Profile | Singaporean chef on how Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen introduced him to the restaurant industry, his grandmother’s cooking and why he loves black truffle
- Aven Lau is the Singaporean chef de cuisine at Bâtard in Sai Ying Pun, on Hong Kong Island, and loves the hustle and bustle of a restaurant kitchen
- The 28-year-old tells Bernice Chan how he learned to use ants as an ingredient in Denmark, why he loves truffles and where he learned to run a restaurant
What was your childhood like in Singapore? “My parents were always working so I lived with my grandmother. She cooked every day but was not the best cook. Whenever we ate out or got takeaway food, it always tasted so much better. I kept wondering, ‘What is she doing wrong? Why can’t she make it delicious?’
“When I was nine years old, I started helping her chop vegetables and crack eggs. By the time I was 12 years old, I could crack an egg with one hand. A year later, I went to secondary school and didn’t stay with my grandmother any more and stopped cooking.”
How did you get interested in cooking? “I got a diploma in marketing and, six months later, had to go into national service [in Singapore]. While waiting, I started watching YouTube videos on how to make pasta and eggs Benedict, and began making things at home. For four months before my national service, I worked in a cafe and learned some basics, like how to cook scrambled eggs and make paninis.
“At that time, I was watching Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. That’s how I got to understand the restaurant industry, but no one tells you that you work 16-hour days, six days a week.”
What did you do after national service? “I wanted to pursue a job in the kitchen. I would buy a duck breast from the supermarket and try to cook it. The dishes I made looked good on Instagram, but they didn’t taste good. It was local Singaporean duck and I didn’t know how to cook it, but it was fun.
“In 2016, after working for two years in a casual French restaurant, it dawned on me: I can’t get anywhere doing this job. However, I liked the adrenaline of service, coming in every day and having a long list of prep to complete and each day trying to do it better. I like the beauty of cooking, slow cooking, but mostly how busting it is. It’s a bit sadistic: I like being busy and keep wanting more.”
How did you move into fine dining? “Where I was working, my chef and mentor Tyler Lai used to be a sous chef for [French chef] Julien Royer. I told Tyler I was interested in cooking but didn’t know the next step. He told me Julien was going to leave Jaan and start Odette [both in Singapore] and he was looking for staff. I had literally no experience – I couldn’t cook anything, had never worked in a fine dining restaurant before, but Julien gave me a chance.”
What was it like working at Odette? “I thought I would go to the cold section, like most commis chefs, but he put me in the meat and fish section. That was a big shock for me because I didn’t know what to do. The other chefs taught me, but I felt I wasn’t good enough. On weekends or days off, I would go to the supermarket and buy 10 small sea bass and practise filleting them at home.
“I worked at almost every station: pastry, cold kitchen, sauces and meat, and that helped my progression, and I was eager to learn more. I would finish my prep early, or come in earlier to learn what other chefs were doing. I used to go to Odette at 7am to learn how to make chocolates.”
Where did you go after that? “After two years, I wanted a change and went to Copenhagen [in Denmark], in 2016, to stage [intern] at a Nordic restaurant called Kadeau. They have a restaurant in the city, and in the summer they have a place on an island called Bornholm, where they have a farm and harvest their own honey. It was a different kind of cooking, where you get to harvest vegetables and pick ants.”
How do you collect ants? “I did this for three months. In the morning, we would go to the forest and, when we smelled ammonia, we knew that’s where an ant nest was. You get a container and grease the sides with oil, then you throw a spatula at the opening of the nest and let the ants crawl up it. Then, you put the spatula in the container and shake off the ants. They taste almost like finger lime, a bit citrusy. But for me it was disgusting. I had to close my eyes and put it in my mouth, and then it was OK. We would freeze them and put them on roasted celeriac.
“Being in Copenhagen for six months really refreshed my whole career. I had got so bored just doing French food, and here we didn’t just make chicken sauce, but juiced celeriac and added whey to make a sauce.”
How did you get to Hong Kong? “I returned to Singapore broke because Kadeau was not a paid job. I went back to Odette but stayed only three months. One day, in 2017, I saw [Hong Kong restaurant Belon’s then chef] Daniel Calvert’s Instagram. He had posted a picture of a Dover sole with artichokes and said he was looking for cooks. I sent him my CV and, one week later, I was in Hong Kong.”
What was it like to work for Daniel Calvert? “Belon was a small restaurant [it moved to larger premises in Elgin Street, Central, in March], and everything was fresh every day. Daniel [who is now executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi] is very strict, very precise. I was there for two years. He taught me the most out of everyone.
“At Odette, I learned how to work in a French restaurant, but at Belon it was the love of food: how he makes a sauce, his work ethic, how fast he works. He will always be my chef. After two years, I had worked at almost every station, and I knew I had to go.”
What did you do next? “I wanted to work at Per Se in New York, where Daniel had worked, and even went there to help him cook at an event for 12 days. But it’s not easy to get a work visa. Then, chef Edward Voon asked me to be chef de cuisine at Le Pan [in Kowloon Bay] and I worked there in 2019. Le Pan was my growth step because I didn’t learn much about cooking, but I learned about how to run a restaurant. After a year and a half, I thought of going back to Copenhagen, but Covid-19 arrived.
“Then I heard about Bâtard and met [owner] Randy See. When he showed me the kitchen, I thought it was a small space but felt I could make something out of it. So I thought, why not take on this challenge?”
What’s your favourite ingredient? “I love black truffle. It’s earthy, and when you shave a slice and put it in your mouth ... wow. It has so much depth and dimension. You can put it on desserts, cold or hot dishes, it’s so adaptable. I like Perigord black truffle at the peak of the season. When I hold it in my hand and smell it, it makes my day.”
