Three-Michelin-starred Norwegian chef Sven Erik Renaa in S’pore for Waku Ghin collab

SINGAPORE – If Norwegian chef Sven Erik Renaa had to take his eponymous three-Michelin-starred restaurant anywhere in the world, Singapore would be his only choice.

He tells The Straits Times: “Because of my connection with Singapore and all the friends I have here, it would kind of be the perfect spot if I were ever to go somewhere else.”

The 54-year-old owns Re-naa in the Norwegian city of Stavanger.

He first visited Singapore in 1999 and has since developed a taste for local delicacies like black pepper crab. 

Besides, his restaurant is currently run by a Singaporean – executive chef Mathew Leong, 31. They first met in 2016 after Leong, then a 21-year-old culinary hopeful, sent a hundred applications around the world in the hope of clinching a spot in one of Europe’s top kitchens.

One of the few replies he received came from Re-naa. Since 2010, it has employed Singaporean chefs, favoured by Renaa for their work ethic. 

“They have to show me that they’re interested because it’s quite a lot of work for us to bring them in, because of the work permit and everything. I remember Mathew wrote me a very long and polite letter. He was also very hard-working,” he says.  

Leong describes his mentor as a patient man, despite his exacting standards. He says: “He’s like a father figure to me. Even when I travel to cook now, I still ask him for advice.”

Leong, a Shatec hospitality school alumnus, left Re-naa in 2017 before returning in 2022.

Under his watch, the restaurant earned its third Michelin star in 2024. And in 2025, Leong took two months off from work to represent Singapore at the Bocuse d’Or, where he placed sixth. 

Renaa is also familiar with the prestigious cooking competition, having finished fourth in 2007 while representing Norway.

In 2025, he was an integral part of Leong’s preparation process, urging his mentee to incorporate more Singaporean flavours into his recipes and tasting countless iterations of his pie. Renaa jokes: “He’s more European than me. I can manage chopsticks better than him.”

The two chefs are in Singapore this week for a two-night collaboration with chef Tetsuya Wakuda of one-Michelin-starred Japanese fine-dining restaurant Waku Ghin at Marina Bay Sands Singapore. The dinners, taking place on March 16 and 17, are priced at $688++ a person, inclusive of a wine pairing. 

The chefs will serve a produce-driven menu that includes ingredients such as reindeer and skrei (Arctic cod). “I always feel that even though Norway and Japan are very far away from each other in terms of geography, our cooking philosophies are very similar,” says Renaa.

“We focus on local products, nature, clean air, clean waters and fantastic seafood. That’s why I don’t want to overload it with lots of different things. I keep it very simple, but I demand a lot from my produce.”