The first time ever that Singapore produced winners for this prestigious award.
The only team to serve Asian cuisine for the competition instead of the usual
western cuisine and fine dining. Holy shit balls dude! One for the country man!
Oh hell yeah! And one for Asians! Welcome to the studio ladies and gentlemen. I give you
the young chef that will rule the culinary world, Chef Ian Tan.
I'm pretty sure Kai Pescely has tapped on the record button. Am I right Kai?
Yes. I can hear you. Oh already? Oh my my. Always be a recording. Always be a recording.
So you can grab the best stuff from time to time. Yeah of course. You see whether or not we want to
add these things in. But sometimes we don't. Usually we don't. But sometimes we do. It all
depends on the guest and whether the guest has said something that we go, wow that one we can use.
Are you picking up a lot of gunk from my mouth Kai? Oh you can't hear because you have no
headphones. I am picking up gunk on my own. Okay. Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of the
Chris Hansen conversation. Yes we have started the season. We're into season four and I'm back at
work and back at it and I've got someone really interesting in the studio. Someone actually
reached out to me and said Chris take a look at this particular article. It was a newspaper clipping
and I read it. I said yeah this I think this guy would be kind of cool to have him on the show.
So I had to do a little bit of digging and eventually I managed to find him and he's here
in studio and later on he's going to give us a little gastronomic treat as well. But before we
go there let me give you a rundown on who my guest is and I'm going to read this off the screen
okay because the echolies are really crazy man so I got to read it off. Here we go. In the global
culinary scene Singapore had never produced a winner for the world young chef young waiter award
established since 1979. Arguably the most prestigious industry-centric dining and hospitality
award and in November 2023 in Monaco nine chefs nine waiters and nine mixologists from England,
Wales, Singapore, Ireland, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Monaco, the US and Scotland competed
for the grand prize and of course they got to go through heats first. Here's a shot of the young man
I'm talking about when he won the Singapore round. You guys had two man. I had two man look at that
shot man I mean look at that short of armpits but then again the armpits are covered thank god for
that and then let me just go on down the line. Each nation sends in a team of one chef and one
waiter with mixologists being an option but Singapore sent up three including a mixologist
and the option for the chef is a three course meal presented to a judging panel. So representing
Singapore I'm now going to mention your teammates. We're mixologists Zana Moulman from Manhattan,
Singapore, waiter Bell Torres from restaurant Zen and my guest in the studio Chef Ian Tan
of Bottega di Carna, the emerge winners of the world young chef young waiter award.
There you go three very happy people. The first time ever that Singapore first time ever that
Singapore had produced winners for this prestigious award the only team to serve Asian cuisine for the
competition instead of the usual western cuisine and fine dining. Holy shit balls dude one for the
country man oh hell yeah and one for Asians. Welcome to the studio ladies and gentlemen I give you
the young chef that will rule the culinary world Chef Ian Tan. Hello hello everybody it's uh I'm
extremely grateful to have this opportunity to meet Chris uh man myth legend of all the sexy voices.
Oh dear lord here we go. I've watched a couple like of your stuff and then I'm like oh man like
I get distracted because you have your guest and then there is you and then I'm just waiting to
hear a voice I hope it's I hope it won't be too bad this time around. Why would it be bad man
won't be bad you sound okay don't worry about that but thanks for the compliment though.
You know lots have been written about the competition and uh I'm not in the habit of
asking the same fucking stupid rigmarole questions that you've been getting.
Ah no no no. I'm pretty sure you know I don't like that because people keep asking the same
things in different formats and different versions and stuff um I just want to find out things the
other way because this particular segment that we have this show that you're on right now this
segment is called the I love my job series. And I love my job. Well it's usually the last part of
the show when I ask that question but thank you for volunteering and right at the beginning bus.
No it's cool it's cool uh let's start this way okay I want to start start off the show this way
okay in my usual fashion Ian Tan without the chef's hat all right who is he?
Oh my goodness this is an extremely tough question to answer Chris.
Usually is most people tell me that about this question. I spent probably close to 60 hours a
week in the kitchen without the chef hat I'm at home catching up on my shows I love the office.
Oh which one the British version or the US version man? Only the US version you can't do
the office without Jim Helpin and Dwight Schrute. You gotta be kidding me man. Michael Scotland gang.
The English version man come on. That's the original right? Honestly popular to contrary
believe I should start uh watching the English channels as well I haven't got the time to do it
but maybe one day I will so um yes I might commit to that. Okay so without the chef's hat 60 hours
in the kitchen outside of the kitchen who is Ian Tan? Uh you'll probably find me at hawker centers
you'll find me in bars. You're not getting the question man. That's about what you do in your
free time. I'm asking you who are you? Could you rephrase that question again so I can answer it?
