Spa Esprit's Cynthia Chua is opening her first Japanese restaurant in Singapore
Twelve years later her offset foray into the F&B scene, Cynthia Chua is opening her first Japanese eating house in Singapore side by side month (Jun 2019). And based on the success of concepts like Common Homo Coffee Roasters, 40 Hands, Tiong Bahru Baker and Tippling Club, there's a high gamble it's going to be awesome.
In partnership with grow-your-own-food motion Edible Garden Urban center, Chua is taking her farm-to-table concept kickoff established with Open up Farm Community (OFC) in Dempsey four years ago to the skies – to the rooftop of the revamped Funan mall.
Called Noka, the 75-seater, glass-walled sister restaurant to OFC will sit alongside a 5,000-sq-ft urban garden growing red chillies and mushrooms in a sheltered sleeping accommodation, and many more species of vegetables, flowers and herbs, tended by their own farmers.
"I recollect the urban subcontract is a very interesting concept; to accept a farm in the city that celebrates regional produce," Chua told CNA Luxury. "People are becoming more conscious most what they eat. They now desire very honest food where the focus on the produce is really, actually of import; to do less with it but let the produce shine," she added.
Noka, which translates to 'farmhouse' in Japanese, will focus on extending the OFC concept to Japanese cuisine. "People love Japanese cuisine and then we wanted to offering something familiar but interpreted in a manner that opens up a world of discovery… Similar using the culinary expertise of a Japanese chef to interpret local [ingredients] like kang kong," she explained.
For Chua, rolling out new concepts is e'er a matter of divine timing: When the right talent and location present themselves.
"There are many concepts in my head and sometimes it volition take five years to develop. I didn't see a talented Japanese chef till at present, and when the dots connect and then I go, 'Okay, I'thou prepare'," said the relentless innovator.
"People are becoming more conscious virtually what they consume. They now want very honest food where the focus on the produce is really, really important; to do less with it simply let the produce shine." – Cynthia Chua
Irresolute SINGAPORE'S CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
Bold adventure-taking and a fetish for tackling socially taboo subjects take been powering Cynthia Chua'southward coterie of cool concepts since she started the Spa Esprit Grouping over two decades ago. It could even be said that the girl with the Midas impact for turning the mundane into empowering lifestyle movements has also changed Singapore'south cultural mural for adept.
Since introducing Singaporean women to Brazilian waxes in 2002, Chua has built a lifestyle empire of beauty brands (STRIP, Browhaus) and trendy F&B establishments (BoCHINche, Ding Dong, The Butcher's Wife, alongside the aforementioned outlets) that number over 100 outlets around the world including London, New York and Shanghai.
Her inventiveness was evident correct from the kickoff, cleverly distinguishing her brands with vivid marketing campaigns. STRIP's natural language-in-cheek advertisements featuring a hirsute orang utan, for instance, were injected with Chua's risque make of humour, helping to remove the embarrassment women may experience about personal grooming – and making it chic instead.
"We said we were cleaning upward the city, one bush at a time," she laughed in recollection. "At present, we're the global authorisation of hair removal," she announced.
Having done such a skillful job "cleaning upward the urban center", the 47-twelvemonth-erstwhile is moving on to educating the world on feminine care.
Enter her newest obsession: Two Lips.
TAKING Intendance 'Down THERE'
Touted as the world'southward outset activated charcoal mask to soothe, detox, burnish, moisturise and deodorise the vulva, the Blackout Mask launched last year is the first product in a new range of upmarket intimate care products she plans to develop under the Two Lips make.
The mask, made with bincho-tan charcoal from Japan, is formulated with ingredients such as white liquorice, elderberry, chamomile, ylang-ylang and aloe vera, and also boosts lymphatic drainage.
"Your intimate surface area is where the biggest lymph nodes are, and they are generally stagnant unless yous activate information technology. That's why yous go dark pigments around this area," she explained.
The thought for Two Lips emerged from behind-the-drapery conversations customers had with their therapists at STRIP.
"They've got so many problems, like ingrown pilus, and in that location aren't any products that can help them," she pointed out.
"Plus, when girls have these problems, they're too shy to talk about it, as we're brought up in a culture that doesn't talk most these things. Then, information technology'due south very synergistic for us to exist in that space and we like going into spaces where we're the first mover," she said.
This "female person empowerment", she said, comes in taking the fourth dimension out to care for an often-neglected function of the anatomy: "It feels very skilful when y'all look afterward yourself. Nosotros should love ourselves and embrace our bodies."
As the first 2 batches of twenty,000 pieces of the Blackout Mask flew off the shelves, Chua realised but how great demand was for such upmarket intimate care products. She is now expanding the range to sixteen organic, gynae-tested, not-scented, pH-balanced products. Expect effectually 10 new products by the end of 2019, and the remaining six by mid-2020, all of which will be available online and at STRIP outlets in Singapore.
"It feels very practiced when y'all look subsequently yourself. We should honey ourselves and embrace our bodies." – Cynthia Chua
THE NATURAL Wine MOVEMENT
These days, the cocky-professed "gratis spirit" spends a good portion of her time in Paris (with her French fellow), New York (her business partner and best friend lives there), and London (where her brands do brisk business) to nourish her creativity and inspire new ideas.
It was in New York that she trend-spotted the motion towards natural wines.
Natural wines are made with minimal chemical and technological intervention, both in the way grapes are grown besides as in the wine-making process.
"Natural wine is very big right now, especially in New York. I definitely see an uptrend; all the nice restaurants I'm always discovering in all the cool cities of the world have all switched to natural wine," she observed.
Then she created yet another concept – Drunken Farmer – every bit a pop-up bar that will travel to a new location in the group's portfolio every six months, first with Tiong Bahru Baker Safari at Dempsey.
The countdown Drunken Farmer festival (its name inspired by the Jackie Chan film, Drunken Master) kicked off with a three-day showcase of 19 winemakers from Vivent Les Vins Libre, a collective of natural winemakers that have taken their Paris-born festival to New York, Amsterdam, Montreal, Hong Kong and, at present, Singapore.
PUTTING A POSITIVE SPIN ON THINGS
The Cynthia Chua of today is a dissimilar person from the young woman who opened her outset massage outlet in Holland Village 23 years agone with a S$200,000 investment she amassed from her stint every bit a property amanuensis.
The achieved businesswoman is possibly less anal-retentive and no longer sweats the small stuff, believing instead in empowering her staff. Simply she is also no less driven than when she starting time began.
A soulful regime of cocky-care rituals keeps her balanced notwithstanding focused: Yoga, meditation, essential oils, ii massages a week, and journalling – she's currently at Periodical #57.
"I'm a scrap [of a] hippie," she happily admitted, "and I always believe in the power of the mind."
Chua's positive spirit is infectious and, while her natural-born curiosity and abundant passion have blessed her with much success, it is non without some disappointments.
She has had to shutter several F&B concepts, like Skinny Pizza. "The mall model wasn't correct for the concept," she said in retrospect, taking failure in her step.
"It'southward been a learning curve. Life is always transformative; even if something doesn't work, you larn from information technology. The most of import affair is to keep evolving. Stagnation is very scary for entrepreneurs."
READ> Banyan Tree'south Ho Kwon Ping on Asian pride and venturing into 'budget' travel
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/cynthia-chua-japanese-restaurant-noka-funan-mall-singapore-2019-225496
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