The 44-year-old chef has made a name by serving innovative dishes such as baked crabs in white cream sauce and strawberry pork ribs at zi char prices.

He tells Life! he invested in a Guangzhou motor and machine oil plant in 2005 with two Chinese nationals. He had known one of them for about three years.

He invested $200,000 of his savings in the business and got a 25 per cent stake in it. All seemed well until the middle of last year, when his business partners asked him to pump in more money as the recession had affected business.

Read the full report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times LIFE!