Who okay who is Ian Tan without the chef moniker or title in the front? Who is he?
He's the abrasive loudmouth troublemaker. Abrasive. That can be can get on somebody's
nerves from time to time ask my lady. Don't worry about it I mean I mean we all guys get on our
lady's nerves man. True enough. Probably one of the biggest rebels of all time. Okay. Coming from my
teachers uh people who know me not as a chef but as a person. Yeah. Rebel. A thrill seeker. Yeah I
I do enjoy doing things that uh you know. What? When I was in uh when I was in the army I got a
fantastic opportunity to be paid to uh jump out of planes. Okay. And uh I absolutely loved every
moment of it. So when you tell me that you had the opportunity of jumping out of a perfectly
good plane um which means that this was national service right? Yeah. Let's go back a little bit
okay? Let me just try and dissect that question to be fair to you. Yeah. You said you were a rebel
in school which which school were you in? Uh I was in one of the most notorious Methodist schools out
there so you might relate yourself to. Geylang. Names. Oh my goodness spot on. Perfect. Yes I was
from Geylang Methodist Secondary School. Okay. Best place of all time. Uh I was the kid who
borrow a basketball just to treat it as a soccer ball in the netball field in the middle of El
Cuadraco. Probably broke a couple stuff. Uh I was that student counselor who would have extremely
long hair and still got away with it. But you were a student counselor nonetheless. Uh yes I was. Yeah.
I was. I was actually an executive community member of the welfare committee. Right. So but I
think I put on a good show for the guys as well as the teachers. I think one thing that I did that was
I mean yes rebellious but probably in the right ways. The teachers were spending so much time
on let's say uh hey guys uh you guys need to get your socks on. You guys need to be wearing a white
socks, white laces and everything. Like you guys have to be dressed a certain way. Right. And then
there came a day we had a meeting and I was like teachers are you are you really certain that these
are going to affect the students grades or graduating criteria or how well they did in school
or practically in life. A sock isn't going to change anything. A t-shirt isn't going to change
anything. But don't you think that is about that's about having some discipline, some amount of
decorum. I'd rather they put in uh this kind of values when it comes to studying and uh how you
conduct yourselves outside school. Not not not not too much on how you dress and lo and behold the
the rule went through. Uh colored socks, colored laces and ankle uh like ankle uh ankle socks were
allowed in school. Uh this was quite a way back and the teachers had more time to teach. Right.
Rather than catch students on their socks. That's how you see things huh. Yeah. Okay all right and then from
Geylang Methodist you went through of course you did your old's and where do you go after that?
I was a straight B student. I couldn't really decide between uh oh I was I was like looking around
the room and thinking how much it was to set up because I was offered uh uh two diplomas. So one
of them being uh currently defunct baking and culinary science in Temasek Poly. Is defunct now?
Is defunct now already. Do you know why? Uh what what the information that I've been given is more
so like Singapore has been trying to move forward on our education on entrepreneurship as well as
business rather than things like cooking uh nutritional science etc etc. Right. So they
actually combine the course of culinary science together with culinary and catering management.
Okay. So instead of um being science focused, being research focused, being cooking focused,
people could actually set themselves up uh for a better future. Let's say owning a business.
Like for example myself as a science student I'm a little bit more analytical when it comes to how
to cook. Like when let's say you want to cook a good steak I'll tell you uh how and why you can
achieve it. Like when you dry age it what goes on etc etc. But for a business uh student point of
view it would be more like a oh it generates better uh profit. I could get it on a higher profit
margin because people buy into dry age steaks a bit better. So what's your take on that? I mean do
you think it's it sounds to me you'd rather have let's talk about the science of cooking it rather
than the business end of it because it's got money involved. Each to their own I'm. But you? How about
you? I'm quite the geek and um I've really really feel most restaurants in Singapore the most
successful ones uh take a non-biased opinion. Sure sure. Max Wine and Kitchen for example. She's been
running a restaurant for 28 years. Yeah yeah. And if you've been running literally anything in the
planet for 28 years you've got to be doing something right. Yeah. And one of the things I see
is that she has never come out with anything gimmicky for better profit or upsell her customers
extremely luxurious ingredients. Right. She's not even really followed the trends. She does something
she does something to her understanding uh whatever she believes in which is just good honest cooking.
