SINGAPORE, July 21 — Nothing stirs a food-loving Singaporean like an internationally renowned list to determine the best our food and beverage scene has to offer.
If you thought all the buzz and debate surrounding the 2016 Michelin Guide Singapore’s Bib Gourmand list of affordable eats was lively, wait till the results are out tonight for the Michelin Guide Singapore when the world will know which restaurants here have earned the Michelin stars.
Already, speculation is rife. Did last year’s hottest restaurant opening, which only opened its doors in November, make it in time for the guide’s restaurant inspectors to make a fair call?
And given the unpredictable nature of such a list, could we really say for certain that our long-standing fine-dining restaurants will get anything 'les' than at least one coveted star?
Would it be unnecessarily presumptuous to put money on at least three of the sublime sushi restaurants here (in Raffles City and Orchard Road areas) for at least a star each?
Speaking of worthy contenders, perhaps a Singaporean chef-led restaurant — one that recently made local history on another notorious best-restaurants list — secure a top spot alongside seasoned big boys the likes of Robuchon (who by the way had arrived in Singapore on Monday and was picked up in a Rolls Royce no less) and Restaurant Andre?
Some are squabbling over which Peranakan exponent would be more deserving - would the younger chef upstage the veteran? Meanwhile, others are entertaining the real possibility of a casual but genuinely scrummy local eatery (the likes of Taiwan’s Din Tai Fung and Hong Kong’s Tim Ho Wan) making the list.
Well, if Michelin is honest about the fact that its inspectors do not look at interior decor, table setting, or service quality in awarding stars, who is to say a feted hawker like Hill Street Tai Wah Pork Noodle at Crawford Lane couldn’t earn a star — #justsaying. To be sure, the list is not definitive. But whatever the outcome, you will want to be on your laptop or mobile gadget when we reveal to you ‘live’ Singapore’s first Michelin-starred restaurants. Bon appetit! — Today
