{"id":71572,"date":"2026-07-25T15:27:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=71572"},"modified":"2026-07-25T15:27:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:27:54","slug":"wheys-new-chef-is-bringing-western-flair-to-singaporean-hawker-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=71572","title":{"rendered":"Whey\u2019s new chef is bringing Western flair to Singaporean hawker classics"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
Durian ice cream<\/span> with caviar. On paper, it feels gauche, an unnecessarily luxurious way to elevate an otherwise straightforward and common dessert. Take a bite, though, and the caviar coaxes out the savoury elements of the durian<\/span>, balanced by the fruit\u2019s natural sweetness and highlighted by the roe\u2019s clean salinity, all with a pleasing textural contrast. Suddenly, a faintly ridiculous dessert makes perfect sense.<\/div>\n

This playful juxtaposition has been a signature of Whey, Sheung Wan\u2019s celebrated contemporary Singaporean restaurant, since opening under chef Barry Quek in 2021. The Alain Ducasse-trained chef has excelled at delivering classic Singaporean hawker-centre flavours with creativity via modern French techniques.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Keith<\/div>
Keith Teo, head chef at Whey. Photo: Jocelyn Tam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After five years at the helm, founder chef Quek is looking to train a new generation. In that spirit, fellow Singaporean Keith Teo, formerly of Sol<\/span>, has been appointed head chef and will take the reins of the day-to-day operations.<\/div>\n

With Quek still deeply involved at Whey, Teo knows he must strike a delicate balance. \u201cI think the hardest part of the job will be trying to find a line between what customers want and what Barry also wants,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Both chefs may be from Singapore, but their culinary backgrounds and inspirations are starkly different. \u201cMy father\u2019s from Indonesia,\u201d Teo reveals, \u201cso I have more Peranakan influence [than Barry].\u201d The multicultural influences run deep. Teo\u2019s parents spent time in Canada, and his mother, whom he credits with inspiring him to become a chef, was just as likely to cook lasagne as fried rice. \u201cMy mother incorporated a lot of Western food [into meals]. That\u2019s actually why I took up Western cuisine at culinary school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Tilefish<\/div>
Tilefish with sambal okra and eggplant pur\u00e9e. Photo: Jocelyn Tam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This Western foundation became the bedrock of Teo\u2019s early career. He cut his teeth during an eight-month internship in France. Having acquired a taste for European fine dining, he returned home to work at Singapore\u2019s most acclaimed French restaurant, the three-Michelin-starred Odette. Then he returned to Europe to serve as a junior sous chef at Frog by Adam Handling in London, which holds one Michelin star.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n


\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durian ice cream with caviar. On paper, it feels gauche, an unnecessarily luxurious way to elevate an otherwise straightforward and common dessert. Take a bite,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1117,809,8573,5573,1177,1293,98,27164],"class_list":["post-71572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-bringing","tag-chef","tag-classics","tag-flair","tag-hawker","tag-singaporean","tag-western","tag-wheys","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}