Right okay. But when you're talking about young people going into say the poly and now that the
poly restructured reformatted the way this is taught uh I think there's two schools of thought
yeah I mean since we're on that topic man I know I'm still on the topic about who is Ian Tan
okay go for it but since you raised this uh and I don't want to jump off the opportunity I'd rather
jump on the opportunity you're talking about this uh I've always believed you know uh in most most
professions especially it comes to trades um can I call this a trade yeah I think I can uh like for
example musicians uh entertainers you know and perhaps even chefs like you uh that it is always
important to also take care of your of your business because you know you have your craft
right and uh right now maybe the schools the polys are focusing more on that teaching you how to take
care of business uh because the craft you will eventually definitely get there what do you think
do you think I'm you think I'm I'm right or wrong about what I've just said it's a it's a very very
broad topic to be very frank um I mean I'm not in your industry so you know I'm just speaking out
loud thinking out loud what I've noticed in Singapore is that people we become way too business focused
uh some of the trends I've noticed I I started working in a ramen shop okay way way way back I
was I think 15 years old when I jumped on board um this there was not enough stuff in the kitchen
so they wanted to drag someone from the service side to help out in the kitchen so that's how
I got stuck and never left the kitchen uh since then ramen champion took quite a downfall when
after 2015 a multitude a huge tsunami of ramen restaurants came to Singapore right right you see
them popping out of nowhere literally at every corner of the island when it used to be the most
non-halal thing yeah they made a halal version out of it and it got sometimes even compatible like it
can get even better than the the supposedly non-halal versions however what happened at the end of the
day when you are also business focused when you're jumping on the train of guys this is
earning money let me do it too this strategy works let me learn from this person and then try and do
better than this person it gets so competitive right they all kind of collapse that one go how
many good restaurants how many good ramen restaurants are left here in Singapore so what
you're saying is what you're saying in short would be to focus on like well you said that earlier too
well you know good honest cooking uh and stick to your guns and what you believe in right and
absolutely and not be too sucked into the business and economic aspects of the craft it might be even
a social thing uh people feel comfortable when they fit in with other people so if you purchase
a Rolex as let's say uh you are a financial advisor and then you're young and budding and your
your superior wants you to say just like just like you should just like you can sell a financial plan
and then they're like hey you need to get a Rolex and when all of your peers are having a Daytona
or something and here you are with let's say a Grand Seiko which isn't even that bad after all
you get pretty jittery however at the cost of fitting in you lose probably almost everything else
right okay okay right okay let's go on with who is Ian Tan? Don't get me wrong I'm still trying to
understand the question I'm not trying to run no don't worry I'm you don't I'm not here to pressure
my guests I never want to make them feel uncomfortable so I'll help you along okay so I'm
moving down the line this in chronology so after that you had two offers for a diploma yes oh yes
oh you went so far I'm so out of it no it's cool don't worry don't worry about it man don't worry
about it it's a podcast when we hear the it's a conversation it's a chit chat we're here to talk
I don't I don't even sometimes think about the cameras being in front of us it's cool
okay so let's go this direction now yeah so from you were offered two diplomas what did what did
the diplomas I was a drummer back in secondary school a what a drummer I hit stuff to make
things sound good I have some of my own gears at home which I haven't been able to use them
okay so I was offered a dpa into the diploma of music and audio tech in Singapore poly
holy shit man were you there no no way I I've been saying this on almost most of my episodes of
I love my job this man has got a diploma in BTC what is that may I ask?
BOTATZEK. What is what? Oh my goodness what is that? BOTATZEK. You know what BOTATZEK is?
