So Chic Stories
Behind-The-Scene of FCCS Gala : An Exclusive Interview with Julien Royer
- - Gastronomy, Luxury
As part of the FCCS Gala Dinner 2025, So Chic had the privilege of sitting down with three-Michelin-starred Chef Julien Royer, just hours before doors opened.
On this special night, Chef Royer and his team are serving over 850 guests with a bespoke four-course menu — a tribute to his iconic restaurant, Odette, named after his grandmother and known for its deeply personal and emotional approach to fine dining.
Between final preparations and the first plates going out, he shared a few thoughts with us on creativity, emotion, and what it means to bring a spark to such a grand celebration.
This gala celebrates France and Singapore, how do these two cultures inspire your creativity?
We are celebrating tonight, Singapore, 60 years of friendship with France, and definitely it’s very inspiring
to be a chef in this particular part of the world. It is a crossroad of Southeast Asia, it is a place where people meet different nationalities, religions, and cultures, and when it comes to cooking, it comes to season our cuisine with a very unique flavor, I would say.
What emotion do you hope to spark tonight?
Well, I hope that the guests tonight will feel a little bit the DNA of our cuisine of Odette, which remains French in its DNA, in its backbone. But this is a cuisine that has evolved a lot over the last 10 years, and this French cuisine has been seasoned by a wide zest of Asia, if I can say, by technique, produce, sometimes aesthetic, or techniques.
How do you approach designing a one-off menu for a special event like this?
When it comes to organizing the logistics of this kind of event, you have to focus on the number one priority for me, and for my team, which is flavor. We want something that is flavorful, that is a representation of our cuisine, of course, but the number one thing has to be the taste, and everything is based around that.
3 words to describe tonight’s menu ?
Tonight’s menu is unique, because it’s a menu really designed for tonight. It’s a menu that is inspired, inspired by the people around us, inspired by the region where we are cooking. And the last word will be… Passion. It’s a menu that has been designed with passion, and that will be cooked with passion, the passion of my team, myself, and everyone involved in doing this event a great success.
Is there a memory or place that often finds its way into your dishes ?
Well, memory or place? Memory, I would say, it’s more about the childhood that I had. The restaurant, Odette, is named after my grandma. She’s the person that really showed me how much pleasure, emotion, and happiness you can give to people through food and cuisine. So I think it’s more about this “héritage affectif”, if I can say that, that I have received as a child, and I try to give back today to all my guests and to all the people that we are cooking for.
What is one dish you could eat everyday?
I could eat bread and cheese everyday. You can’t remove the French out of a Frenchman !
Find Odette here:
National Gallery, #01-04, 1 St. Andrew’s Road
Open Tuesdays to Saturdays
12pm-1.15am
6.30pm-8.15pm
