CONVERSATIONS WITH GAVIN YAP

Hey there, folks. Gavin Yap here, your friendly neighbourhood actor, writer, and filmmaker. But let's forget about all that for a minute. That's not at all what this little adventure is about. This is entirely about curiosity, curiosity about people. Every month I'm going to sit down with someone from a different background and profession and pick their brain. For my first conversation, I'm talking to Darren Chin, Michelin-starred chef and the mastermind behind DC Restaurant, Bref, Gai and the recently launched Darren Chin Restaurants @ M.

- Gavin Yap

With your father (David Chin) being the founder of Dave’s Deli and in the F&B industry, I would imagine that’s always been in your life. What was it like to grow up in that environment, where F&B was always a backdrop in your life?

Unhealthy. My dad did not come from a culinary background. He was in corporate, and ventured out into F&B by chance. We started off humbly living in a small TTDI house in Burhanuddin Helmi and we cramped ourselves – me, my brother, my sister, mom and dad – in one master bedroom. The rest of the space in the house was used for storage, production, sending out food in the morning, and things just caught on from there. Eventually, I proceeded to work with him after college for the next 12 years. A normal career progression is that you study and then think about where you want to work next, or what you want to do. I didn’t go through that process. I took the safe route, thinking that I might be inheriting a business and I don’t have to work that hard, but I did work hard of course. And it’s like this wool covering your eyes, because of the format, the work culture, the way that my dad behaved back then and he was probably in his prime at that moment, when he had close to 40 outlets at that time and was flying. But then again, I think there was more to it than just cooking. It was a lot of mental abuse, but we only realised it after.

You mean within the family?