Don't. I mean I've got four levels is all I got man okay yeah no what I'm saying is that I would
have jumped an opportunity if I were offered a diploma like what you just had what you just said
the diploma in what in in music and music and audio tech oh geez my goodness okay super well
sought after which means you you you you you pretty pretty good at the at the drums I'm I would say
I'm all right uh there are definitely you know the Chinese saying goes isan bi isan gao like you you
you can't just if you think you are good you just need to scroll youtube or just like flip on your
tiktok and instagram well let's put it this way man you must have been good enough to be have been
selected for it well I'm humbled okay so and and what happened uh so I actually consulted one of
my greatest mentors in life i.e. my my mother okay I was like what do I choose there are two
there are two great loves in my life how could you just take away music or food like it's a super
tough question it's like if you if you love to drink and then like it's like choose whiskey or
choose gin and you're like you you can't do this to me you really can't do that um so I went to
a very practical human being and asked for very practical advice and the very practical advice
was in Singapore it's very hard to earn money or stable income and much less likely to be successful
if you are doing music because it's just not supported and it's sorry who's who's it that to
you my mom okay yeah right right but right now times have changed obviously and things are getting
better um uh so I went forward and said hey it's not too bad after all if I'm still doing something
I love so I went to uh baking and culinary science okay so uh this baking and culinary science and
we know about the music bit because when you were in school you were drumming but then after that
you decided to go into baking culinary science for your diploma instead of what was offered to you
for music and you mentioned earlier on that at 15 you and you were in the kitchen already yes now
let's go back a little bit then so which means that you during school halls yes you were working
in service correct can be talking a little bit more about that how did you first enter into this
world um of culinary that is or fnb it went back like when I was secondary uh secondary too so I
had a friend whose mom owns a chain of uh probably those cafeterias at condominiums so it was at
bay shore park condominium oh my goodness connie's it's I have no idea it's just called western food
I know it says western food at the corner is just next what year was this
when I was 14 now I am 27 this year so minus 13 20 2014 easily 24 I lived there for 11 and a half
years mama mia the one next to the highway and everything oh yeah the one where they had like
ultra delicious like naan yeah the indian oh my goodness the indian food that was incredible
yeah yeah okay I I left already by the time you started working there yeah okay yeah prior to that
I know the place uh prior to that was a place called connie's yeah maybe it's it's already
changed by the time back to topic um she told me something really interesting I I used to play
arcade games so I like like those wangan midnight maximum tune in your time zones and virtual lands
when they still existed uh virtual land uh time zone is taken over now virtual and I can't find
them anymore she was like hey uh my parents are looking for a dishwasher part-time like five bucks
an hour and when you were 14 at back back in 2014 uh five bucks an hour is incredible you felt like
you could rule the world with 25 bucks a week once you work once a week just by washing dishes and it
was an easy job but it's more like the smells and the sense that caught me I I had an incredible
indonesian uh from an indonesian helper from manado her name is like Rita or she taught me
how to cook in the kitchen I was the adhd kid running around the house and people couldn't
get me to shut up and she was like you know what just help me wash the dishes chop some garlic
and I kind of just fell in love with the energy of the kitchen and if I'm in this environment and
it could get me money it's a win-win I kill some time I earn some money after that I play some
games in the arcade and I won't complain about everyone wins okay so that's how I got like
started so basically you basically the influence actually came from home from your indonesian
helper from manado spot on wow if you are hearing this podcast I love you I miss you hope to see you
soon yeah and and I know that um because right now we uh my mom has a philippine has a indonesian
helper from manado and I hear that her cooking is quite superb the manado cuisine oh man I think
there are a lot of very very underrated cooks uh sometimes they can be loitering around uh
lucky plaza um so on and so forth all right so so wow that's that's actually quite a good story so
your you actually can attribute your beginnings into how you really started to realize the
realization that you just might like this being in the kitchen is at home through your former helper
absolutely wow I would say definitely definitely true because for the competition
I even use a style of sambal that she taught me wow so that imagine that kind of impact of
that kind of flavor and experience holy shit man so I just bought it for a couple like like 13 years later and boom
yeah amazing huh well that's amazing okay um and you became as this dishwasher um in
Beishaw Park in a little cafeteria or little yeah it was a cafeteria anyway scrubbing plates
frying fries refilling mayonnaise with just two two other people in the kitchen one of them was
from Myanmar she ate absolutely on fire spicy food and then there was a like Filipino head chef
I had pretty decent food and every day I got to do my own staff meal and he taught me how to cook
like those home style alio-olio where your secret ingredient isn't how you render the oil of the
oil of the garlic it's actually Maggie chicken powder it makes it makes the stuff taste like a
banger and I do not deny how well that works but a bit of uh as some I forgot I forget this chef's
