A New Generation of Culinary Voices
Singapore’s contemporary restaurant scene is increasingly defined not simply by awards or dining formats, but by chefs with distinctive points of view. The city’s most interesting kitchens bring together international training, personal memory, technical precision and a willingness to reconsider what fine dining can represent.
The 2026 MICHELIN Guide Singapore selection illustrates the breadth of this movement. Singapore now has three three-Michelin-starred restaurants — Les Amis, Odette and Zén — alongside nine two-starred restaurants and 33 one-starred establishments. Yet the significance of the scene extends beyond the number of stars. Michelin’s own assessment of Singapore’s 2026 dining trends highlights ingredient-led cooking, global culinary talent, regional influences and a growing confidence in more relaxed forms of luxury. (MICHELIN Guide)
At the centre of this evolution are chefs whose restaurants have become individual expressions of their careers. Some reinterpret cuisines they grew up with, others have introduced different ideas of fine dining to Singapore, while several have developed highly personal approaches that resist easy categorisation.
Julien Royer and the Pursuit of Ingredient Integrity
Few chefs have had a more visible influence on Singapore’s modern fine-dining landscape than Julien Royer. At Odette, located within the National Gallery Singapore, the French chef has developed a style that remains firmly connected to French culinary principles while increasingly reflecting his years in Asia.
Royer grew up in Cantal, France, in a fourth-generation farming family. His childhood experience of harvesting and foraging established an early respect for seasonality and the natural character of ingredients. His professional career later took him through kitchens including Michel Bras before bringing him to Singapore in 2008. (Odette Restaurant)
That background remains visible in Odette’s philosophy. The restaurant describes its cuisine as intrinsically French but shaped by a distinct sense of place, with Asian experience influencing the way Royer approaches native ingredients, citrus, spices and produce sourced from Singapore. (Odette Restaurant)
Odette retained its three-Michelin-star status in the 2026 Singapore guide, placing Royer among the chefs leading the city’s highest level of contemporary dining. (MICHELIN Guide)
What makes his contribution particularly important is not simply the preservation of French technique. It is the gradual evolution of that technique through exposure to Singapore and the wider Asian region.
For readers exploring this side of Singapore’s restaurant culture, The Best Tasting Menus in Singapore provide a broader look at the chefs and restaurants using extended menus as a vehicle for culinary storytelling.
Dave Pynt and the Fire-Led Restaurant
Dave Pynt represents another side of Singapore’s contemporary restaurant movement. At Burnt Ends in Dempsey Hill, the Australian chef has built an entire culinary identity around wood fire, charcoal and controlled heat.
The restaurant’s open kitchen is centred around a custom four-tonne dual-cavity oven and four elevation grills. Rather than maintaining a rigid menu, Burnt Ends writes new menus daily, allowing ingredients and the possibilities of the fire to influence the cooking. (Burnt Ends)
The approach has remained remarkably consistent since Burnt Ends opened. The restaurant has retained one Michelin star since 2018 and was ranked No. 59 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026. (Burnt Ends)
Pynt’s influence also extends beyond the restaurant itself. In 2026, Burnt Ends Hospitality Group continued to develop its wider portfolio, while Pynt remained closely involved in projects that explore fire-led cooking and hospitality. (Robb Report Singapore)
What distinguishes Pynt is his refusal to separate refinement from informality. Burnt Ends can work with premium ingredients and highly controlled technique while retaining the immediacy of cooking over fire. It is a useful example of how Singapore’s definition of luxury dining has become broader.
Mano Thevar and the Power of Personal Memory
Chef Mano Thevar has developed one of Singapore’s clearest examples of personal culinary identity. At Thevar on Mohamed Sultan Road, the Malaysian-born chef draws on the food of his childhood while applying techniques acquired through international professional kitchens.
