Singaporean chef Guah Lih a finalist in international truffle championship
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Private chef Guah Lih will present a brown butter egg custard topped with black truffles, black garlic, dates and crispy pork lard, served alongside a chicken consomme infused with black truffles, jamon, aged preserved cai po radish and aged black tea.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF GUAH LIH
SINGAPORE – Private chef Guah Lih will be representing Singapore in the International Cooking with Truffle Competition, taking place from Feb 4 to 8 in Soria, Spain.
The annual contest, which is organised by the Regional Government of Castile and Leon, is in its sixth edition in 2026, and draws chefs from around the world. Guah, 34, is one of eight finalists, competing against chefs from Brazil and the United States.
Each chef will be hosted by a local restaurant and must submit a dish in which truffle is used as a main ingredient. During the competition, each participant and his or her host restaurant will have an hour to prepare 14 portions of their recipe.
They will be evaluated according to their use of truffle and teamwork, as well as the flavour, originality, technique and presentation of their dish.
Guah, who runs Journe Private Dining in Jalan Kayu, will present a brown butter egg custard topped with black truffles, black garlic, dates and crispy pork lard, served alongside a chicken consomme infused with black truffles, jamon, aged preserved cai po radish and aged black tea.
Mr Guah will present a brown butter egg custard topped with black truffles, served alongside a chicken consomme.
PHOTO: GUAH LIH
He wants the truffle to serve as more than just a garnish in his dish. “Instead of pairing it with dominant proteins like game birds, pork or beef, I chose eggs as a neutral canvas, supported by ingredients with low flavour aggression that allow different facets of black truffle to come through clearly.”
He cooked extensively with truffles while working as a chef in California from 2017 to 2022, and hopes to better understand how this ingredient is grown, harvested and used through his trip to Soria.
The top cash prize of €3,000 ($4,500) is a bonus. Previously, Petrina Loh of Morsels took part in the first edition of the competition in 2017, but did not win.
