by
Photo: Chantal Arnts
It may have been more than 15 years since renowned Dutch chef Sergio Herman made his first eye-opening trip to Singapore, but food memories from the Little Red Dot run deep. Sitting down with The Peak, the 54-year-old, best known for running his family’s now-closed three-Michelin-starred restaurant Oud Sluis in the Netherlands, shares a vivid dining memory in Singapore, the first country in Asia he visited.
On top of his love for chilli and black pepper crabs, the suave chef with a glorious mane of salt-and-pepper hair, enthuses: “I will never forget my first love, the sambal stingray I had at a hawker centre on my first night here. For me, it was a new way of having stingray and citrus fruit, which I love. The calamansi (that is squeezed over the stingray) gave me goosebumps.”
Herman is channelling these memories into his style of New Italian cuisine at Le Pristine Singapore, his maiden Southeast Asia venture here. The restaurant, which opened on October 8, is the marquee dining concept at Grand Hyatt Singapore, which partially re-opened in July after closing for a major renovation in late 2022.
(From left) Sebastian Feldbacher, Sergio Herman, and Carl Verrelst. (Photo: Chantal Arnts)
The restaurant is ambitious, with 120 seats across an almost 7,000 sq ft space where buffet restaurant Mezza9 once stood. This marks the third outlet of Le Pristine, which started in 2020 in Antwerp, where Herman is based.
Like in his one-Michelin-starred flagship restaurant, Herman incorporates his seafood-driven Zeeland heritage into Italian cuisine, which he considers his favourite food, in Le Pristine Singapore.
Seafood Orecchiette. (Photo: Chantal Arnts)
Herman, who grew up in Zeeland, the southwestern coast of the Netherlands, says: “Besides making frequent trips to Italy, I grew up in a seafood restaurant, so cooking with seafood and pairing it with the Italian flavours feels like a part of my DNA.” The enigmatic chef is known for championing Zeeland seafood and shellfish use when molecular gastronomy was in vogue in the early noughties.
With the closure of his long-time starred restaurants, AirRepublic and Pure C in the Netherlands, last year, he is zeroing in on Asia in the later stage of his over three-decade-long culinary career.
He reflects: “It was time to change — operating three restaurants by the sea was difficult as the summers are short and winters are long. We did a brilliant thing with the team, but I was also ready to do something different and take the next step.” He adds that he was inspired to broaden his horizons by hosting a travel programme a few years ago.
On turning a new culinary chapter in Asia, where he also opened Le Pristine Tokyo in Hotel Toranomon Hills, another Hyatt hotel, last December, he says: “I am always thrilled about the cross-cultural food landscape in Asia as there is always a lot of knowledge and inspiration to take in.”
He adds that having a presence in Singapore is essential, which he sees as a gateway to Southeast Asian diners. Besides the Le Pristine brand, Herman also runs two other concepts in his Sergio Herman Group: PrivePrivee, a private kitchen in Belgium and Frites Atelier, a casual food joint in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Inspired by chilli crab
As a reflection of his Zeeland roots, seafood plays a vital role in the menu at Le Pristine Singapore. He has sourced seafood from the Netherlands and around Asia for the Singapore menu, such as mussels, eels, and razor clams.
Dishes such as seafood orecchiette, which has the ear-shaped pasta drenched in deep, savoury notes of mussel, squid, langoustine, and a rich nduja sauce, get diners here acquainted with his culinary identity. The cannelloni mussels come served as pasta parcels loaded with Zeeland mussels, while the lobster salad melds the sweet crustacean flesh with creamy stracchino cheese, cherries, and Vacche Rosse parmesan.
Homemade a la minute Vanilla Ice Cream. (Photo: Chantal Arnts)
Those with a sweet tooth can look forward to the housemade a la minute Vanilla Ice Cream, where the dessert is finished tableside before being garnished with caramelised pistachios, hazelnuts and chocolate sauce, and another dessert favourite, the collapsed tiramisu.
Like many overseas restaurant imports here, there is also a riff on chilli crab in the form of a Singapore-exclusive dish: Pizzette King Chilli Crab, which is crowned with Alaskan king crab meat in chilli crab sauce and courgette on a pistou sauce-based pizza.
A long-awaited opening
Initially announced in September 2022, Herman’s Singapore outpost was delayed by the lengthy renovation of the Grand Hyatt Singapore, which is slated to complete its revamp by early next year.
In light of this, he proposed opening Le Pristine in Tokyo, which would require transferring his team of chefs and a restaurant manager hired for the Singapore branch to Japan first.
Opening in Tokyo offered a learning curve for Herman, mainly when it came to grappling with the English language barrier there and cooking for the Asian palate. “In Japan, I found out that the locals do not like deep flavours of saltiness and umami without having some balance based on pre-opening feedback from the locals. I think it is a bit similar in Singapore.”
