{"id":2255,"date":"2012-06-17T16:34:18","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T15:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/wp\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2024-09-02T14:45:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T13:45:43","slug":"ignatius-iggy-chan-singapores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/ignatius-iggy-chan-singapores\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignatius \u2018Iggy\u2019 Chan \u2013 Singapore\u2019s Sommelier – interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few restaurants owned, run by, and named after a sommelier but Singapore\u2019s iconic \u201cIggy\u2019s\u201d is just that. Ignatius \u2018Iggy\u2019 Chan is an immensely likable, warm and animated restaurateur who has given his name to one of the most celebrated destinations for food lovers across Asia and indeed the world. \u201cWhen I\u2019m in a gathering of chefs I feel a little embarrassed because many people call me \u2018chef\u2019 \u2013 but I\u2019m a sommelier. I have so much respect for chefs that I don\u2019t want to pretend to be one!\u201d Iggy Chan says modestly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Iggy It would be easy to assume that Iggy Chan had come from a family of caterers and that perhaps he had always had a passion for fine ingredients, but he drifted into the business by chance, and a happy one for us, the appreciative diner. He didn\u2019t embark on his career because of some kind of culinary passion, it was hardship and the practical need to survive, he says, that forced him initially to take that path. \u201cI had no clue that my future would lie in this business. I am in the Baby-boomer age group. Singapore was just industrialising, times were tough, kids like me who didn\u2019t come from a privileged family didn\u2019t have the luxury of being exposed to fine dining. We grew up eating well because we cooked hearty Chinese food, we drank a little beer and Chinese wine, but that\u2019s it \u2013 we were not into this \u2018lifestyle\u2019 thing. Food was a necessity, something to nourish us, to bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI finished high school and had not done well \u2013 I had been naughty,\u201d he says with a grin, \u201cand failed most of my exams \u2013 so I went into the army to do my national service. I finished that and had to get a job quickly, but that was the time of Singapore\u2019s recession, about 1984.\u201d He tried every job, but entry-level hotel receptionist posts demanded A-levels and good English; he even went to a furniture design shop, but they could not offer him a scholarship to continue his education. \u201cThen I walked into the Goodwood Park Hotel: they needed a commis waiter in the coffee shop. I saw all the equipment, the siphon gadget, I had never been to such a place, I was so excited and I said \u2018Yes, I\u2019ll take it!\u2019 even though they were only paying $400.\u201d Iggy learned how to make the different coffees, but looking through to the restaurant he could see the elegant diners and waiters, and was impressed.<\/p>\n

Singapore was developing, and there were eight or ten new hotels opening. Desperate for staff, these hotels were offering scholarships for hotel schools, and Mandarin Oriental gave Iggy his opportunity. He says that\u2019s why now when he travels he always tries to stay at a Mandarin Oriental hotel. \u201cThey sent me to a local hotel school which was a joint venture with Ecole H\u00f4teli\u00e8re de Lausanne. That\u2019s when I really started learning about the business. My work experience gave me a head start over the other students who had come straight from school, even though I wasn\u2019t as smart as some of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in the UK students interested in food and wine can so easily hop over the Channel to the \u2018land of wine\u2019, and you are brought up in a culture that teaches appreciation of wine from a young age; but not in Singapore \u2013 it\u2019s been more challenging for me there. But somehow, I don\u2019t know why, I had an instinct to want to discover wine and food \u2013 it\u2019s not from my parents, maybe it\u2019s from the television.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iggy Is it more difficult to head a restaurant as a sommelier rather than as a chef? \u201cI see it as an advantage. When a diner eats something that they are not totally happy with, or encounters flavours that they don\u2019t like, they won\u2019t mention that to the chef, especially when the chef comes out and asks, \u2018How was the meal?\u2019 They will say, \u2018Oh, yes it was excellent, wonderful…\u2019 But the advantage of my role is that they feel comfortable telling me the truth, because they know that although the restaurant bears my name, I\u2019m not physically the one preparing the food. They are happier telling me because they know I will convey it to the kitchen. If I were the person preparing it, the comment would hit harder, more personally, but I\u2019m a \u2018proxy\u2019. I\u2019m in a better position as the sommelier\/owner, especially if I have a good team of people that connects well \u2013 as opposed to a team around a celebrity. I try to play down my role as a personality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call the restaurant \u2018Iggy\u2019s\u2019 \u2013 we are not the most creative people,\u201d he jokes. \u201cWhen we started we wanted to call it \u2018Chardonnay\u2019 or \u2018Pinot Noir\u2019 and then we moved on to vegetables: \u2018Aubergine\u2019, \u2018Peppers\u2019, and so on, but it was not representative of what we wanted to do. We said, \u2018Actually, let\u2019s just call it \u201cIggy\u2019s\u201d.\u2019 A lot of guests who come don\u2019t know me and just think it\u2019s the fictitious name of the restaurant \u2013 which is good!\u201d<\/p>\n

