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Peranakan Fireworks: Inside Candlenut’s ‘Ah-makase’ odyssey

Peranakan cuisine, also called Nyonya food, grew from 15th-century marriages between Chinese traders and Malay communities across the Straits Settlements; think coconut milk meeting soy, tamarind courting shrimp paste and every dish stitched with ginger-flower perfume and bird’s-eye-chilli sting.

Candlenut, set in leafy Dempsey Hill, Singapore, is the world’s only Michelin-starred Peranakan restaurant, chef-owner Malcolm Lee is distilling grandmother recipes into a playful “Ah-Makase” tasting menu.

Bites to begin - Tiny shells, thunderous spice

The appetisers land like a colourful bomb and suddenly the room smells of charcoal, coconut and fried spice. I start with the kueh pie tee; its wafer shell snaps so cleanly it shocks a grin out of me, and the tumeric-coconut prawn curry filling sends up a sweet puff of fragrant steam. With a lemongrass sting creeping in at the finish making my cheeks glow. A recipe chef Malcolm Lee learned from his grandfather (Yeye). The ngoh hiang follows—five-spice pork-and-prawn rolled in beancurd skin—its dark molasses dip tasting like a doughnut glaze that took a wrong (glorious) turn through a spice bazaar; I catch myself humming approval before the bite is gone.

Things escalate with the beef-cheek kapitan: wagyu braised to spoon-soft submission, swimming in a candlenut-rich gravy that layers clove, kaffir lime and butterfat. Spooned onto a tiny puffed parata, one mouthful triggers the sort of eye-roll usually reserved for chocolate cake. But it’s the Kurobuta pork-neck satay that steals my heart; double-charred, dripping kicap manis caramel, it tastes like someone glazed a brisket end with treacle and then kissed it with coriander seed smoke. Between each hit, brittle Thai prawn crackers reset my tongue with a salty shout.

A hearty pot of fish-maw soup arrives as an intermission. The gingery, slightly herbal chicken broth, simmered for 4 hours, feels like a warm compress for the stomach; pieces of maw puff up like savoury marshmallows and soak up all that comfort, easing me back into the ring for the curries ahead. What is fish maw I hear you ask? I didn’t know either before the well informed waitress explained thay are infact fish swim bladders. Yes, bladders, for swimming? And guess what - delicious!

Time for the main event

Then the table fills with communal curries and clouds of Thai Hom Mali rice. Iberico pork jowl in Aunt Caroline’s babi buah keluak arrives cloaked in a midnight-black nut sauce that smells of cacao and cigar boxes; the meat collapses at a nudge, and regulars dub it the menu’s “umami black hole”. Steamed barramundi headlines ikan chuan chuan—ginger sticks crackle in hot oil, flooding the plate with sharp, herbal heat that makes the fish taste almost medicinal-fresh.

Udang masak lemak layers sea-prawns and vegetables in a coconut-turmeric gravy brightened by anchovy sambal, while sambal telur hides a deep-fried egg and baby squid in tomato-chilli relish that feels like spicy ketchup engineered by a mad chef. The house-iconic blue-swimmer-crab curry tones things down—sweet crab meat floating in mellow galangal-scented coconut—while a wing-bean salad of lemongrass, radish and crispy anchovies offers citrus crunch between spoonfuls. Portions are so huge that as much as you keep going back ‘just one more bite’, you have to wave your napkin in surrender at last.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, dessert lands like a cool sea breeze. Surprisingly my favourite portion of the evening!

The pandan-green Candlenut chendol marries shaved young-coconut ice with smoky gula Melaka syrup. Pulut tai tai, tinted an indigo blue with pea flowers, pairs chewy rice cake with silky pandan kaya for a floral-salted finish, my personal favourite. Finally the cassava kueh arrives: a tapioca pillow under a brûléed crust that cracks with a satisfying tch, letting molten coconut sugar run onto the plate. Sweet, warm, and frankly unfair to any dessert that tries to follow.

The Verdict

Candlenut sits in a refurbished barracks compound beside a gourmet grocer—think tropical farmhouse chic. At S$138 (£80) the Ah-Makase feels like a masterclass priced lecture. I rolled out enlightened, spice-buzzed and plotting a return.

London cravings? Rasa Sayang’s laksa or Laksamania’s prawn mee will soothe nostalgia, but true Peranakan subtlety is still missing from the UK scene. Wake up, London!

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2025 Pastry World Cup: Japan takes the win

Every two years Lyon’s Sirha expo hosts the Pastry World Cup, a nine-hour culinary triathlon where teams of three artists (chocolate, sugar, ice specialists) sculpt edible fantasies while judges time their tempering. 2025’s podium: Japan first, France second, Malaysia third.

3rd Place: Malaysia

Malaysia’s display revolved around a chocolate sculpture of a young woman in a lace bodice, framed by sugar-crafted blossoms. Beside her, a sugar peacock unfurled practically-clear feathers that seemed to float on air, adding lift and delicacy to the scene. Jewel-bright entremets and a perfectly cylindrical log rounded out the showcase with polished precision.

2nd place: France

Sugar virtuoso Jérémy Massing stole the spotlight with a cobalt-blue rooster, its feathers sculpted in sugar so finely they looked embroidered. Haruka Atsuji carried the nostalgia theme, crafting a 1950s school-girl alighting from a chocolate car. To finish, ice-cream maestro Mickaël Guyader set a crystalline counterpoint, an ice sculpture paired with an exquisitely light yule-log dessert.

Last but not least: 1st Place Japan

Atranslucent sugar samurai caught mid-taiko-drum strike—rose through a lattice of chocolate lanterns, maple leaves and temple-beam arcs. A spinning-top entremet of apricot, pear and marigold slotted seamlessly into the sculpture, letting judges taste without disturbing the tableau. Judges praised its “gravity-defying tension” and flavour harmony of hojicha, pear and marigold granite.