name uh he's an Australian and he's recently a master chef doing his like flying lobster noodles
right and when he's doing his food he's like for like right now in this moment let's add a bit of
yum yum yes we are Asian people we need our yum yum oh man like back back to your question your
question who is Ian Tan outside uh the kitchen without a chef hat oh you're answering that you're
actually answering the question because it's pretty tough yeah I know I know but uh I don't want to
know but what you do you see I want to know about who you are what kind of a person are you you've
really said quite a bit you know uh we started off that way anyway right you're the guy that's
a rebel you're the guy that just can't keep quiet and then you you talk a lot and so on but but that's
not just that I mean also about who you know was Ian Tan becoming who is Ian Tan today with the
chef's hat right and that's a combination of the story isn't it so right now um we've stopped at a
dishwasher a bit and then what happened after that where did you go I figured out I wanted
something a bit more five bucks an hour wasn't quite making it so it was about the money anyway
okay I'm gonna shit because when you are getting a quarter inflation's coming in I have to live
because you were saying you know now everybody's worried about the money you're gonna have good
honest cooking but for fuck's sake when you started as a get into the kitchen as a dishwasher was like
hey dude five bucks an hour man 25 bucks a freaking week man come on you know it's about the money
still right money does play a huge part oh no I'm gonna go ahead and yes work for money man bullshit dude in the end it is still about that okay I mean I'm not saying it's the be all and then all yeah yeah but what I am saying is let's not neglect that
particular aspect don't you think yeah yeah look even chef Meg right she she's got a business 28
years as you said in the end hi Meg how you doing man you know but in the end right it's still about
the business yes it's got to be about the business without the business you ain't got no kitchen to
cook in man come on still got to be about the business uh moving forward from the dishwashing
thing what's next what happened you were a kid you were 14 oh the offer that I got when I was 15 this
was crazy uh what happened at 50 where were you working ladies and gentlemen of this age if you
watch Naruto you would understand that this guy is absolutely in love with his noodles okay almost
after every big fight before a big scene he would go to this store called Ichiraku ramen you get his
miso chashu ramen you would eat hunks and hunks of it the way the Japanese animation has depicted
how good this simple bowl of noodle is yeah made me crave for it yeah I love ramen so from dishwashing
a friend came over and he was like hey I'm working at ramen champion the noodles are great I'm like
oh so what's the catch oh they need more stuff do you guys do you want to like hop over the pay is
six an hour I'm saying that's not too different he's like here's the catch bro you watch Naruto
yes how would you fancy a bowl of ramen every day for your staff meal I was like oh hell yeah
I was like give me the contract whenever wherever is it I'll go for it sign the papers and like
yeah I was like when you when you're underage uh-huh 15 I think 15 was legal already 15 16
16 yeah but not 15 I think I signed the papers when I was 15 because I remembered like secondary
three oh boy are these guys are these guys still around is it are they still in business they are
still in business they are still in business but they've shrunk a lot I just hope they don't they
won't get in trouble because of what we just been talking about they'll be fine they'll be fine they'll
be fine all right so you oh I got a you know I've got the opportunity of eating ramen every freaking
day so I might as well go work this job so cool the hunger was the motivation okay the animation
was the motivation and you you took on the job to do what uh I was signed more like a waiter server
so I would stand at the gaze and be like that's pretty much it and then there came the day I think
it was written on the papers as well um we were supposed to have four staff in the kitchen first
stall ramen champion was an amazing concept with six different ramen shops from Japan right
franchises that were bought in different concepts so you get ramen from literally like Tokyo, Hokkaido,
Fukuoka so you get like styles like Ieke ramen to Jiroke ramen to Hokkaido Sapporo miso style
ramen etc etc so we were supposed to have a minimum of six times four that's 24 staff
per week per week end shift so we are talking about at least we are filling up probably a thousand
more than a thousand customers a day each store is an average of 250 to 300 bowls of ramen
holy crap at its peak peak oh boy and one fine day two staff called in sick there were two people
in one of the shops and they're like you have to get in there like we need to churn the food yeah
but but at that time did you even know how to cook I mean I know you learned from home that's
Indonesian cuisine but when you're working there as a server or a waiter were you ever in the
kitchen did someone teach you how to cook up ramen so it was a split shift between three to five p.m
that's when I had my lunches yeah and when the staff was sleeping and they're like you want to
cook your own noodles go ahead go and do it okay they showed me once and then I kind of got a hang
of it not really more of the preparation work but more like the service steps so everything has been
prepped up the seasonings the noodles okay the stuff has been cut your spring onions are already
done your eggs are already cooked so you just have to put them together and so they were simple
it was assembly basically yes in my little puny little brain tells me it's fucking assembly okay
B put C put D put it together make sure it's nice and hot but on the menu there's so many items in
the menu man there's a lot of variations of putting things together right or you knew all that
pretty much I studied the menu every day so part of my job was to recommend customers of what noodles