Iggy Chan isn\u2019t a chef, so how does the restaurant develop its menus? Which comes first, the wine list or the bill of fare? \u201cIt\u2019s a chicken-and-the-egg situation,\u201d he says. \u201cI believe there are no absolutes in wine and food pairing. A lot of people play along with a restaurant, they dare not criticise because \u2018the restaurant employs professionals\u2019; even though you personally think a combination doesn\u2019t work, you assume \u2018maybe that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to taste\u2019. I felt drawn to the marriage of food and wine, even though I was not exposed to it like kids in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Iggy Chan if he felt that that freedom offered him some advantage. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t have that tradition that says \u2018This is the right way, this is the wrong way\u2019, when I travel and see something different I am not so set in my ways and I am confident enough to bring ideas together, adapt it and introduce it for our market. We have to find a concept that people from Europe can understand. We call ourselves a \u2018Modern European restaurant\u2019 but I don\u2019t know what\u2019s so European about our concept, apart from the kitchen layout! A lot of our food and techniques we adapt from the latest top progressive restaurants; flavours we adjust for the diners we have in Singapore; ingredients we take from wherever we think is the best source. So if you ask me what kind of restaurant we are running, I would have to say it isn\u2019t a Chinese restaurant, we are not a Singaporean restaurant (apart from the fact that we are in Singapore), but definitely we are not traditional European; so we call ourselves \u2018Modern European\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iggy I asked Iggy Chan why he considers his restaurant European at all. \u201cMy explanation is that it is European because the kitchen is laid out on European lines. With regard to the menu, we offer lots of snacks to start, then something cold and refreshing and light \u2013 oysters, or sorbet, something to wake up the senses \u2013 and then we jump into something warm, building up to hot \u2013 fish, fried food, noodles. Sometimes we serve rice at the end, which is not European: we don\u2019t have rules. We have learned that ultimately we can\u2019t please everyone. Running a restaurant you constantly feel that you might fail tomorrow, even if you are successful today, so that keeps you on your toes! We fear that tomorrow people are not going to like us \u2013 my advice to others is \u2018Don\u2019t open a restaurant!\u2019\u201d he says with a wry smile.<\/p>\n

Iggy Chan is a successful sommelier, so what advice would he give on wine pairing? \u201cYou need to find flavours of wines that don\u2019t overpower or dominate; flavours of food that don\u2019t overpower the wine. For example, tannic red wine with oysters \u2013 the wine has an \u2018iodine\u2019 taste and that\u2019s not what you are looking for, it\u2019s a disastrous match. But if you take a Chinon from the Loire, young, very light, or a Pinot Noir from the Loire, and serve it slightly chilled, that\u2019s not so bad; not the ideal match, but if someone wants to drink only red wine and likes oysters, you can do it. I use that perspective: we have a wine list comprising wines that are complementary to food \u2013 nothing extreme, we focus on Champagne, Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Noir, and a good selection of Bordeaux simply because we are in Asia and every Chinese customer wants to try it. So our wine list is predominantly Burgundy-driven because I find that Pinot Noir works very well with food: if you want to take a bottle of red wine that will go through our menu, which is predominantly seafood, and then finish with meat and cheese at the end, then a Pinot Noir will work with everything. It is light enough to go with certain seafood dishes, and has enough body to take on meats like pigeon, quail and even steak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who does Iggy Chan consider to have had the most impact in the culinary forum? \u201cI think Ferran Adri\u00e0 has been the most amazingly influential person in the culinary world in the last fifty or a hundred years; it\u2019s through people like him that food evolves. But you must understand how to interpret what he is trying to do, and not follow blindly \u2013 that\u2019s the danger, because people think that they can follow Adri\u00e0 by looking at his books, or on Youtube. But that is two-dimensional, you can make something that looks like his but when you eat it you are a thousand miles away. You have Bocuse, Alain Chapelle, great Japanese and Chinese chefs who have created a lot of interest, but not like he has done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iggy \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a virus spreading around the world, and a virus can be either good or bad \u2013 that\u2019s the danger, people can be over-creative. There are two kinds of food today: food that nourishes and satisfies, and food for the intellect. Too many are trying to make intellectual food and forgetting how to make nourishing, tasty good food, and that is very sad. Nine out of ten young people that I interview only want to work for us for six months, to see as many things as possible and then to move on. Everything is about creation, breakthrough, innovation, progression; they forget that the foundation of food is the pleasure of flavours and taste, and food has become too academic. Too many want to be chefs, and nobody wants to cook!<\/p>\n

‘We are treading a very dangerous path \u2013 I can\u2019t pretend to be a chef, but in moving forward some are missing the long and difficult training that chefs used to go through. Michel Roux, Ferran, Robouchon, Yoshihiro Murata in Japan have all put in so many gruelling hours in the hot environment for 8, 10, 15 hours at a time to refine, to learn. It\u2019s not happening today \u2013 they will do it for 3 months, take a break for 2 months, then move on somewhere else. It\u2019s more like going through university, there is no longer the discipline, the quest is no longer to create a good dining experience, it\u2019s to absorb as much knowledge as they can and eventually to \u2018break through\u2019, to do something as great as Adri\u00e0 and become a star. There\u2019s the big divide: there\u2019s only the super-innovative, or the chains of restaurants that make good comfort food but are doing nothing with passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iggy Chan has infectious enthusiasm and imagination but he remains grounded. Iggy the restaurant is a product of vision and good taste, presenting great food with flair. Ignatius maintains a grip on old-fashioned ethics and it\u2019s served him well. Iggy Chan has no hint of celebrity ego, it\u2019s all about the food …or is it the wine?<\/p>\n

Iggy’s by Iggy Chan
\nThe Hilton Hotel
\n581 Orchard Road
\nSingapore 238883
\nVisit Iggy\u2019s here<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interview and travel review by Chrissie Walker \u00a9 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read other articles about Japanese food, art and culture here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more articles about Singapore here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are few restaurants owned, run by, and named after a sommelier but Singapore\u2019s iconic \u201cIggy\u2019s\u201d is just that. Ignatius \u2018Iggy\u2019 Chan is an immensely likable, warm and animated restaurateur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,12,7,10],"tags":[519,141,33,308,178,155,3],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-far-east-travel","category-interviews","category-restaurants","category-travel","tag-iggy-chan","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-kaiseki","tag-restaurant","tag-singapore","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26653,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/26653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}