Kopitiam v2.0

IMMANUEL Tee never saw himself working in a coffeeshop.

To most young chefs in Singapore, the 27-year-old chef's resume is the stuff of envy. He got his culinary diploma from At-Sunrice, spent several years working for Andre Chiang at Jaan and Restaurant Andre and now-defunct Guy Savoy in the Marina Bay Sands before clinching a stage at two Michelin-star Pastorale in Belgium.

At just 25, he was promoted to the head chef position at modernist restaurant Keystone in the heart of the Central Business District. But it all came to a sudden halt last year when Keystone shuttered for good following a rental hike. Mr Tee was left jobless.

He scoured the market for investors to start his own restaurant, but when talks with potential partners didn't pan out and he couldn't cough up the more than $300,000 typically needed to fund a restaurant, he dug into his savings to go it …