Man In Metamorphosis

Chef, restaurateur, educator, and now hotelier, André Chiang is unshaken by change —for he is the one making them

- Koh Yuen Lin

In Greek mythology, Achilles was one of the greatest of warriors, seemingly invincible until a shot to the heel felled him. For chef André Chiang, it was also a ruptured Achilles tendon that has slowed him down. Currently wheelchair-bound, the Taiwanese chef-restaurateur tells us that it will be a year before he can run or jump. Unlike Achilles who never rose from his fall, Chiang’s heel is a mere speed bump. A private person who speaks deliberately and listens intently, the 44-yearold multi-hyphenate is still moving fast, creating trends instead of following them.

Chiang’s ventures are always highly anticipated, and his painstakingly built-up reputation has much to do with it. As a chef who boasts work experience under the likes of Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire and the late Joël Robuchon, he has been called a culinary prodigy. At age 18, he was invited to apprentice at chefs Jacques and Laurent Pourcel’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier, France. Seven years later, he rose to become the chef de cuisine for La Compagnie des Comptoirs, an iconic bistro run by the Pourcel brothers. It was a beginning of a culinary career that has taken myriad interesting twists and turns.