uh should fit their palette because okay six different stalls six different kinds of noodles
right so I went to do a bit more research it being the geek I am so I'll go back home I'll open up
google and I'll surf the net upon like what kind what is a Tokyo shoyu ramen versus a Jirokei ramen
versus a Yokohama style Ieke ramen where did tsukémen come from I was I was a fanatic I went for it
okay so so I've heard you use that term a few times already during the shoot geek I'm a geek
I'm a geek so in order in order to be a great chef you got to first be a geek right fuck and hell
I guess to know what you like to do I think you need to be very very obsessive about it okay so
be obsessive being obsessive doesn't mean you're a geek to the point where it's still healthy but why
were you obsessive about this is it because you were you've discovered that you're passionate for
this or is it because you're just naturally like that you just want to find things out
in anything you do besides cooking you will want to find things out I'm trying to discover
aptitude here at that point of time I feel I didn't think too deep into what kind of a person I was
right the motivation came from a point of I'm hungry I want ramen how do I make my bowl how
do I make my stuff feel better day to day so yes I started throwing random stuff inside
okay and then some some were hits some were misses and yeah it's just about trying on an era and
I had so much fun doing it I never regretted a single day I had fun every day at work
good as a part-timer so at 15 years old you were you ended up as a server in ramen champion and
then these guys uh one fine day two guys were on mc and you took over right uh and what did
how did the bosses feel about how you did the bosses pretty much did not look too much as long
as the sales comes out right the new rules comes out there's no complaints right on google there
were ratings just didn't go down from that day right I think they were okay with it they didn't
how did you feel about it I felt great I felt like time flew a lot of times when you're doing
any of your part-time jobs sometimes things can be a bit mundane when the day is really slow right
so if you're talking about how to get like nine hours passed really quick and then the day the
day just goes the week just goes especially during holidays when your schedule isn't filled or when
your parents aren't taking you out for holiday uh yeah and when you wait till the end of the month
and then you get that well I'm caught red-handed again when you get the cash into your bank account
what have I done good honest cooking my ass good honest cooking from what kind of motivation
what the fuck okay so I did it again oh my he's doing a britney
right so 15 years old school holiday work you were working for them you go into the kitchen
then you realize hey this is kind of cool time flies by it's great I'm earning the money and
I get to fill my tummy I get to fill my tummy but I didn't hear anything about guess what I
really enjoyed this man this is what I want to do for life I didn't get that from you
I think I really really just didn't took things too seriously my focus was just on having fun
like how could I from time to time when the day is really slow so was this formative for you was
it a formative point in your life that you know at all that I want to be in the kitchen forever
no actually didn't happen then because back in secondary school I thought I still had a chance
I mean I think Asian parents do a very good job at pitching a good life to their kids and then a
very stigmatized good life is that you need to go to Harvard you need to go to Oxford you should be
a doctor lawyer engineer till this day man till this day my generation of parents me I'm a I'm a
I'm a dad generation of parents I see every single day it's the same fucking thing it's crazy yeah
it's like do you want to do you want to be a cook you sure you want to be a cook uh-huh how about
doctor doctors are quite cool right uh-huh yes yes why don't you go and be a doctor see here are
books about being a doctor and medicine and you're like oh yeah okay Hannibal Lecter was a doctor too
and then your parents would be like oh thank goodness oh yes Hannibal Lecter is a doctor
he's damn good cook guess who else is a doctor me I amputate stuff from time to time
amputate stuff from time to time actually to be frank I think chefs are pretty much a little bit
to an extent doctors and nutritionists as well no nutritionists I agree doctors I wouldn't go
that far uh poison with poison oh you're having a fever your tongue is too heady what do you do
oh have a beer next day you're good it's worked it's worked if you are hearing beer and salt
beer with salt beer and salt yeah spot on yeah only lagers though yeah I know no stouts no
then after that well okay I'm not gonna advocate all this right now oh no but let's move on let's
move on so at that time there was no aha moment yet not yet yeah okay so not that I can remember
then of course you you had to go you it's part-time work so you had school and you had your your your
gce yeah and then after that whatever you went to you went to you took up your culinary science
diploma yes in Singapore poly yes I was in tamasic poly and culinary science ah okay I think I believe
your next question is how did you move out of ramen champion not really because there's a part-time
job tell me is this an important part that I should ask if it is tell me about it I thought
it was a good progression I was in ramen champion part-timing for I would say part-time it's quite a
long like long duration because you told me that it wasn't formative for you that's ramen champion
for three years okay but it wasn't yeah having fun but it wasn't formative not not too much
mm-hmm that's why I moved on I want to find out where was it that was formative for you that you
had that aha moment you decided to go to culinary you were in ramen champion you had another option
to go into music so why the fuck culinary was it because there was an influence from ramen champion
I just felt when I was in ramen champion I did learn a few tips and tricks on how to cook
and how to put stuff together so outside of ramen at home sometimes I would be hosting guests
