Le Bistrot du Sommelier's Brandon Foo named Rising Chef at World Gourmet Summit awards

French restaurant Le Bistrot du Sommelier’s chef de cuisine, Brandon Foo, picked up the award for Meat & Livestock Australia Rising Chef Of The Year at yesterday’s World Gourmet Series Awards of Excellence. -- PHOTO: WORLD GOURMET S
French restaurant Le Bistrot du Sommelier’s chef de cuisine, Brandon Foo, picked up the award for Meat & Livestock Australia Rising Chef Of The Year at yesterday’s World Gourmet Series Awards of Excellence. -- PHOTO: WORLD GOURMET SUMMIT

French restaurant Le Bistrot du Sommelier's chef de cuisine, Brandon Foo, is the one to watch this year.

The 28-year-old chef picked up the award for Meat & Livestock Australia Rising Chef Of The Year at yesterday's World Gourmet Series Awards of Excellence. The ceremony at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore was attended by more than 700 guests.

Chef Foo, who has been with the restaurant at Armenian Street for 21/2 years, said: "Even in five or 10 years, we will remain consistent. This is not a one-off business and there are no shortcuts. We serve classic French food with seasonal ingredients. Sometimes, we also spend sleepless nights brainstorming new ideas."

He has no formal culinary training, but has worked at other French restaurants; the now-defunct Guy Savoy at Marina Bay Sands, and Au Petit Salut, where he met his mentor, Le Bistrot du Sommelier's owner Patrick Heuberger 10 years ago.

Chef Heuberger - who won KitchenAid Chef Of The Year at last year's awards - is currently on a break.

Le Bistrot du Sommelier also won another honour. Its French sommelier Max Fedkiw, 38, was named Giorgio Ferrari Sommelier Of The Year.

Also winning two accolades is French restaurant Jaan at Swissotel The Stamford. It received the Indoguna Restaurant Of The Year award, and its chef Julien Royer won KitchenAid Chef Of The Year.

The 31-year-old chef said: "Winning not just one, but two awards, makes us work harder to be better."

The S. Pellegrino New Restaurant Of The Year award went to nine-month-old Bacchanalia Singapore at the Masonic Club on Coleman Street.

Its head chef Ivan Brehm, 30, said: "I think the restaurant's vibe works. The sky's the limit for us and we keep going onwards and upwards; invest more on training the right kind of people, then we don't need 10 people, just one good person."

The awards, given out for the 14th year, honour the best in the food and beverage scene in Singapore and Asia. It is organised by A La Carte Productions, a subsidiary of food consultancy Peter Knipp Holdings.

The event also closed this year's 18th World Gourmet Summit, which started on March 26 and ran for 11 days.

Some highlights of the epicurean series included its first Junior Pastry Chef Workshop with pastry chefs Christian Escriba and Patricia Schmidt; as well as last Friday's (April 4) World Gourmet Summit Charity Dinner, which raised more than $750,000 for over 80 charities supported by the Community Chest.

euniceq@sph.com.sg

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