Cover Seth Lai, the chef de cuisine at 28 Wilkie
Seth Lai, the chef de cuisine at 28 Wilkie
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In just a little over five years, Seth Lai has achieved what most chefs spend their lifetimes dreaming of
There is an old saying that “youth is wasted on the young”, but in the case of Seth Lai, 28 Wilkie’s chef de cuisine, it seems not one bit of exuberance has gone to waste. The 29-year-old chef of one-Michelin-starred 28 Wilkie is perhaps one of the brightest young chefs Singapore’s food scene has seen in recent years.
Lai officially started his culinary career at the age of 22 with virtually no experience except for a six-month pre-National Service stint at an American bistro. By the time he was 27 years old in 2021, he had earned his first Michelin star—probably the youngest chef in Singapore to do so. Since then, Lai has managed to retain the honour in 2022 and 2023, proving to naysayers that he is not a one-hit-wonder.
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Reaching for the star(s)
Despite the achievement, Lai’s recollection of being awarded his first Michelin star is pretty placid. “I felt pretty normal,” he says with a laugh. Singapore’s food and events industries were still largely paralysed by Covid-19 restrictions after all, and there were no jubilant ceremonies or parties to provide a celebratory atmosphere. But the calm didn’t last long. “Reality sank in after a week or so when I saw the reservations coming in, and that’s when I started to feel the pressure [to retain the star],” he says.
These days though, the young chef has a more enlightened view, choosing instead to take things in stride. “Being awarded as a chef, you have to treat it as a bonus. It’s a bonus for both me and my team, but it’s not an award that I need to cling onto till death,” he says. “I’m just doing what I like to do. I’m a very simple person.”
Although Lai no longer gives himself pressure to retain or earn more stars, he recognises how important it is to push himself further to see how far he can go. With his eyes set on one day attaining a second or even a third star, Lai also acknowledges that the prestige would provide better opportunities and salaries for those working on his team. “My goal is to nurture my staff so that they will in future have the ability to own their own restaurants,” he says.
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Thrown in the deep end
Despite his stellar rise to the top, Lai’s culinary journey was not always smooth-sailing. The roughest time in his career came when he was given the rare opportunity to take the reins at 28 Wilkie. Lai found himself suddenly having to deal with a wave of resignations as many of the staff were unsure of what a young and inexperienced head chef could do for their careers. It also didn’t help that, at just under 27 years old, he was the youngest member on the team. “They didn’t want to submit to me because of my age, because all of them were older than me,” he explains.
As a result, Lai had to single-handedly build a new kitchen from scratch, and that meant everything from conducting interviews to creating a new menu and cooking the food. “I even had to learn how to make my own pastry!” he says, adding that he still does not have a pastry chef today. “That was the toughest period for me, because I had to wear so many hats and carry all of the workload. At the same time, I needed to retain the Michelin star,” he says.
Thanks to Lai’s passion for expressing his creativity, 28 Wilkie went from being an Italian restaurant to becoming a leader in innovative cuisine. “I’ve been able to express myself more freely, without being limited to the label of ‘Italian cuisine,’” he says. These days, Lai completely changes the menu every three months. “That’s how crazy I am. Because I just don't want to settle for less, and I want to continue progressing at being creative and expressing myself in each season’s menu,” he explains.
For Lai, inspiration comes from his trips to the market and frequent travels to Japan. He is also influenced by his upbringing and the food that he grew up eating at home and at zi char stalls. “It’s all these memories that I want to recreate on the menu,” he says. For instance, one of Lai’s signature creations is an avant-garde taro dumpling dim sum, which consists of a runny quail egg encased in a wu gok (deep fried taro dumpling) exterior, and served with wagyu tartare and caviar. “In this job, there are no boundaries to what I can or cannot do. I have the freedom to create dishes that can impact guests and evoke memories from their own upbringing.”
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Hard work, not talent
Yet even after all the accolades, Lai, who remains the second-youngest on his team today, is not convinced that he is naturally gifted by the culinary gods. “I wouldn't say cooking requires talent," he says. “90 percent of it is hard work and the remaining 10 percent is creativity. You also need common sense to execute and treat the ingredients right.”
Being self-taught means he had to constantly question his own work, and that has allowed him to learn and improve from each cooking experience. “I did not have a mentor or any chefs to guide me along. Most of the work that I’ve been doing has been experimental," he says.
“Perseverance is how I’ve grown in these seven to eight years. It’s not all due to a downright passion for food or cooking (because) being a chef is about being creative."
And of course, things might have turned out very differently if 28 Wilkie owner, Benjamin Goh, hadn't taken a chance on the young junior sous chef with zero experience in managing a kitchen. “Without him giving me the opportunity and trust, I don't think I can be where I am today,” he says.
