So, what’s a typical day like for you?

Before the pandemic, I would fly 300 days a year. Every 10 days, I would go back home for a day and then I fly again. And every three days, I'd switch from restaurant to restaurant. We have eight restaurants, so that's 27 days. I have three days to go back, do my laundry, switch my luggage, and depart the next day. 

Then, when I'm in the restaurant, that's it, that’s everything. For example, when I’m at Sichuan Moon, I’ll come here for a week and I don't need to step out of the hotel. I just wake up, come down to the restaurant, or I'm within the premises having a meeting, doing an interview, photoshoot or I’m creating dishes. And then during service, I’m here until the very last guest leaves and then I go back. That's my work day.

How do you wind down?

When I go back home, I have a day when I just empty myself. I don't do anything, I’m just like a vegetable. For example, when I'm in Taipei, I go to our house in Yilan. On my day off, I wake up and it takes me 30 minutes to decide which coffee beans I want to make coffee with. Then I'll make myself a coffee, sit next to the window and enjoy my coffee. My wife will wake up one hour before me and go to the gym. Then she comes back, and she’ll say, ‘André, why are you still sitting there with your coffee? Three hours have passed.’ 

You usually go for lesser-known cities for your venues, is there a reason for this?

I remember when I came back to Asia from France and I said I'm going to Singapore, and everyone was asking me why. People were surprised and said ‘there's nothing there’ but look at Singapore today. Then I went to Taiwan and people wondered why again. The same for Chengdu and Macau, people always question the cities that I pick. All I can say is that I have a good eye for the potential of a city... ahead of the game.

I like challenges and I believe that there is more potential to be explored. Even with Sichuan cuisine, I feel it has so much potential. I like things that take time for people to understand because, by the time you realise it, we’re already 10 years ahead of the game. I like that.

Many of your restaurants have been about cultivating culinary traditions. How do you preserve tradition while creating a new experience?

​​It’s about delivering a message while creating a new language that everyone can understand. That's what we do. We are creating that path and curating that experience so anyone can understand this culture, cuisine and flavour. It shouldn't be something that only caters to a particular crowd. There is a huge gap between what is authentic and the world norm. We are trying to close that gap so that everyone, no matter what nationality, can come in and enjoy the experience and take something away from it all.

You’ve been working on Sichuan Moon’s new Discovery Menu with chef Wilson Fam. What can we look forward to on this menu?

It's hard to put it into words. I guess Sichuan Moon’s dining experience is really one of a kind, it’s something that you don't see anywhere else on the market. There’s nothing like it. You have to come [at least] once, and then you’ll know what we're talking about. It’s not about trying to put twists on Chinese dishes. It's the whole package which, personally, I think is at its best in all aspects. 

Do you have any favourites on the new menu?

The bream fish with Sichuan pickles and cabbage tapenade. It’s not easy to bring a river fish and introduce it in Macau when you have access to some of the best seafood here. So, that is quite a challenge and yet, we execute it perfectly. We’re taking a humble river fish and making it a highlight of the menu. It’s like cooking carrots and asparagus and then totally beating the caviar and truffles which, for me, is the coolest thing. I also think it combines very well, though, it’s not only about being tasty or technical, it's a hearty Sichuan dish that’s really authentic.

What are your thoughts on Noma closing down, and on chefs and critics saying that the age of super-luxe restaurants or fine dining has passed? 

I think fine dining will always exist. The same goes for what we call luxury. But how do we define luxury or fine dining? For me, fine dining has another meaning. It represents culture, culinary level, and experience at its best. It's like a masterpiece in music, art or fashion that represents a generation. A dish can also represent the 60s, 80s, or 90s. Those are the pioneers of fine dining. It will always exist, it's just that we will have different definitions of it.

With regards to Noma. I guess there are many restaurants that close for their own reasons, not because fine dining is fading out. René [Redzepi] is a very good friend of mine, we worked together 20 years ago. Noma is closing for its own reasons. Just like Restaurant Andre closed for its own reasons, and not because they're not doing well. I think Noma has been packed since they ranked number one in the world until now and they will continue to be like this until the last day. 

I do believe that there will be less fine dining. Not because it's out of fashion, but because fewer people are capable of doing it. Whether it's technically, financially or labour becoming a bigger issue for the industry, there are fewer companies that will be able to afford to put such an effort into it, so you have to be the crème de la crème to be able to pull it off. Not everyone can open a fine dining restaurant. 

You’re also known as an educator, will you be doing more lectures to help guide the next generation of chefs? 

Yes, I will. In Asia, we don't really have a path for chefs to grow. Let’s say I get out of high school and I want to become a chef. What do I do? I'll go to Paris for Le Cordon Bleu and then I come back a year later and call myself a chef. That’s basically it. But what about colour, creation, knowledge about produce, calculation, branding and management? These are the tools to become a chef. We don't have that, we start from scratch. It's more complicated to be a chef these days, so I’m trying to fill in the blanks. I have never done a single cooking demo. I teach the things that I think a chef needs to know, apart from cooking. 

The lectures are in Singapore and Taiwan for the moment. I hope that we'll be able to do the same with Sichuan Moon too. I think it is in a position that can introduce Sichuanese culture, cuisine and flavour to the world. Just like the Scandinavians introduced fermentation techniques to the world, it's the same thing.

What do you have planned for the near future? 

I hope that with more people being able to travel now they will come and visit Sichuan Moon because I feel we haven’t been able to showcase everything that we have prepared here and very few people have experienced it in the past three years, so that's something we want to push further.

I also have two books. The first is The Meaning of the Time between Life and Death. I'm the co-author [of this Chinese book] and we have five writers that have contributed their thoughts about life. It’s about positive thinking and achieving the life you want to lead.

The second book is something I wrote which will probably be out in June. It’s something that I always wanted to share. It's about the aesthetic of working. People always relate work to stress and pressure. Work seems to be a negative word but I don’t see it that way. People often ask me why I’m always working and why I enjoy working so much. They want to know how I balance life and work, but I don’t balance. I live in my work and I live in my life, so, I wanted to share my thoughts on that.