With a brand-new look and its star on the rise, Westaway says that the year is off to a good start for Jaan—Tatler Dining’s Restaurant of the Year for 2023

Good food, like most other forms of art, connects the audience with its creator. For Kirk Westaway, the executive chef of two-Michelin-starred restaurant Jaan, that connection is made through stories of his childhood growing up in the coastal county of Devon in southwest England.

Those stories can be sensed in the design choices, as well as the food. In the newly renovated restaurant, the mirrored corridor leading to the dining room is adorned with abstract artworks that hint at life in Westaway’s home town. Splashes of blue and grey represent sea spray crashing against the shore, and strokes of green denote the region’s rolling hills. Even the carpet, which shifts through gradients of blue, is a subtle nod to Devon’s coastline.

Read more: Why you need to revisit Jaan by Kirk Westaway in 2023

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Above Chef Kirk Westaway on the cover of Tatler Singapore's February 2023 issue.

It was in this earthy pocket of the English countryside that Westaway formed his love for food, and his passion for excellent ingredients— even if he didn't realise it at the time. “You don’t realise how special [Devon] is until you leave [it],” he muses. “To go to a quaint café by the river or by the beach, where you’re having scones with cream sourced from a farm down the road and raspberry jam made from berries grown in the back garden.”

Westaway fondly remembers the gardens surrounding his childhood home.

“My family were keen gardeners, my mum especially,” he says, recalling a front garden with a huge rosemary bush “several metres wide, which perfumed the whole street”. In the back garden, the Westaways grew strawberries, carrots and salad greens; on the back of the hill on which the house sat, they grew potatoes and rhubarb, and even cherry and pear trees. Furry-footed bantam chickens roamed the property.

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Above Chef Westaway wears an Hermès vest, shirt, trousers, sneakers

“That’s something instilled in my siblings and I by our parents: to look after, and be interested in, what you’re growing and eating.” Before he took over the restaurant, Westaway worked at Jaan as sous chef under French-born, Singapore-based chef Julien Royer.

At the time, it was a French fine-dining restaurant. “Julien is big on ingredients. I’ve never met someone who’s so intentional when it comes to using great produce,” says Westaway. “He was a huge influence on my emphasis on ingredients. Even though it’s in my DNA, it was a potent reminder of what’s important.”

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

When Royer left Jaan in 2015 to open Odette in the National Gallery Singapore, Westaway took over as executive chef, earning Jaan its first Michelin star in 2016. But he knew he wanted to make the restaurant his own, rather than follow directly in his predecessor’s footsteps. So in 2017, he debuted his concept of modern British cuisine.

“I wanted to do something that was a bit more emotionally connected to me,” says the Brit, adding that people did not quite get it at first. “People were saying I should do things like steak and kidney pie, or pasties, but that’s not what I was going for.”

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Westaway had bigger plans. He started with cheeky nods to British classics, like a fish and chips canapé and a reimagined version of bread and butter pudding. Over the years, Westaway’s dishes have only become more sophisticated and nuanced; some are wonderfully simple, leaning fully on premium produce sourced from the UK and Europe, such as a sweet onion pie with aubergines.

“It’s my interpretation of what British food can be: very light and elegant, with elevated flavours from using only the best ingredients,” he says. “Over the years I’ve found that the only way to be successful in what you do is to do it for yourself. I cook food that I love to eat—real comfort food, in an interesting setting.”

An example is his dish made using an unexpected ingredient: stinging nettles. The plant’s tips are blanched in boiling water, then blended with Cornish Yarg cheese, and served with a soft poached egg topped with caviar.

When British TV personality Andi Peters visited Singapore recently, Westaway told him about the dish over a drink at Writers Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore. “Immediately, Andi was transported to a moment [in his childhood] in London—climbing a tree in the summer, shirt off, then falling out of the tree into a bush of stinging nettles,” he says. “He had a huge smile on his face.”

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Above Chef Westaway wears a Prada jacket, trousers, Westaway’s own shirt. Opposite page: Boss jacket, trousers, and his own shirt.

Westaway, who makes a point of chatting with diners at Jaan, soon found that they, too, were excited to share their own childhood memories of stinging nettles. “I didn’t realise it would have such a resonance,” he says. “By accident, we created this sense of nostalgia, where that first bite could transport people back to a moment in their childhood, or a moment with family.”

He says it took a took a bold leap of faith to commit to cooking his interpretation of modern British cuisine. “It was pure hard work and [there was] not really any guidance. This concept was new, so there was no book to copy and paste from, no one telling me what I should do ... it was out into the abyss, and we just had to trust that it was going to work.”

And work, it did. On September 1, 2021, at around 2.30pm, Westaway and his team received a call informing them that Jaan was now a two-Michelin- starred restaurant. “There was crying, jumping, hugging ... it was a really huge, really nice moment. Everyone had worked so hard for it. Not only that, but it felt great to be awarded and acknowledged for this concept,” says the chef.

Celebrations aside, Westaway reminded his staff that it wasn’t time to rest on their laurels.

“We've achieved so much, and we can’t stop now,” says Westaway. “We need to be more disciplined, more creative and keep going for gold. Whether or not it happens in the next stage isn’t the point, but it’s about constantly improving and evolving.”

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Above Chef Westaway wears a Boss jacket, trousers, Prada shoes, and his own shirt.

COOKING FROM MEMORY

Sitting in Jaan’s dining room on the 70th floor of Swissôtel The Stamford, where floor-to-ceiling windows reveal sweeping aerial views that stretch from the terracotta rooftops of Haji Lane and Arab Street to the iconic vistas over Marina Bay, it feels like a full circle moment for the chef—to be at the top of one of the world’s most celebrated dining destinations, sharing the food he loves.

“I’m cooking from my own memories ... and to me, that’s the only way you can really successfully connect with others,” he says. “The more I dig into my own past, the more I’ve found that connection has grown among customers, and my team.”

Despite being just 37 years old, Westaway is the eldest member of the Jaan team. It’s a close-knit group: he is especially close to his head chef Ng Guo Lun, whom he has worked with for nine years, and sous chef Wee Beck Joon; the trio even spend Christmases together, and regularly go for lengthy runs.

“Everyone on the team is very committed. We play music in the kitchen and have great conversations ... but we’re very serious when it comes to food, work and presentation,” Westaway says. “In between that, we have a good connection of humour and friendship.”

With a brand-new look and its star on the rise, Westaway says that the year is off to a good start for Jaan. “Coming into the new restaurant, new kitchen, new style ... has been a huge mental and physical boost for everybody, including myself,” he says. “As a result, we’re stronger, tighter and more focused than ever before.”

Credits

Photography  

Darren Gabriel Leow

Styling  

Debby Kwong

Grooming  

Grego Oh using Keune Haircosmetics and Cle de Peau Beaute

Photographer's Assistant  

Rex Teo

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