Thevar grew up in Penang, where hawker-centre food formed an important part of his culinary memory. His subsequent career brought him through kitchens including Guy Savoy, Waku Ghin and Pure C in the Netherlands, giving him a technical foundation that would later become central to his cooking. (Thevar)
At Thevar, Indian traditions are interpreted through contemporary technique rather than treated as a fixed historical cuisine. Michelin describes the restaurant’s multi-course cooking as rooted in Indian traditions and crafted with European techniques, with dishes such as Chettinad chicken roti illustrating the connection between memory and modern execution. (MICHELIN Guide)
Thevar retained two Michelin stars in 2026. More importantly, its continued recognition demonstrates how a highly personal culinary identity can sit comfortably within Singapore’s international fine-dining landscape. (MICHELIN Guide)
The restaurant is also part of a broader Asian dining movement in Singapore in which chefs are increasingly using their own cultural memories as the starting point for sophisticated contemporary menus. Singapore’s Most Refined Asian Tasting Menus offers a wider perspective on this development.
Sun Kim and the Evolution of Korean Fine Dining
At Meta, chef-owner Sun Kim has spent more than a decade refining a personal interpretation of Korean cuisine. Born in Busan and raised in Seoul, Kim began cooking in his mother’s gamja-tang restaurant before moving to Sydney, where he trained under Tetsuya Wakuda, and later continuing his development at Waku Ghin in Singapore. (Meta Restaurant)
Meta opened on Keong Saik Road in 2015 before moving to Mohamed Sultan Road as part of a new chapter for the restaurant. Its cuisine combines Korean traditions with contemporary techniques, minimalist presentation and the influence of Kim’s international career. (Meta Restaurant)
One of the clearest expressions of this philosophy is the restaurant’s Jeju abalone dish, which draws on the Korean tradition of abalone porridge while incorporating techniques developed through Kim’s career. The dish has remained an important part of Meta’s identity because it demonstrates how memory can be transformed without losing its original meaning. (Tatler Asia)
Meta retained two Michelin stars in 2026, while also being named Restaurant of the Year at the Tatler Best Awards 2026 in Singapore. (MICHELIN Guide)
Kim’s significance lies in his gradual approach to evolution. Rather than constantly reinventing his cooking, he has increasingly focused on identifying what is essential to his culinary identity and refining it.
Kevin Wong and the Malay Archipelago
Seroja represents another important development in Singapore’s dining scene: the elevation of Southeast Asian culinary traditions into highly refined contemporary cuisine.
Chef-owner Kevin Wong grew up in the southern part of Klang, Malaysia, and has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in France, California and Singapore. At Seroja, his international experience is combined with a deep interest in the diversity of the Malay Archipelago. (Seroja)
The restaurant’s setting reinforces its modern character. Located within Duo Galleria near Bugis and Kampong Gelam, Seroja occupies a 2,700-square-foot space with an open kitchen, 13 counter seats and tables for four to six guests. (Seroja)
Wong’s cooking looks beyond a single national cuisine. Regional ingredients, techniques, memories and culinary traditions from across the Malay Archipelago become material for a contemporary tasting experience.
In 2026, Seroja was promoted to two Michelin stars and retained its Michelin Green Star, placing Wong among the chefs whose restaurants combine ambitious cuisine with a more considered approach to sustainability. (MICHELIN Guide)
Seroja is particularly significant because it demonstrates that Singapore’s modern dining identity does not have to be imported. The region itself provides an extraordinarily rich foundation for contemporary culinary expression.
Rishi Naleendra and a More Expansive Idea of Gastronomy
At Cloudstreet on Amoy Street, Sri Lankan-born chef Rishi Naleendra has created a restaurant built around movement between cultures, ingredients and techniques.
Cloudstreet describes its cuisine as progressive and ingredient-driven, with seasonality at its centre. The restaurant’s intimate chef’s counter is designed to bring guests closer to the kitchen, while its wine programme extends to more than 350 labels. (Cloudstreet)
Michelin describes Naleendra’s cooking as a combination of his Sri Lankan background and the Australian experience that shaped his career. Dishes such as Sri Lankan curry with blue marron and coconut broth demonstrate how different culinary references can coexist without becoming indistinct. (MICHELIN Guide)
Cloudstreet retained two Michelin stars in 2026. Naleendra has also expanded his culinary work beyond Singapore, with new projects in Sri Lanka reflecting a continuing connection with the country of his birth. (MICHELIN Guide)
His approach illustrates an increasingly important characteristic of Singapore’s dining scene: chefs do not necessarily need to choose between global experience and personal identity. The two can reinforce each other.
