🇹🇼 Taiwan · Taiwanese cuisine · b. 1976
The Taiwanese chef whose Restaurant André in Singapore was one of Asia's most influential restaurants of the 2010s.
André Chiang is a Taiwanese chef whose Restaurant André in Singapore — open from 2010 to early 2018 — was one of the most critically celebrated restaurants in Asia of the 2010s, holding two Michelin stars and ranking as high as #2 on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list and #14 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list before he abruptly closed it at the height of its reputation. He now runs RAW in Taipei (two Michelin stars), Sichuan Moon in Macau (two Michelin stars at the Wynn Palace), and a number of culinary education and consulting projects across Asia.
Chiang was born in Taipei in 1976. His mother was a chef, and he moved with her to Japan as a teenager. From 15 he was apprenticed in French kitchens — first in southern Japan, then in France — and over the next 13 years he worked his way up through some of the most demanding kitchens in Europe, most importantly under the brothers Jacques and Laurent Pourcel at the three-Michelin-star Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier, where he eventually became executive chef. He also did extended stages at Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, L'Astrance in Paris, El Bulli in Catalonia and the Fat Duck.
In 2008 he moved to Singapore as chef of Jaan par André in the Swissôtel The Stamford, before opening Restaurant André in a four-storey shophouse on Bukit Pasoh Road in 2010. The restaurant ran on his 'Octaphilosophy' — a creative framework built around eight axes (pure, salt, artisan, south, texture, unique, memory, terroir) which he later published as a book in 2016. In February 2018 he closed Restaurant André, returned both Michelin stars to the guide, and moved back to Taipei to focus on RAW, the restaurant he had opened there in 2014 and which has gone on to hold two Michelin stars in the Taipei guide.
The Octaphilosophy. Chiang's cooking is organised around eight conceptual axes — pure, salt, artisan, south, texture, unique, memory, terroir — and every tasting menu must touch each one at least once. The framework is less a style than a discipline: a way of forcing every dish on the menu to do something different, and of resisting the gravitational pull of any single technique or region.
Opened 2014; two Michelin stars in the Taipei guide; Taiwanese ingredients filtered through French technique.
Modern Sichuan tasting-menu restaurant; two Michelin stars.
Flagship 2010–2018; two Michelin stars; ranked #2 on Asia's 50 Best (2016) and #14 on The World's 50 Best (2016). Closed at the height of its reputation.
Bistro-style restaurant focused on the wines of Burgundy and modern French cooking.
These recipes from our database reflect the taiwanese cooking tradition that André works in. They are not direct reproductions of André's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
“I closed Restaurant André because the second star was a ceiling, not a floor.”
— Press conference, Singapore (October 2017)
“Cuisine is memory before it is technique.”
— Octaphilosophy (2016)
At age 15 begins his apprenticeship in a French restaurant in southern Japan.
Moves to France; eventually joins the kitchen of the three-Michelin-star Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier under the Pourcel brothers.
Becomes executive chef at Le Jardin des Sens.
Moves to Singapore as executive chef of Jaan par André at the Swissôtel The Stamford.
Opens Restaurant André in a four-storey shophouse on Bukit Pasoh Road, Singapore.
Opens RAW in Taipei — his first restaurant in his home city — focused on Taiwanese ingredients and French technique.
Restaurant André peaks at #2 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants and #14 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants; publishes Octaphilosophy.
Restaurant André awarded two Michelin stars in the inaugural Singapore guide.
Closes Restaurant André in February and returns both stars to the Michelin Guide; moves full-time to Taipei to focus on RAW.
Opens Sichuan Moon at the Wynn Palace, Macau; awarded two Michelin stars within a year.
In October 2017 Chiang announced he would close Restaurant André in February 2018 and voluntarily return its two Michelin stars to the guide. He cited a desire to refocus on his home country of Taiwan — particularly his restaurant RAW in Taipei — and a conviction that the restaurant had completed its creative arc. It was the first time in Michelin's history that a chef had voluntarily returned stars while continuing to cook.
The Octaphilosophy is the creative framework that organised Restaurant André's menus and is now the title of Chiang's 2016 cookbook. It defines eight axes — pure, salt, artisan, south, texture, unique, memory and terroir — and every tasting menu at the restaurant was required to touch each axis at least once.
RAW is in the Dazhi district of Taipei, in a sculptural single-storey building designed by Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen. It opened in 2014 and currently holds two Michelin stars in the Taipei guide. The menu is built around seasonal Taiwanese ingredients prepared with French technique.
He is Taiwanese — born in Taipei in 1976 and based there now. He lived in Singapore from 2008 to 2018 while running Jaan par André and then Restaurant André, but he has always held Taiwanese nationality and his current flagship is RAW in Taipei.
Sichuan Moon is a modern Sichuan tasting-menu restaurant Chiang opened in 2019 at the Wynn Palace in Macau. It currently holds two Michelin stars in the Macau guide and is one of the only modern Sichuan fine-dining restaurants in the world to do so.
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