Former fine-dining chef Daniel Bong cooks Malaysian-style nasi lemak with heart in Tanjong Pagar

SINGAPORE – One semester shy of graduating from a culinary course in Taiwan, Mr Daniel Bong dropped out to chase a dream in the kitchen of Restaurant Andre in Singapore.

The impulsive move angered his parents, but his decision to do an unpaid internship eventually led him from fine dining to his own nasi lemak stall.

The 33-year-old Malaysia-born Singapore permanent resident opened 108 The Nasi Lemak Shop in August 2025 after a failed partnership forced him to shut his first outlet just months earlier. Today, he serves Malaysian-style nasi lemak with ayam berempah (spiced fried chicken), a business built on more than a decade of restaurant training.

“I wanted to do a simple meal, but make it the best version I can,” he says.

He grew up in Sarawak, the second of four children. His father worked as a car salesman and his mother was a kindergarten teacher, and both are now aged 61 and retired.

Growing up with both parents working, he and his brothers often had to sort out their own lunch. Once, when he was eight and his younger brother, six, they used up a tray of 30 eggs over two days, experimenting with omelettes and sunny-side-ups.

“My mother was livid when she came home to find out we had used up all the eggs in the house and she had none to cook for dinner,” he recalls with a chuckle.

But she noticed their interest and began teaching them to cook simple dishes such as fried rice and soup. By 17, he decided he wanted to be a chef.

He was ecstatic when his mother arranged for him to work under a Chinese executive chef at a hotel in Miri, a 20-minute drive from home. He started as a kitchen assistant, working 13-hour days, six days a week. From peeling shallots, he progressed to cooking staff meals and food for the buffet line.

Two years later, with his parents’ encouragement and financial support, he left for Taiwan and enrolled in a culinary course at Taichung’s Hungkuang University in 2011.

Inspiration strikes

One night in 2013, after finishing Chu Xin, a Chinese book by chef Andre Chiang about his path in cooking, Mr Bong sent Chiang a Facebook message at 1.47am, asking for an opportunity to work at Restaurant Andre.

The reply came minutes later. Within days, he was on a flight to Singapore for an interview. He did not tell his parents about his plans.

On the day of the interview, he was asked to try out as a server. At the end of the day, he requested to see chef Chiang and asked for a kitchen role instead, and was given an internship on the spot. Despite having one semester left of school, he chose to stay in Singapore and forgo his studies.

The internship at Restaurant Andre, which opened in 2010 and closed in 2018, was unpaid.

He stayed with a friend at first and called home two months later asking for money for rent. By then, he had been offered a full-time paid position as a commis cook. His parents, though angry that he had given up his studies without consulting them, grudgingly accepted his decision.

Working at Restaurant Andre developed his philosophy towards food and cooking.

Working up to 17 hours a day was usual. “I was just trying to finish tasks and working like a robot.”

That changed when he was reprimanded for repeating the same staff meal for three weeks in a row.

“The chef was very angry. He said I was not putting my heart into it. He said the staff meal is a family meal and I should cook with more thought,” he says.

He responded by cooking nasi lemak, which drew praise from chef Chiang and his colleagues.

“That was a turning point for me in terms of how I viewed cooking. Food is not just for sustenance. It must excite the palate, be flavourful and visually appealing,” says Mr Bong.

His time there taught him more than technical skills. He learnt how a kitchen is organised, how to keep operations running smoothly and how to maintain consistency.

The training proved useful when he launched his stall.

“Although it is a small stall, I designed my set-up using the standard operating procedures of a restaurant, from prepping to practising hygiene to serving customers efficiently,” he says.

Gaining further experience

After leaving Restaurant Andre in 2015, Mr Bong moved through kitchens in Singapore and Macau, including the former fine-dining French restaurant Joel Robuchon here. In Macau, he joined chef Chiang’s Sichuan Moon at Wynn Palace as a chef de partie.

He returned to Singapore at the end of 2019 and joined Restaurant Born as a sous chef. But with the Covid-19 pandemic in full swing, he decided to resume his studies.

He enrolled in PSB Academy as a part-time student while working as a chef at a central kitchen, graduating with a diploma in business administration in August 2023. He became a Singapore permanent resident the same year.

He then joined Spanish restaurant Kulto as a junior sous chef, where he learnt the importance of keeping a business alive before pursuing one’s culinary ideals.

“Running a stall or restaurant is still a business,” he says. “If the business is dead, there is no passion or cooking to talk about.”

When he left in July 2024 to spend time with his retired father in Sarawak, he began thinking about striking out on his own.

“I felt Western cooking might not be convincing because it is not a cuisine I identify with,” he says. “Nasi lemak is close to my heart and it is in my roots as a Malaysian.”

Remembering the staff meal he had cooked at Restaurant Andre and how chef Chiang had remarked that it was a “very good plate of nasi lemak”, Mr Bong felt Malaysian-style nasi lemak was the right choice.

“Food is a language and I wanted to cook something that customers here can understand and relate to.”

Before opening, he spent more than a month working out of his home kitchen in Singapore, testing recipes repeatedly. The ayam berempah batter alone took over a month.

His wife, a 30-year-old account manager, helped taste the results and gave feedback on each trial. The couple do not have children yet.

A rough start

In January 2025, he opened his first stall at Hong Lim Market & Food Centre with a partner, investing about $20,000.

Business picked up gradually, but the partnership broke down by April 2025 over differences in working style. A mix-up between salt and sugar ruined 12kg of marinated chicken, a painful lesson that made him stick to daily taste tests.

After shutting the stall, he was encouraged by calls from regulars to try again.

In August 2025, he reopened 108 The Nasi Lemak Shop at Yi Ho Eating House in Tanjong Pagar with three investors, putting in about $30,000. The stall broke even by November.

The 108 Ayam Goreng Berempah “Kerabu” Set ($9.80) comprises a whole crispy chicken leg infused with lemongrass, ginger and turmeric from overnight marination. 

The plate comes with fragrant coconut rice, a mildly spicy sambal, house-fried ikan bilis, groundnuts and a kerabu of pomelo, winged beans, long beans and beansprouts, dressed in a ginger-tamarind sauce that cuts through the richness.

For ease of eating, there is the 108 Ayam Goreng Berempah Boneless Set ($8), offering the same flavours without bones.

“Some new customers complain our prices are expensive, but some do become our regulars. We know our value. Our margins are thin because our portions are generous and we do not skimp on ingredients,” he says. For instance, he uses 1kg of lemongrass to marinate 5kg of chicken, for intensity of flavour.

He now works from 8am to 7pm, six days a week, with the help of a full-time stall assistant. For now, he is focused on keeping food quality consistent and the business steady. He hopes eventually to open up to three outlets.

“At the end of the day, as a business owner, you are not answering to anybody except yourself. There is no need to prove yourself to others, but you must be able to face yourself and be happy every day. When a cook or chef is happy, it shows in the food,” he says.