Kirk Westaway and the Reinvention of Familiar Cuisine
On the 70th floor of Swissôtel The Stamford, chef Kirk Westaway has spent years developing a contemporary interpretation of British cooking at Jaan.
Westaway’s approach is rooted in the food and produce of southwest England, but presented through the language of contemporary fine dining. The result is a cuisine that uses British references without relying on nostalgia alone.
The restaurant retained two Michelin stars in 2026. Its position within Singapore’s fine-dining landscape demonstrates another way chefs are redefining familiar culinary traditions: rather than reproducing established dishes literally, they can reconsider them through modern technique, presentation and luxury ingredients. (MICHELIN Guide)
Jaan is also an example of how a chef can gradually reshape an established restaurant. Westaway took over the kitchen after Julien Royer’s departure and progressively developed a stronger British identity, turning his own background into the restaurant’s central culinary voice. (SPIRITED ASIA)
Its panoramic setting adds another dimension, but the more important achievement is culinary: British food becomes the subject of a serious fine-dining conversation rather than merely a source of familiar classics.
A City Where Personal Identity Has Become the Ingredient
The chefs shaping Singapore’s modern dining scene do not share one cuisine, one technique or one restaurant format. Their common ground is the confidence to build restaurants around a recognisable point of view.
Royer works through seasonality, terroir and the evolution of French cooking in Asia. Pynt has made fire the defining language of Burnt Ends. Thevar translates childhood memories of Penang into contemporary Indian cooking. Kim distils Korean memory through years of international technique. Wong explores the culinary diversity of the Malay Archipelago, while Naleendra brings together Sri Lankan heritage and global experience. Westaway has made contemporary British cooking his own.
Their differences are precisely what make Singapore’s restaurant scene compelling. The 2026 Michelin selection confirms the city’s extraordinary concentration of highly recognised restaurants, but the deeper story is the growing diversity of ideas behind them. (MICHELIN Guide)
For travellers, this means that a luxury dining itinerary in Singapore no longer needs to be built simply around collecting Michelin stars. It can instead be organised around chefs and their individual philosophies, moving from fire to fermentation, from French technique to Korean memory, from Indian spice to Southeast Asian heritage.
That shift reflects the maturity of Singapore as a culinary destination. The city is no longer simply a place where international cuisines meet. It has become a place where chefs can take those influences, absorb them and create something recognisably their own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the most influential chefs in Singapore’s modern dining scene?
Among the chefs with particularly distinctive positions are Julien Royer of Odette, Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends, Mano Thevar of Thevar, Sun Kim of Meta, Kevin Wong of Seroja, Rishi Naleendra of Cloudstreet and Kirk Westaway of Jaan. Their restaurants represent very different approaches to contemporary dining. (MICHELIN Guide)
Which Singapore chefs currently hold the highest Michelin recognition?
In the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Singapore, Julien Royer leads one of the city’s three three-Michelin-starred restaurants through Odette. Mano Thevar, Sun Kim, Kevin Wong and Rishi Naleendra are among the chefs behind the city’s two-Michelin-starred restaurants, while Dave Pynt’s Burnt Ends holds one star. (MICHELIN Guide)
How is Singapore’s modern dining scene changing?
Michelin’s 2026 assessment identifies several important developments, including stronger ingredient-led cooking, greater use of personal and regional influences, the continued arrival of international culinary talent and a growing preference for less formal expressions of luxury. (MICHELIN Guide)
Which Singapore restaurants best represent chef-driven dining?
Odette, Burnt Ends, Thevar, Meta, Seroja, Cloudstreet and Jaan are particularly strong examples because each restaurant has a clearly identifiable culinary philosophy associated with its chef. Their formats range from wood-fired barbecue to highly structured tasting menus. (MICHELIN Guide)
Is Singapore still one of Asia’s leading destinations for fine dining?
Yes. The 2026 Michelin selection includes 45 Michelin-starred restaurants, with three restaurants holding three stars and nine holding two stars. Singapore’s broader restaurant scene also extends well beyond the Michelin selection, encompassing contemporary, regional and more casual forms of high-level dining. (MICHELIN Guide)
By Luxury Magazine Editorial Team