The chef behind a two Michelin-starred skyscraper restaurant in Singapore is on a trip home to Devon, the source of his culinary inspiration. Kirk Westaway chats to Catherine Courtenay
Seventy levels up, in one of the tallest hotels in Southeast Asia, you’ll find JAAN by Kirk Westaway. This revered, two Michelin star restaurant, is in the five star Swisshotel Stamford in Singapore. It is over 6,700 miles away from England but inside you’ll find diners enjoying a homage to British food and in particular to Devon, the home county of its executive chef, Kirk Westaway.
It seems appropriate that JAAN is located within an awe-inspiring skyscraper because 37-year-old Kirk is a culinary high flyer. He went to work at JAAN as sous chef around a decade ago and took over in 2015. He was awarded his first Michelin star in 2016 and by 2021 the restaurant had achieved a second star.
He may be living and working on another continent, but Kirk’s ties to home are set fast, and it’s his passion for the landscape and the producers of the UK that has brought him success. He was one of the very first chefs to pioneer Modern British cooking outside of the UK. It was a bold move when, after taking over at JAAN, he outlined his vision to the hotel’s owners.
‘They were not very keen,’ he says. ‘Modern British had a bit of a negative reputation around the world.’
But within a year they had their first star and, as Kirk points out, ‘To achieve it with this British direction, that’s unheard of anywhere the world.’
From fish and chips to leek and potato soup or a tomato salad, familiar dishes are on the JAAN taster menu, but all elevated to Michelin-level contemporary creations.
The ingredients are key and Kirk regularly returns home to find the produce he wants for his kitchen. He initially began sourcing ingredients from Devon, including truckles of Quicke’s cheese, but he’s slowly moved into other UK areas. He even has plans to get some veg from his sister’s organic farm near Bristol – namely fresh garden peas, pointy cabbage and garlic.
It all goes back to his childhood, growing up in Exmouth – and mum Julia’s home cooking. Vegetables were the star of the show – Julia and Kirk's sisters were all vegetarian, so he grew up mostly having a plant-based diet. He remembers the weekly veg box arriving from Riverford, but crucially, the family was also growing their own.
‘We grew potatoes and rhubarb, courgettes and tomatoes, salads, strawberries, apples, cherries and pears… and we were always cooking with mum.
‘I paid no attention at the time, it was just life; but looking back, it was an impressive way to grow up, being in the garden and growing and learning from a young age.
‘Having lived in major cities like London, Singapore and Melbourne and also Brazil, people don’t have this kind of background.
‘You really appreciate the quality that was coming out of our back garden and onto our plates.’
Kirk went to secondary school in Exmouth and at 16 enrolled in catering at Exeter College. In his second year he decided to go to Brittany to work in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
As the youngest in the kitchen, he had a special task. ‘Every morning I was sent with two steel buckets down to the beach and I’d collect one bucket full of sea water and one bucket full of seaweed and I’d carry the two buckets back to the restaurant. We would cook the langoustines and the lobsters and the scallops in the seawater and then we’d blanch the seaweed - and that was the fruits de mer. It was an amazing experience – I’ll never forget it.’
He adds, ‘It was a good age to do it, to see these guys and watch them and see their passions, and experience the long hours. It was a huge reward every day.
‘I was just 18 and in another country. When all of my friends in college were drinking cider and kissing girls, I was in France working in a Michelin-starred restaurant collecting seaweed in a bucket.’
Kirk remains very driven. His team at JAAN, many of whom have been with him for years, is focused now on its next target – to get three Michelin stars. ‘Whether it comes or whether it doesn’t, it’s very important for me to have that focus and to set a target.’
When he does come back to the UK, Kirk always returns to Exmouth and the family home of 50 plus years. He’s about to go and see mum Julia after our interview.
‘The first thing I normally do is get a local pasty and go to the beach at Exmouth and watch the waves for half an hour, walk around the beach, and then I’ll go home after that.’
Will he be cooking for Julia?
‘Probably not!’ he confesses. ‘We all like to return home and have a home-cooked meal from our mum, don’t we? I don’t want to take that away from her!’
But he adds, ‘I’ll probably take her out somewhere – to Lympstone Manor.’
For Kirk, British food has a future and it’s all about the produce, ‘every single element of every ingredient we use’.
‘I’m not an ambassador, what I enjoy is sharing,’ he says. ‘From a young age, my mum always said, “If you put love into the ingredients, then you are only going to receive love back,” - and that is the kind of style of cooking we grew up by.’
A touch of home
This year JAAN was restyled to reflect elelents of Kirk's home county. Echoes of the Devon landscape are included in the design and furnishings of the restaurant, including artwork, sea-coloured fabrics and side tables that follow tree branch forms. A floor to ceiling light installation at the centre of the restaurant is inspired by a native hawthorn tree. Evoking the tree's texture and forms, it was created from 20-year-old, hand-blown Murano glass, upcycled from the restuarant's original chandelier. The restaurant is on the highest floor of the iconic hotel and has a backdrop view of the city and coastline.