A wave of events, including a weakened global economy, has also occurred in the last two years since Herman announced his aspirations to open in Singapore. With diners more cautious about their dining budgets, Herman believes in offering value to guests through a reasonable selection of produce.
He shares: “Singapore is more expensive (to operate in) than the rest of the world because you need to fly everything in — unlike in Japan, where I had crazy access to top-quality products. So, it is about a balance between pricing and quality.”
A party vibe
Melting disco balls by Dutch art collective Rotganzen on the walls. (Photo: Chantal Arnts)
Besides the food, Herman has set a chic stage to immerse diners in his art, design, and music world. He reveals: “The first sentence I wrote on plans for Le Pristine is that it needs to be a party — a festive moment with your friends and family.” He re-emphasises the word “party”— “Not dancing, but a celebration. It may be a big restaurant, but there are a lot of corners, where the energy can be felt throughout,” he explains.
The space’s creative flair is enhanced by splashes of melting disco balls on the walls by Dutch art collective Rotganzen, alongside other contemporary art pieces by Dutch artists such as Sabine Marcelis and Maarten Baas.
Leading to the main dining area and an open kitchen is a futuristic-looking wine tunnel lit up by red stripe lighting, which inevitably brings to mind the James Bond soundtrack. The tunnel also leads to a cellar that houses about 150 wine labels and three of five private rooms.
Despite hailing from a Michelin-starred pedigree, Herman is taking a “fine-casual” approach at Le Pristine, which offers tasting and a la carte menus, in which some are sharing dishes.
A Rinus Van de Velde artwork at Le Pristine Singapore. (Photo: Chantal Arnts)
He advocates for more freedom in the dining experience: “Coming from a fine-dining background, there will be attention to the details of the dish, but there is also a new vision to create an open and relaxed atmosphere.” He believes that one way to attract diners is to offer freedom and flexibility to guests to “decide how much time they would like to spend in the restaurant — be it coming for one dish or staying three hours with a big menu”.
Is securing a Michelin star in Singapore on Herman’s agenda? He says: “We are not busy chasing the stars. If it comes, it comes. I have had many restaurants with stars. It is good for the restaurant team, but the main goal is to have a good restaurant where people are happy to return.”
He adds: “We want every guest to experience the energy, creativity and thoughtfulness that goes into every dish — it’s about crafting a dining experience that lingers long after the last bite.”
The revamped Grand Hyatt Singapore: A garden oasis in the city
After a renovation that spans over two years, Grand Hyatt Singapore unveiled the first phase of its re-opening with the 292-room Terrace Wing and some of its F&B concepts. We check out what’s new at this refreshed Orchard Road stalwart.
1. Garden Studios
Photo: Grand Hyatt Singapore
Fancy a resort-style getaway mere minutes from the Orchard Road thoroughfare? The hotel’s new Garden Studio rooms offer a taste of it. A row of five former spa rooms on the ground floor has been refashioned into hotel rooms, with landscaped pathways flanked by lush greenery and direct access to the gardens and pools.
The room’s towering ceiling imparts a spacious and airy vibe. It is dominated by dark lacquered wood and rattan wood and softened by lantern-style lighting. Besides the plush bed, there is a roomy banquette-style sofa with a verdant view to lounge around on.
The hotel is big on sustainability, so an in-room hydro-tap that dispenses hot and cold water has replaced water bottles. The bathroom is a sight to behold, with its marbled walls and double vanity counters. The height of the rainforest shower is also spectacular, given the room’s tall ceilings.
2. Gardens and pools
Photo: Grand Hyatt Singapore
Who knew that the hotel’s compound cuts quite profoundly into the residential enclave of the Orchard Road area? A green sanctuary awaits guests with verdant canopies of creeping vines and the sounds of waterfall and soft bossa nova music piped in.
Nestled among the greenery are cabana pods and outdoor sofas for lazing around. The wellness pool, open to all guests, has water massage pods that pound one’s back and neck with powerful water jets. The 25-metre-long swimming pool is completely exposed to the sun, which means warm water for putting in serious laps.
3. New and refreshed F&B concepts
Photo: Grand Hyatt Singapore
Out of the eight F&B concepts in the hotel, two of them are new. They are Le Pristine and The Shop, the hotel’s gourmet shop that sells baked goods, sustainably sourced produce and condiments by artisanal producers (includes organic vegetables and Pete’s Place olive oil and balsamic vinegar), and wines, champagnes, and tipples, including the Scotts Lager, a pandan-infused beer by Brewerkz.
The popular stalwart Italian restaurant is back at its underground spot with a modern spruce-up, sleek counters in an open kitchen, and chequered banquette seats. New dishes include the Costoletta alla Milanese, a veal cutlet that is shallow-fried in butter, and an antipasti bar has been introduced.
Classic dishes include Conchiglie Cioppino with Boston lobster, prawns, scallops, and mussels and Pete’s Tiramisu, which is scooped out from a tray a la minute.