and people do know me as a baker from time to time back in secondary school right so they'll
be like hey Ian my friend's birthday is coming up would you like to make a cake and I think this is
the aha moment okay okay you guys you ran my thoughts already okay here we go so uh we have
a couple friends birthdays from time to time and then they were like hey Ian would you like to bake
for his or her birthday whoever and the level of satisfaction when you get to be able to
put food forward or put a gift to anyone on someone's special occasion birthdays for example
even anniversaries I think you feel incredible I think you're really great to contribute to
somebody's special occasion right to help them make that special occasion more special do you feel
do you feel that way I feel great okay feel great I was like oh my goodness like it wasn't really
much about the cake right it was about the you open that box and then a whole crowd comes forward
and sings happy birthday to you usually the the cause of that right now could be anything it could
be a candle literally on top of a fresh iphone right off from the box from Taobao or wherever
but at that point of time in school it would it would be a cake right it usually is a cake unless
you're talking about culinary school sometimes it's a bouquet of kale or watermelon I mean if I ask
if I ask someone to bake a cake for me you know I hope you hit I hope the cake to be a big one a
stripper comes up on the top or something I mean that would not really be a cake anymore it'd be a
box actually you have to get that somewhere else right so so you feel that at that time the joy
of baking cooking which part parcel culinary right is to be able to provide to give that kind
of joy to others contributing to something special in a special occasion right just repeating what
you're saying so that you know this context again okay right so now at that time you felt that was
the aha moment because when it came because to me the what I get from this so far until you just
mentioned this was that when you were offered the two diplomas between music and culinary science
it felt that you were more in tune towards music than you would be towards the kitchen you are not
wrong yeah and and making the decision because based on what your mom's advice was I mean you
know musicians are all these band boys don't make money sorry but that sounded absolutely just like
her oh no not not not that deep though but yeah it was there it goes and uh and but it did seem to me that
culinary was your second kind of your second choice if your mom didn't say that to you
would you have gone to music I will have pretty much landed myself in the music industry in
Singapore I don't doubt that if it doesn't work out for me who would have known I might have been
car sales property sales just like quite a good number of people I don't mean to discriminate I
think it's a good career however a lot of times when my friends get drunk who can be like looking
for like I have a friend her name is Audrey is really really fantastic person I think she was in
aviation because her parents asked her like it's a good career you got something coming up for you
after pursuing I think she got a degree she totally did not enjoy her job every time we went out we
had a meal or anything there was no spark of life in her her passion was a lot on marine biology
right so she altered her career path after like being in it for like couple years like easily
five years now she's a full-fledged marine biologist and she happy she's absolutely happy
she's like hey what do you call those little sea slugs again new nudie something with you dude I
don't know anyways she would she would spam me pictures of you're asking me difficult questions
like that she would spam me pictures I'll try and stop to get like as mentioned can be a bit of a nerd
there we go so she would send me pictures I'll be scrolling on days on end on like little cute
sea slugs that you can find off Sisters Island right right right and that's I feel like that's
life because she had she because you do basically what you're saying is love what you do do what you
love amen hallelujah yes yes I I really believe so but I think that if that's the case if you
had pursued music and you love music you love drumming do you I do I still do love okay so
you could admit it your own as well to an extent I also feel your passion projects or how like
whoever whatever you're doing you still have to make it sustainable like at the end of the day
we need to put food on our table of course yeah money can music yeah money food yeah okay I get
it I get it Chris we still need to put food on our table so to an extent if I want to continue
drumming I still need a job that helps me to drum yeah but then again being in the music industry
doesn't just surround drumming alone because if you get a diploma that says audio tech as well right
I think I will be the person who look at the board like the sound board if I'm staring at that right
now or whatever he's staring at I my brain's gonna burst no I get I get I get a headache sometimes
when I do a little bit of costing and the excel sheet comes out right I'm like I can't do this
anymore I need to watch a show I need to go for a run and then if I just kind of like so maybe it
wasn't too much for me the logistics and everything because back to back to what the music industry is
like your show is let's say an hour and hour and a half right but the setup could be days the
organization could be months so I feel being in the kitchen at the end of the day coming from my
part-time job as well as drumming from time to time being in the kitchen has more immediate results
okay most of the time I'm not getting to like fermentation or like 128 dry-aged steaks but
yeah I think there was there was a little bit more kick in the kitchen for me at that point of time
so when you entered into getting the diploma into Masek
were there any tinge of regret at all? Not at all actually I found myself to be
enjoying my course a lot even though I had a hawking chef to come in the kitchen and be like
