He may be perspiring and on his third glass of cold barley, but speaking to The Sunday Times over bak kut teh at Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh is "more me", he says. The eatery is his go-to place when he feels like eating the pork rib dish.
"We have a 'today feels like what' day," he says. "If we feel like ramen, we go to Ramen Santouka at The Central and, for prawn noodles, we go to Beach Road Prawn Mee in East Coast Road. I go to Yuhua Village Food Centre for wonton mee from Fei Fei Roasted Noodle and Far East Plaza for chicken rice from Hainanese Delicacy."
The third and final instalment of Savour this year is the upcoming Savour Christmas, which runs from Nov 17 to 20 at Bayfront Avenue, next to the Marina Bay Sands Exhibition Centre. Admission is free and dishes will be priced at either $6 or $12 each.
Mr Chen also runs pop-up dining series 4XFour and $100Gourmet, a dining programme where Citibank credit cardmembers pay just $100++ for a six-course meal cooked by a visiting chef and hosted in a local restaurant.
The Malaysia-born entrepreneur also has fond memories of his growing-up days in a shophouse in Batu Pahat, where his parents reside. His Hakka father, Dr Chen Fun Sing, 70, is a dentist, and his Peranakan mother, Evelyn, 62, assists him.
His sister Doreena, 41, a former literature teacher, lives in Saudi Arabia. Mr Chen and his wife Mandy Chew, 31, who works in an asset management company, live in a four-room HDB flat in Clementi with a 13-year-old pet rabbit. They have no children.
He recalls: "The shophouse was next to a dark and dirty longkang (Malay for drain). The level of food hygiene was zero. We would go out the back door, turn right and be at the kopitiam where the toast was grilled on the hotplate that was boiling the kopi. We still ate it anyway - those were the days."
What are your childhood memories of food?
We have popiah days, where everything is made from scratch - we buy only the skin. Peranakan dishes taste better over time and we would eat leftovers of buah keluak and itek tim (duck and salted vegetable soup). Nowadays, we barely keep things overnight and throw everything that's not fresh.
Growing up, you used to go to Malacca to eat every fortnight. What would you recommend?
I try to go to Malacca a few times a year now, especially for Chinese New Year. Opposite the Ramada Plaza Melaka, behind The Majestic Malacca, there is Restoran Lee, where I go for crab in evaporated milk with chilli padi. Around the corner of Ramada Plaza Melaka, there is a wonton mee stall by day and, at night, someone takes up a space at the stall to sell youtiao, ham chim pang and butterfly dough fritters for just one hour.
At a coffee shop next to Newton Food Court (along Jalan Parameswara), I go to the Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun stall for chee cheong fun with dark sauce. The rice flour rolls are very thin and the hawker making it works like a machine. I don't eat any other chee cheong fun - they are all too thick.
For desserts such as ice kacang, ice longan and chendol, I go to the old-school Tai Chong Ice Cafe at 42 Jalan Bunga Raya.
While Jonker Street is mostly touristy, I have been going to Kedai Kopi Chung Wah (18 Jalan Hang Jebat) for chicken rice balls since I was a kid and the owner's son was a teenager. Now the son runs the shop.