children – if not for Hong while Hong
acknowledges the God-given talent
of Stroobant that helped to propel the
Emmanuel Stroobant Group to where
it is today. “He really is very talented,”
Hong says while flashing a look of
admiration at her blonde-haired
husband.
“With Edina and me, one plus one is
not equal to two. One plus one is equal
to three or even more. Without each
other, I would probably only have one
restaurant while she would just be a
Director of Communications and that
would be it. We have complementary
skills, but most importantly, we
respect each other’s expertise, which
makes us what and where we are
today,” Stroobant eulogises.
It is not just capitalising on each
other’s strengths that has made them
successful but also acknowledging
the weaknesses of one another.
Stroobant professes to be hopeless
with money and its management,
only caring about sourcing out the
best ingredients possible without
taking into consideration the costs
involved. On the flip side, Hong is
grounded in practicality, constantly
reining in Stroobant’s wild ideas and
passion with one hand while jabbing
in the numbers into a calculator with
the other. “My mother has given us
nicknames – passion and money.
Guess who passion and money are?”
Hong questions me rhetorically.
With more than a decade’s experience
in the heat of Singapore’s kitchen and
having built a dining empire that has
thrived in the country’s fickle food
and beverage scene, Stroobant’s and
Hong’s opinions carry a lot of weight.
So, I decided to ask them what they
thought of the multitude of restaurants
by international celebrity chefs
mushrooming around the island.
There has been a growing clamour
of voices questioning whether our
tolerance for costly gastronomy has
reached its limits.
Emmanuel Stroobant Group is immune
to changes but rather because she
genuinely believes in putting her
diners’ ne