https://www.scmp.com/rss/519044/feed Joseph Koh is a travel and design writer based in Singapore. His work has appeared in Monocle, Design Anthology, Courier Media, Cereal, Softer Volumes and more. During his free time, he’s either exploring a nature trail or munching on a bao – quite likely the latter. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Joseph Koh Joseph Koh Chef Julien Royer opened Singapore’s Odette in 2015 as an ode to his grandmother, the matriarch who ensured that he was always well fed and set him on his culinary journey. “I come from a very humble background. My family didn’t have [much] money, but we ate very well because we had a small farm and a huge garden,” he says. “My grandmother showed me how to live [and eat] according to the seasons.” That attention to provenance and produce has guided Odette’s rise through the ranks of Asian... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3342321/singapores-three-michelin-star-french-restaurant-odette-reopens-and-leans-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3342321/singapores-three-michelin-star-french-restaurant-odette-reopens-and-leans-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Feb 2026 23:15:08 +0000 Joseph Koh Joseph Koh While many professional chefs and home cooks trace their start in gastronomy to their grandparents’ or parents’ kitchens, that was not the case for Lim Tse Wei. In the opening chapter of his debut book of essays and recipes, Little Perfections: Eating in Singapore, the US-based Singaporean writer and cook reveals: “I did not learn to cook at my mother’s side, or my grandmother’s, and though my grandfather had been a cook for some years, we did not speak of it in the family.” Instead, it was a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3338160/former-restaurateur-lim-tse-wei-releases-his-debut-book-singaporean-food-culture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3338160/former-restaurateur-lim-tse-wei-releases-his-debut-book-singaporean-food-culture?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Jan 2026 11:15:09 +0000 Joseph Koh Joseph Koh New wood-fired restaurants continue to light up Singapore’s dining scene, but few can hold a candle to Burnt Ends, a modern Australian barbecue institution on Dempsey Hill. The restaurant, which has held one Michelin star since 2018, is also No 38 on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list, and debuted in fifth place on this year’s World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants list – the highest new entry. But what reveals Burnt Ends’ position as Singapore’s go-to barbecue establishment more than anything... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3336843/how-singapores-bbq-hotspot-burnt-ends-still-has-diners-fighting-tables-12-years?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3336843/how-singapores-bbq-hotspot-burnt-ends-still-has-diners-fighting-tables-12-years?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Dec 2025 04:15:08 +0000 Joseph Koh Joseph Koh Singapore-based “technopreneur” Vignesh Sundaresan, who goes by the nickname MetaKovan online, grabbed global attention in March 2021 when he splashed out US$69 million on the non-fungible token (NFT) artwork Everydays: the First 5,000 Days by American digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple. That record-breaking bid supercharged a speculative frenzy in NFTs. The Indian-born investor later boasted in a TV interview that he was prepared to pay even more, so convinced was he that... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3335276/singaporean-buyer-us69-million-beeple-nft-opens-art-and-technology-space?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3335276/singaporean-buyer-us69-million-beeple-nft-opens-art-and-technology-space?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Dec 2025 23:15:09 +0000 Joseph Koh Joseph Koh The Art Jakarta fair in early October was a testament to the resilience of the Indonesian art market, proceeding without a hitch despite a turbulent backdrop. Just weeks before the fair, Jakarta was rocked by widespread protests against a government decision to grant generous allowances to lawmakers, resulting in 10 deaths, thousands of arrests and the deadliest unrest in Indonesia for over two decades. Yet, from October 3 to 5, the 15th edition of the fair was buzzing, with no sign of the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3329391/art-jakarta-fair-defies-weak-market-and-recent-social-unrest-impressive-turnout?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3329391/art-jakarta-fair-defies-weak-market-and-recent-social-unrest-impressive-turnout?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Oct 2025 04:15:08 +0000 Joseph Koh Joseph Koh Almost five years after the 2020 closure of two-Michelin-star Tenku RyuGin in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, former chef de cuisine Hidemichi Seki has embarked on his next culinary adventure. He was on hiatus in his homeland, Japan, when the team from Malaysian hospitality group Ilham Dining Concepts (IDC) came knocking in 2022, inviting him to start his own restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Seki launched his first restaurant, K, in February 2025. On the 37th floor of the Foster and Partners-designed Ilham... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3312914/how-malaysias-wealth-produce-inspires-japanese-chef-k-kaiseki-kuala-lumpur?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3312914/how-malaysias-wealth-produce-inspires-japanese-chef-k-kaiseki-kuala-lumpur?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Jun 2025 23:15:07 +0000 At Jun’s, which opened in Dubai in the summer of 2022, chef-partner Kelvin Cheung has been consistently dazzling diners with cooking that weaves various Asian influences into every dish. This year, not even three years after opening, the restaurant jumped 14 spots to No. 7 on the Middle East & North Africa’s (Mena) 50 Best Restaurants list. Diners are drawn to Cheung’s “borderless” approach – for which he seeks to capture the soul of Chinese flavours without boxing himself in. Dig further into... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3302947/chinese-canadian-chef-wows-dubai-third-culture-cooking-inspired-his-journey?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3302947/chinese-canadian-chef-wows-dubai-third-culture-cooking-inspired-his-journey?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Mar 2025 23:15:07 +0000 Nine months after Club Rangoon closed its doors in Hong Kong, it has returned – albeit in a different city. The contemporary Burmese restaurant opened in Singapore’s trendy Duxton area in August, marking Hong Kong-based hospitality group Common Abode’s expansion into Southeast Asia. The relocation feels more like a homecoming, however, to the group’s co-founder Nelson Htoo. “I first moved to Singapore when I was 13 and spent high school and middle school here, before heading to London for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3277031/how-singapore-burmese-restaurant-club-rangoon-smashes-stigmas-its-playful-dishes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3277031/how-singapore-burmese-restaurant-club-rangoon-smashes-stigmas-its-playful-dishes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Sep 2024 10:15:07 +0000 It is hard to believe that Dempsey Hill in Singapore is just five minutes from the glitzy malls of Orchard Road. Time slows down when you enter this hideaway, the site of Air, the new venture of chefs Matt Orlando and Will Goldfarb. It is a restaurant, cooking school, research space and garden farm rolled into one – a free-form space built upon years of conversation between the chefs on the value of food in a world becoming ever more industrialised. With Air, Orlando and Goldfarb aim to stretch... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3267916/farm-table-southeast-asian-chefs-mission-make-dining-more-sustainable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3267916/farm-table-southeast-asian-chefs-mission-make-dining-more-sustainable?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Jun 2024 23:15:08 +0000