From fame to fallout, zi char chef Devid Retanasamy starts over at 42

SINGAPORE – When Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao featured him in 2020, zi char chef Devid Retanasamy found himself in the spotlight. Readers were intrigued by a fresh-faced Indian cook fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese who could fire up a wok with chilli crab and curry fish head.

He wanted more. Publicity, the Malaysian believed, would boost his career and help him find success in Singapore.

Instead, the years that followed were “like a roller coaster with extreme ups and downs”.

Investors and partners approached him. A series of ventures ended in disagreement. In August 2023, he fell for a scam that left him $27,000 out of pocket. A man posing as a school teacher ordered banquet dinners and sent him a fake PayNow receipt.

Mr Retanasamy paid for seafood and wine in advance, but no one turned up. The money went down the drain.

“I was so down, I cried. I didn’t dare tell my wife. Until now, she does not know that I had to cover the loss myself,” says the 42-year-old. His wife is a Shandong native who used to work as a stall assistant, and they have three children aged 17, 13 and 10.

He borrowed money and used his savings to cover the loss. “After meeting all these setbacks, I have to face them myself. Nobody can help me. I had to help myself,” he recounts in fluent Mandarin.

After that blow, Mr Retanasamy, who first came to Singapore in 2002, wanted to leave. But he stayed. “I didn’t want to give up. I felt it was a waste to give up on the amount of time and effort I had put in. I wanted to make my mark here,” he says.

Now, he is starting over with Xiao Hei Tze Char, which opened its first franchised outlet in Hougang Avenue 8 on Feb 1. The name borrows from a nickname, which some customers called him over the years as a reference to his dark complexion.

“People call me Xiao Hei. I don’t mind. I find it affectionate,” he says, adding that he chose the stall name himself. “It is how they know me and remember my food.”

A tough childhood

Born in Tanah Hitam in Chemor, Perak, a 30-minute drive from Ipoh town, he was given up for adoption at age four by his biological parents who faced financial difficulties. A Chinese couple took him in, and he grew up conversing in Mandarin and Cantonese, which is why he speaks neither Tamil nor English.

He dropped out of school after Primary 6. At 12, he became a dishwasher at a neighbourhood coffee shop, earning $200 a month, with two days off.

He toiled 14 to 15 hours daily, cleaning toilets, then progressing to chopping chillies and cleaning squid. He learnt how to wield a knife, often cutting his fingers as he killed live fish and frogs that went into the dishes. Although he started work at 3pm, he would arrive at 10am.

“I wanted to learn and did as I was told,” he says, enduring scoldings and Cantonese vulgarities his seniors hurled at him daily. 

Within a year, he progressed to cooking fried rice, vegetables and soup for staff meals.

At 16, he moved to Kuala Lumpur to work at a zi char eatery, preparing the ingredients for senior chefs. There, he learnt to prepare sauces for dishes such as curry fish head and chilli crab. 

At 17, he returned to Ipoh and ran his own zi char stall at a rundown coffee shop. Business was brisk, but six months later, his landlord took back the stall to run it himself.

A former customer then offered him a cooking job at a resort in Pulau Redang, where guests praised his made-from-scratch sambal dishes. “It was there that I realised I may have some talent in cooking,” he recalls of his two years as a chef at the resort.

Encouraged, he moved to Singapore in 2002 at age 19, first working at an economy rice stall in Hougang before joining a zi char stall in Yishun. Over two decades, he worked at various eateries, including the now-defunct 7 Wonders in Upper Thomson and Golden Charcoal Seafood SG in Bedok.

In 2008, he met his wife, a Chinese national now aged 43, when she was working at a neighbouring zi char stall. After a six-month courtship, they got married. His wife and children now live in Johor Bahru, and he visits them on his days off.

In 2014, he returned to Ipoh and operated a small coffee-shop stall in Simpang Pulai, selling noodles and stir-fries. Two years later, he invested RM100,000 – half borrowed from his father-in-law and half from his savings – to open a zi char eatery. It closed within a year due to poor budgeting and lean profits.

In 2017, he left briefly to start a zi char restaurant in New Zealand, but returned here after three months because he missed “home”.

Series of setbacks

Back in Singapore, he continued moving among joint ventures.

In April 2022, he co-opened The Blacky Seafood in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, but the partnership dissolved within six months. He later helmed Mr Blecky Seafood in Cambridge Road, but friction with investors and mounting losses ended things.

Subsequent ventures in 2024 and 2025 – including concepts in Cambridge Road, Marina One and Bedok – were short-lived or unprofitable.

He says he faced many naysayers along the way. Indian customers questioned why he could not speak Tamil. An elderly female customer asked if his food was clean because he was “so black”.

“I ignore such comments and focus on my cooking,” he says. “Over the years, I have faced discrimination. I have learnt to be mentally strong and rise above it all. I am confident in my cooking.”

Now, backed by three new investors whom he describes as supportive, he oversees the menu and training at Xiao Hei Tze Char. It has a team of 13, with five stationed at Hougang and the remaining to be deployed at two upcoming outlets.

Two of his signature dishes are Curry Fish Head ($30) and Coffee Ribs (from $15).

The curry fish head is cooked using his housemade spice paste featuring more than 10 ingredients, including a four-day fermented chilli paste. He swears by Nescafe Gold coffee granules for his coffee ribs, which he says lend more aroma.

Xiao Hei Tze Char will open another franchised outlet in Serangoon North Avenue 4 and a stall in New Upper Changi Road on March 1, where he will soon be based. Currently a work permit holder, he hopes to obtain an S-pass and eventually apply for permanent residency here.

Once hankering for fame, he now wants something more prosaic.

“Fame is a bonus. Right now, I just want a stable source of income to support my family,” he says.

“When I think about those people who look down on me and who have bullied me, it motivates me to persist and find success.”