Cloudstreet and Thevar win 2 stars at Michelin awards

SINGAPORE restaurants Cloudstreet and Thevar came away as the big winners at the Michelin awards on Tuesday (Jul 12), with 2 stars each at the guide’s first physical ceremony since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Held at the Marina Bay Sands, the glitzy event also welcomed 6 restaurants into the Michelin fold for the first time. Euphoria, La Dame De Pic, Hamamoto, Marguerite, Nae:um and Reve were each awarded a star. The seventh one star went to Burnt Ends, which moved to bigger premises in Dempsey and is considered a new restaurant. There was also some attrition: Corner House and Garibaldi lost their stars.

With Les Amis, Odette and Zen retaining their 3-star status, there are now 52 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, up from 49 last year. A visibly-moved Rishi Naleendra of the newly-minted 2-starred Cloudstreet, said: “I’ve always been a massive dreamer and even then, there’s only so much you can dream at certain stages in your life. I grew up in Sri Lanka, and (having achieved this) is beyond my imagination. This is unreal. It’s not to do with me. I have an amazing team that pushes themselves to the extreme.”

Thevar is the first modern Indian restaurant to achieve 2 stars, and caps a fast-moving career for chef-owner Mano Thevar, who also led the restaurant to its first star just last year. “It’s super unexpected,” he said. “I’ve worked in 2-Michelin starred restaurants, and for me to win 2 stars makes me super proud.” The Malaysian-born chef credited his team for the win, “and also to Singapore for giving me opportunities I would not have had.”

Of the new 1-stars, Euphoria and La Dame De Pic missed out in 2021, but made up for lost time this year with their wins. “It’s a demonstration of great teamwork to achieve this honour,” said Euphoria’s chef-owner, Jason Tan. Anne-Sophie Pic of La Dame De Pic at Raffles Hotel, Singapore, said: “It bears witness to the investment of hard work, dedication and patience of our teams in the challenging times following the restaurant’s opening.”

Chef Louis Han of the modern Korean restaurant Nae:um also took home the Young Chef award, in addition to his one star.

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Two new special awards were presented: Samantha Goh of Saint Pierre won for Welcome & Service; the Sommelier award went to Eric Eu of Les Amis.

The gala evening also saw the return of overseas-based Singaporean chefs such as Barry Quek of Whey (Hong Kong), Jimmy Lim of JL Studio (Taiwan), Matthew Leong of RE-NAA (Norway) and pastry chef Angela Lai of Tairroir (Taipei), presenting the dinner menu along with Singapore’s Tristin Farmer of Zen and Tetsuya Wakuda of Waku Ghin.