October 30, 2024
SINGAPORE – Running a three-Michelin-starred restaurant and being a new dad are serious pieces of business.
And so it is that chef Jimmy Lim of JL Studio in Taichung, Taiwan, has not been able to come home to Singapore since his son Jaden was born in Taiwan eight months ago.
The 42-year-old will soon be able to introduce the boy to his grandmother here. He will be in Singapore for a four-hands collaboration with chef Alan Chan of contemporary Chinese restaurant Cassia, at Capella Singapore.
The seven-course meal, priced at $350 a person, will be available for dinner on Nov 8, lunch and dinner on Nov 9 and lunch on Nov 10.
Both chefs collaborate on the amuse bouches and desserts.
Chef Lim’s two seafood courses feature abalone and Taiwanese fushimi peppers; and red grouper, chrysanthemum, Taiwanese bamboo shoots and caviar. Chef Chan will offer three courses: double-boiled sea cucumber soup with red ginseng, fish maw and sea whelk; Hong Kong-style braised wagyu beef rib; and baked sesame puff filled with shredded French duck.
Speaking to The Straits Times from Taichung, chef Lim says: “When I have the opportunity to let more people know about what we are doing at JL Studio, I’m always up for it. I’m curious about how Singaporeans will find the food.”
In his luggage will be the fushimi peppers, bamboo shoots, chrysanthemum petal sauce, and a special rice wine made by a friend’s mother.
The seven-course meal, priced at $350 a person, will be available for dinner on Nov 8, lunch and dinner on Nov 9 and lunch on Nov 10. PHOTO: CAPELLA SINGAPORE/THE STRAITS TIMES
He opened JL Studio in 2017 with investors. In 2020, the restaurant debuted in the French tyre company’s guide for Taipei and Taichung with two stars. It garnered its third in 2023, and kept them in 2024.
Chef Lim’s food comes with a strong Singapore accent, and he uses Taiwanese produce to reimagine classics such as chicken rice (his version uses fish), bak kut teh and kaya toast.
From helping out at his father’s zi char hawker stall, he went on to Shatec, and then to restaurants such as The French Laundry in California, Noma in Copenhagen, and Le Mout in Taichung, before opening his own restaurant.
It was Capella’s culinary director Eric Neo, 46, who made the collaboration happen. He tells ST that he has known chef Lim since 2005, when the younger chef was a member of the Singapore Junior Chefs Club and took part in a culinary competition in Perth.
He says: “He’s doing so well in Taichung. His masterful blending of Asian flavours and deep respect for the produce he uses align with our culinary philosophy at Cassia. I want to see the sparks he can create with chef Chan.”
Chef Chan, 54, says: “I am looking forward to see chef Lim’s unique approach in presenting Singaporean flavours, while ensuring that the menu comes together harmoniously on the palate.”
After the collaboration, chef Lim will enjoy some family time in Singapore. Among other things, he will apply for a Singapore passport for his son.
His Taiwanese in-laws will also be here, and he plans to take them around. They will hit some of his favourite restaurants: KEK Seafood, Founder Bak Kut Teh, Boon Tong Kee, modern Peranakan restaurant Candlenut and Sri Lankan restaurant Kotuwa.
Singaporean chef Jimmy Lim of JL Studio in Taichung. PHOTO: JL STUDIO/THE STRAITS TIMES
“Going to fine-dining restaurants after having a baby is an impossible task,” he says. “We’ll be going to more casual places.”
The chef has been chalking up four-hands events with other chefs, including Louis Han of Singapore’s Nae:um in 2023 and Hiroyasu Kawate of two-Michelin-starred Florilege in Tokyo in September 2024.
On Nov 30 and Dec 1, 2024, he will be in Mosu Hong Kong to cook with chef-owner Anh Sung-jae, who recently made waves as one of the judges on Culinary Class Wars, a South Korean cooking competition pitting chefs against one another.
He says of the collaboration with the Korean-American chef: “Our backgrounds are similar, we worked at The French Laundry and Per Se. And we are pushing our cuisines on the international stage.”
The chef adds that he does not rule out opening a restaurant in Singapore. “Why not?” he says. “If the opportunity is right, I’m open to it.”
- To book A Culinary Odyssey by Cassia and JL Studio, call 6591-5045 or book online at str.sg/7gm8