hey guys like first lesson ever his name is chef Gary amazing amazing gentleman this guy would give
up more than himself to teach his students so when we had competitions he would stay he's a married
man with kids he would stay past his curriculum hours to 10 pm 11 pm just to help train his
students for competition right so this man was standing in front of me he was huge hawking figure
his first words were this is going to be the first practical lesson for you guys my advice is that
if you can't find it in yourself to give up your holidays the time you spend with your family and
friends when they can spend time with themselves or you can't commit to more time for others than
yourself I suggest you leave the course right now that was my first ever lesson. That's wisdom there
and I asked myself could I give that up for a future I was like I think I have been I counted
all the Christmases the public holidays the the ph the weekends and I think I give it all up but
for a reason which I'm not very proud to say ph has double pay a good honest cooking
good honest cooking ph is double pay ph is double pay but yes I could I could spend that kind of quality time
uh on my on my breaks and vacations as well so am I okay with not being on the hype train
with everybody else who was going to marina basins to catch fireworks I told myself I'd be cool with
it so I stuck by it and I really really enjoyed my time in tamasic polytechnic so you you decided
there and then that I can do this I can I can make that sacrifice the the thing in my head was like
why not just give it a shot and right now you've been you've been working in the kitchen for a
total how many years professionally after NS I would say uh 22 22 23 24 25 I think about a good
five years okay this five years has gone by now that you're in my studio now that you've
recounted this story to me but what chef gary had said whatever he said to you then at that time and
you said okay I can fucking do this it's been five years so far only been five years so far okay
a good five years because you you got this equity which is freaking amazing thank you really really
thank you so much on behalf of Singapore again thank you but I would ask you you made a decision
then when chef gary spoke now it's been five years
do you still feel the same way I do that this decision you've made to sacrifice all that time
as a chef in the kitchen any regrets no not at all I'm pretty sure we all in any kind of job and
situation have our up times and our down times are you being politically correct here
yes I am fuck that I want to know the honest truth how do you feel about it I feel amazing I feel
back to the back to the feeling where you give up your time after school
where people could be studying playing frisbee and soccer right you give up your time you go to the
supermarket you buy ingredients you bake a cake for your friends and everybody gets so happy you
just feel like you've contributed greatly to this kind of so the sacrifice that you said that you
are happy giving you know making giving up all your free time for people you love
and it's made up for because you give joy I guess it's safe to say that you know why I'm
asking all these questions me no the reason why I'm asking all these questions because people who
watch the show man and I ask people my guests from different walks of life on the series I love my
job what makes them tick what makes them want to go on there are people out there who are making
decisions the people out there thinking about especially I like to do a lot of mid career
change talks you know chats with people with my guests those who have made the take take it a
plunge yeah but you're different you're a young guy you've been in culinary practically all your
life easy to say safe to say yeah since the time you were 14 as a dishwasher and until now
and and it's a little different it's not a mid career change kind of thing but what made you
come to this profession what made you tick what made you you know still happy being where you are
you know it's an emotional it's an emotional thing that's why I had to ask who is Ian Tan
then what made him tick you know what makes this guy move on like this in this world you know
because chef Benny Sito yeah who was on my show actually said yeah he's a great guy man
he's a real funny guy too you filled my childhood with 18 chefs the cheese baked rice was the stuff
of dreams I traveled all the way from Aljuni to Simei to have that stuff hey chef Benny if you're
hearing this thank you very much shouting out to you chef Benny chef Benny said this you know he
said it's so funny if not verbatim yeah uh-huh if you want to ruin someone's life convince him to
go into fmb whoa quite a quite a way to put things but I don't deny it the fmb it's really not for
everyone yeah we've had people uh my dad for example so uh he was in McDonald's not cooking
up a storm but as a server or kitchen staff however he did it he was there part-time in his youth
right and he felt really nice about it every day he got burgers and fries and back then maybe in
the 80s or 90s it's like hey it's a good you know it's good sustenance people were paying
probably like seven like five to seven dollars and in that back in the day it was a lot of money oh
yeah but you got your staff meal it sounds like your dad's about my age yeah I guess he's I think
60 no if he's 80s and 90s I don't think so I think maybe maybe maybe 50s he's he's in 60s I think
really in the 80s in 60s or back back back then in general yeah so he would be telling me stories
on like how McDonald's was great because when I started part-timing he started sharing his
experiences it's true it was great yeah working for McDonald's yeah fun so uh he retired he was
working for net steel as a I think oil engineer or shipyard supervisor right so he retired and he
wanted a more chill job and he looked at me coming back home really happy with a belly full of noodles
and he was like oh F&B doesn't really sound that bad he got his full hygiene certificate right he
went to cook at an izakaya he left in three hours uh he was like nope no way no can do bye bye this
is the end of chapter one catch chapter two next week