Perhaps it was to be expected that Restaurant Andre would be named The S.Pellegrino Best Restaurant in Singapore. Chef Andre Chiang’s eponymous restaurant was the highest-placed restaurant here on this year’s Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna — peaking at No 5. (It was also the highest-placed Singapore restaurant last year.) After all, the Taiwan-born chef’s uniquely forward-thinking culinary philosophy has helped put Singapore on the global dining map.

A total of 10 Singapore restaurants were honoured at the awards, including returning favourites JAAN (No 11, up six places), Waku Ghin (No 9, down two) and Les Amis, which climbed up one place to take the 13th spot. Those that didn’t do too well included Iggy’s, which dropped six places to No 12, and Tippling Club, which dropped 13 places to No 23. On a more positive note, Burnt Ends debuts at No 30, while Osteria Mozza returns to the list at No 45. That puts the country behind China (which has 16 restaurants on the list) and just in front of Japan (with eight), which is no mean feat, considering the latter’s culinary pedigree.

This, shared chef Julien Royer of JAAN, is great for the Republic’s dining scene. “It shows that Singapore has definitely become a city with internationally rewarded and recognised restaurants and that there are a lot of interesting and very good eateries here,” he said.

Head chef Dave Pynt of modern Australian restaurant Burnt Ends was genuinely shocked by his establishment’s surprise debut. He shared that he would have been happy if he made it just outside the top 50. “(We’re) just different — we cook on wood, on fire, so it’s very different,” he continued, trying to find a way to rationalise the win, before quipping: “It’s not the cooking skills, that’s for sure!”

WHERE ARE THE SINGAPOREAN CHEFS?

Like most awards, the list is not definitive or absolute and ratings such as this are often contentious, as they struggle to recognise both the traditional best and some of the culinary world’s most innovative, while battling the proverbial beast that is subjectivity.

This has led some to ask: What would it take to see more Singaporean-led restaurants cracking the top 50?

Not to take anything away from local pastry chef Janice Wong’s past achievements — she was named Asia’s Best Pastry Chef for two consecutive years (2013 and 2014), but lost this year to Tokyo’s Hidemi Sugino — however, the fact is that there isn’t a local chef at the helm of the restaurants on this year’s list.

“I think it will take time,” said Chiang. “As you can see this year, there are a lot of restaurants from China and Korea (making the list). And these don’t just pop up overnight. You see a lot of great Korean chefs ... they are all over the world at all the great restaurants.”

He was, however, supportive of the global competition. “I don’t know how long it will take for this to happen. But I hope the (Singapore) Government will open up to more foreign talent coming to Singapore,” Chiang added. “That will boost the whole dining scene. That’s the only way we can have a win-win situation.”

A QUESTION OF TIME — AND CUISINE

It is still legitimately puzzling when you consider the likes of mod-Singapore cuisine pioneer Willin Low, or, for that matter, the nation’s first celebrity chef Justin Quek.

“Hopefully, these awards bring attention to Singapore and then people may start thinking, ‘Okay, we’ve done this ... now, let’s check out the local chefs,’” shared Low, who was at the ceremony on Monday. “I mean, it’s the same as when we first promoted Singapore as a dining (destination) and talked about chicken rice and chilli crab, right? You have to start with something — maybe that’s how we will get noticed.

“I think we need to continue to do what we do best and, if we get recognition, then that’s good.”

Thankfully, cuisine styles do not determine who gets honoured. Swooping in to take the top spot vacated by David Thompson’s Nahm as Thailand’s best restaurant, for example, was Gaggan by chef Gaggan Anand, whose reinvigorated Indian cuisine prepared using modern cooking techniques seemed to have done enough to pip the rest of the competition. The Best Restaurant in China honour went to chef Paul Pairet’s Ultraviolet in Shanghai (No 3), which is feted for its multi-sensorial celebration of modern gastronomy that draws on Pairet’s French background. Then, there’s Sri Lanka’s best restaurant winner, Nihonbashi (No 31), which serves Japanese cuisine by chef Dharshan Munidasa, who was born in Tokyo to a Sri-Lankan father and Japanese mother.

To be sure, Singapore’s world-class dining scene can be seen as a microcosm of Asia’s incredible culinary talent so, maybe, it is only a matter of time before Singaporean chefs make the list.