Chef Sujatha Asokan: The Flavours and Family Stories Behind Kee’s

Executive Chef Sujatha Asokan on heritage, memory, and modern Asian cooking at Kee’s.

What connects a childhood bowl of assam laksa with a dessert inspired by kopi, teh peng and Horlicks? For Chef Sujatha Asokan, Executive Chef at Kee’s, familiar flavours are a starting point for creating something new.

Known as Chef Su, the Singaporean chef draws on her Chinese and Indian heritage, family food memories and experience in contemporary restaurant kitchens. At Kee’s, the modern Asian restaurant and bar within heritage boutique hotel 21 Carpenter, those influences come together in an all-day menu.

From Masala Lamb Shepherd’s Pie to Cham-Misu, the dishes offer different ways to rediscover flavours many diners grew up with. Behind that approach is a culinary journey that began long before she led a professional kitchen.

Chinese and Indian Roots, Shaped by Family Cooking

Chef Su is Singaporean, born to a Malaysian Chinese mother and a Singaporean Indian father. Her earliest food memories span family kitchens in Malaysia and Singapore, where different ingredients, dishes and cooking traditions formed part of everyday life.

Visits to her maternal family in Kedah introduced her to Chinese home cooking and dishes such as assam laksa. Back in Singapore, her paternal grandmother’s Indian cooking, from curries to raita, offered a different set of tastes.

That upbringing gave her a personal connection to the food of the region. In her cooking today, a dish she grew up eating or an ingredient she knows well can become the foundation for a new interpretation.

The familiar flavour remains the anchor, even when the preparation, texture or presentation changes.

From Burger King to Singapore’s Professional Kitchens

Her path into cooking was not a conventional one. Chef Su’s first kitchen job was at Burger King at the age of 14. She later studied Baking and Culinary Science at Temasek Polytechnic before building her professional restaurant career at around 19.

Her early roles in respected Singapore kitchens, including Stellar at 1-Altitude, Pollen and Esquina, gave her a strong grounding in contemporary European cooking, a foundation she later brought to a more personal style of Asian cooking.

In 2017, Chef Su joined Botanico at The Garage and soon took over the kitchen, overseeing both Botanico and its more casual sibling, Bee’s Knees. Here she became known for combining contemporary technique with Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian flavours.

Recognition followed afterward. In 2019, she was named Rising Chef of the Year (Female) at the World Gourmet Awards. She was also featured among The Sunday Times’ top five female chefs in Singapore in 2018. After her 2019 win, she completed a two-week stage at Mugaritz in Spain, one of Europe’s best-known restaurants.

Chef Su’s experience is not limited to one style of restaurant. She has also worked as a consulting chef, including menu development for East Coast Commune in 2022, which showed her range across more casual, everyday dining.

Before joining Kee’s she served as Chef de Cuisine at Quenino at Artyzen Singapore, which became a MICHELIN Selected restaurant in 2025 during her time leading the kitchen. She has also spoken at TEDxNTU and has been profiled by the Singapore Tourism Board as a chef translating Singapore’s multicultural identity into contemporary food.

Southeast Asian Flavours Properly Understood

One idea runs through much of what Chef Su says about her work. She has shared that she wants Southeast Asian food to be properly understood, not treated as a passing trend or a curiosity. In her cooking, these flavours are the foundation of a dish, not a decoration on top of it.

That thinking is a natural fit for Kee’s. As a modern Asian restaurant and bar rooted in Singapore’s multicultural food culture, Kee’s reimagines familiar Singaporean and Southeast Asian flavours through contemporary technique. The menu shows this in dishes like the Beef Rendang, Ikan Bakar and “Bebek Goreng” Spring Roll, where the flavours lead and the modern touches support them.

Memory is the other constant. Her dishes often begin with childhood food, family cooking or a recognisable Singaporean favourite, such as chicken rice, chwee kueh, Old Chang Kee snacks, fried rice or nasi ulam. Even the comforting taste of Horlicks and cereal has found its way into her cooking. For her, food is a way of showing care, preserving memory and telling stories.

You can taste that same approach at Kee’s. The Cham-Misu brings teh peng, kopi and Horlicks into a familiar dessert, while the Bubur Cha Cha French Toast turns a beloved Singaporean sweet into a brunch favourite. Each dish starts from something guests may already know and gives them a fresh way to enjoy it.

What to Try at Kee’s

Kee’s is a chef-led modern Asian restaurant and bar rooted in Singapore’s multicultural food culture. Chef Sujatha brings an award-winning, chef-led vision that shapes Kee’s into a welcoming space for modern Asian dining.

It reimagines familiar Singaporean and Southeast Asian flavours through contemporary technique, in bold dishes designed for sharing. The setting is a restored 1930s remittance house at 21 Carpenter Street, between Clarke Quay and Boat Quay, shaped by WOHA’s design.

The current menu offers several ways to explore Chef Su’s approach to modern Asian cooking:

• Singaporean familiarity: the Kiam Chye Baby Gem Salad, Seafood Laksa and Kee’s Charsiew, along with kopi and teh peng in dessert.
• Southeast Asian breadth: the “Bebek Goreng” Spring Roll, Beef Rendang and Ikan Bakar.
• Chinese and Indian crossover: Tandoori-spiced Cauliflower Pops, and curry leaf, Chinese olive and coin prata appearing across the menus.
• Contemporary reinterpretation: the Masala Lamb Shepherd’s Pie, Bubur Cha Cha French Toast and Cham-Misu.

Across the day, the experience shifts. Brunch, served daily from 8am, offers classic favourites with a modern Asian twist, such as the Heritage Chicken Curry Shakshuka. The weekday set lunch offers a considered two or three-course menu. In the evening, the focus turns to sharing plates, cocktails and the bar, with Kee’s Happy Hour for those in between.

Kee’s lunch and dinner menu | Kee’s brunch menu

Come Taste the Story at Kee’s

Chef Su brings a deeply personal approach to a relaxed, all-day setting. The food is thoughtful but not formal, and it is made for gathering, sharing and discovery. For visitors exploring the heritage sites of central Singapore, and for locals rediscovering the neighbourhood, it is a chance to taste the country’s multicultural story at the table.

To experience Chef Su’s cooking, book a table at Kee’s.