Royer holds court

TELL chef Julien Royer that his leaving Jaan has been big news among the food-loving crowd in Singapore, and he looks surprised. "Really? I think only a few people know that I'm leaving. But I can feel that a lot of people have been coming in the last days or weeks, to say 'bye' and wish me luck," he says.

Yesterday was his last day at Jaan, after a four-year stint at the fine-dining establishment at Swissotel The Stamford. He adds that as a chef, "it is very touching. I've been building a strong relationship with my guests, and we have a lot of followers and regulars."

He began thinking about running his own restaurant last year. "It is the desire of every chef, when you reach a certain maturity, to want to work for yourself, to be able to sharpen your product, and to mould your product in line with your identity," he says. "It is difficult to be able to do this in a hotel, because, at the end of the day, you are just here for a certain period of time. But with your own restaurant, you are starting from scratch, and you can give it an identity and personal touches."