she knew it was the right move, she couldn't help feeling a twinge of regret about leaving her restaurant job. "I still loved what I did there. It felt like a waste, because at the point they were giving me a salary raise as well," she said. She said she earned 4,500 Singapore dollars a month, or about $3,500, when she worked as a sous chef. But the cher had always dreamed of building something of her own. Renting space for a café was out of the question in Singapore, one of the world's most expensive cities. She landed on starting a home-based café. Like many millennials in Singapore, Chia lives with her parents and her grandmother in a public housing apartment. She spent SG$7,000 on the equipment needed for a café: an espresso machine, a coffee grinder, a small refrigerator, and some wooden tables. By May, she launched The Noob Coffee. $5 drinks and homemade banana cake, served by a chatty grandmother Chia said that despite her years in the kitchen, the closest she had come to making drinks was preparing sauces. She bought a coffee machine and grinder with no idea how to use them. But she wanted a break from cooking, so she decided to launch a drinks-only café. "I named it The Noob Coffee because I'm a noob to drinks. It felt like I was starting afresh," she said. Her menu includes basic black-and-white coffees, starting from SG$4. Her most popular concoctions are her Earl Gray matcha and strawberry and yogurt matcha, which cost SG$6 and SG$6.50, respectively. The first sip of the Earl Grey matcha was refreshing, sweet but not overly so. The Earl Grey syrup, which she makes herself, complemented the matcha's bitterness. The drink paired nicely with a slice of fresh homemade banana cake that was soft, moist, and filled with gooey chocolate chips. Chia said that she sells about 100 drinks daily on weekdays, and over 200 on weekends. She said the business has made about SG$2,000 a week since the May launch. Word of her café spread on social media, and demand has been high enough that she asked customers to reserve 15-minute timeslots to buy their drinks. Ye Min Yin, an after-work regular, said she loves chatting with Chia's grandmother. Ye, a 27-year-old business owner, said Noob's matcha was thick and worth the price, not diluted like other cafés she'd tried. Guests are welcome to sit around the family dining table to enjoy their drinks. Chia said her grandmother helps where she can, passing drinks to customers and making small talk. "During the opening, I saw her going around talking to people, and it was nice to see her this way, Chia said. "I cannot cure her dementia, of course, but I can slow its progress down." For Chia, the café is a chance to take it easier. She says she starts her day by baking banana cake and having coffee, and she mans the operation from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. At Les Amis, she said she barely interacted with customers. "I feel more accomplished because this is what I started myself," she said. "So, at the end of the day, even though I'm tired, I still feel very fulfilled."
BBC News
08-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Les Amis: Jersey disability charity celebrates 50th birthday
A charity which supports people with learning disabilities has celebrated its 50th Amis' birthday celebrations were attended by around 200 people last month at the grounds of Government House, and included a visit by the former Lieutenant Governor of Jersey, Vice Admiral Sir Jerry Kyd, and Lady group was founded in 1975 with the aim of "empowering" people with conditions such as Down's Syndrome, autism, and Amis said it was "humbled" to have received "so many messages of support", and thanked everyone who had contributed to its fundraising efforts. The group currently provides services such as residential homes, and support for people living independently, to more than 100 adults on the month it began work to build a new £3.5m facility at La Rue de Bechet, Trinity, due to be completed next year."Demand for our services continues to rise," said Leslie Norman MBE, Les Amis chair."We are excited that we are moving forward with our specialist nursing and complex needs facility in Trinity that will also allow us to provide end of life care."Thank you to all of those who celebrated with us and continue to support our work. We look forward to sharing more exciting news soon."
BBC News
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Jersey schoolboy wins ice cream flavour design competition
A schoolboy has won a competition to have his design for a new ice cream flavour produced and sold in 12, came up with a flavour called "Peachy Beachy" that is being made by Jersey Dairy and sold at Coop stores for a week.A portion of all sales will go to Les Amis, a charity supporting islanders with learning Fenlon, managing director of Jersey Dairy, said there were hundreds of entries. Mr Fenlon said: "We're excited to be going into production with this truly inventive flavour ice cream."As part of his prize, Will had a behind the scenes VIP tour of Jersey Dairy, and watched his very own ice cream flavour roll off the production line before being given a full case to take Findlay, managing director of Les Amis, said: "What a great competition this has been and although there could only be one winner, it has been amazing to see the community get behind the initiative to help us celebrate our Golden Anniversary."Congratulations to Will and I know all our team, and our residents, are looking forward to trying the new ice cream."
