First Person: David Yeo
David Yeo, founder of Aqua Restaurant Group, has unquestionably transformed our city’s dining scene over the past decade. The restaurateur recounts his university days as a bartender (his F&B credentials) over Thai lime sodas at Ayuthaiya to Johannes Pong.
My first conscious thought of growing up was when I became vegetarian at seven.
I had seen half a cow hanging there in the wet market.
I kept asking my mother why are grownups doing this? Is this really necessary?
Then I really wanted to become a bush doctor, saving people from malaria and cholera. I was a straight A student but failed spectacularly in biology. Why? Frogs. I became vegan at that point instead.
My siblings and I were all born in Singapore and brought up in England—except for our youngest brother, as my Cantonese mother realized that her kids weren’t coming back when they were sent overseas.
My Hokkien father felt discriminated against —it was hard to move up if you weren’t white during the colonial era. So he wanted us to be really English, while my mother wanted us to be in the Liberation Army.
Our options from our very working-class parents were doctor, accountant or lawyer. I had wanted to be an architect, but my mother thought that was someone laying tiles in a toilet.