She may not have a Michelin star or a ranking on the World's 50 Best Restaurants, yet chef Rose Ang’s career would make most other chefs envious. The 51-year-old Singaporean hasn’t had to apply for a job since 1998. Instead, she’s been consistently headhunted by some of the world’s largest conglomerates in places as far-flung as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Mykonos and St Moritz, where she was not only the executive chef of Nobu but also the F&B manager for owner Nobu Matsuhisa’s restaurant group in Europe.
How does a Singaporean from Queenstown Secondary School smash every barrier she's encountered in a notoriously male-dominated industry? By working triply hard to stand her ground, of course.
“In the 1990s, women [in the kitchen] were usually given light jobs or something repetitive like peeling onions or the salad station. They wouldn't let us touch anything in the hot kitchen,” she recalled. “So, I did a lot of free work to prove I can do hot-side cooking.”
That meant working her eight-hour shift as a trainee chef before working another eight for free in any other department that would have her. “After several months, one of the pastry chefs saw that I was keen to excel in the industry and took me under his wing. He eventually gave me all the recipes for the department. No one else had those recipes except the sous chef,” she said proudly.
After more than 30 years abroad, Rose Ang finally opened her own restaurant Domo, a modern Japanese establishment at Fairmont Singapore. (Photo: Dillon Tan/CNA)
Rose Ang with Japanese chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa. (Photo: Rose Ang)
While working at the Park Hyatt Canberra as a banquet chef in 1997, Ang found it hard to understand why the front of house insisted on doing things a certain way. To remedy that, she spent her off hours volunteering in a cafe downstairs to learn how restaurant service works. “Firstly, I worked for free because if I got paid, my employers would not be happy. So I spent a few months learning how to do service on my days off. After that, whenever a manager or waiter at the restaurant tried to tell me about something that happened in the front of house, I had some experience of what that feels like. I can do my job better because I understand the whole flow.”
This doggedness has shaped Ang into a rarity in the F&B industry — someone with the skill, adaptability and business acumen who’s as comfortable heading the kitchen as she is handling the business of hospitality. This has made her an asset to some of the most prominent international hotel and restaurant groups, including the award-winning Zest Catering in Sydney, Australia, where she was the only woman in the kitchen heading a team of up to 40 chefs.
Ang in Zest Catering, Australia. (Photo: Rose Ang)
“How I got that job is a funny story,” she said, chuckling. Ang was then the executive sous chef at Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, Sydney. One of her staff members, a Scottish chef, had gone for an interview with Zest Catering, where he was asked who he admired. When he said Ang, the interviewer was intrigued. “I was an Asian lady working in this industry in Australia, so he asked a lot of questions about me and ended up asking if he could contact me. We had coffee, and he later came to the restaurant and offered me a job I couldn't refuse.”
(Photo: Domo)
She assures me that she has remained friends with the Scottish chef who didn’t get the job.
To say that work has a way of finding her might be understating it. Consider the time in 2012 when she returned to Singapore to take a break after working with the Nobu Group. “I came back on a Monday and a head hunter called me on Thursday saying there’s an opportunity in Melbourne. I told them I’m home taking a break, but they said they needed someone urgently,” she said. Long story short, within four days, Ang and her possessions arrived in Melbourne, where she became the executive chef of Sake Restaurant. “That was the quickest job interview ever!”In 2020, after nearly three decades abroad, Ang returned to Singapore to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic. "I was based in Georgia and was supposed to develop F&B projects for a couple of hotels (in the Georgia Real Estate Group). I decided to come back to Singapore because I think it was the safest country to be in times like that,” she said.
Robata Japanese A5 Wagyu. (Photo: Domo)
Wagyu Beef Kimchi Gyoza with Spicy Ponzu. (Photo: Domo)
Signature Sashimi Taco Salmon, Tomato Shiso Salsa. (Photo: Domo)
What Ang didn’t know was that this would be her homecoming. In February 2025, she opened her own restaurant Domo, a sprawling modern Japanese establishment that occupies the space vacated by multi-concept Japanese restaurant Mikuni at Fairmont Singapore. “Chau Pak Heen, the second-generation owner of Asia Grand (the Chinese restaurant beside Domo), approached me when the hotel asked if he was interested in taking over the space,” Ang said. “He knows my background, and when we started discussing it in 2024, there weren't many Japanese restaurants like this in Singapore. I love Japanese culture and cuisine, and of course I was very excited.”
Ang describes Domo as a modern Japanese restaurant with European influences, much like those she helmed across the world. “It’s based on my life experiences,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe — Switzerland, Munich, Zurich, and even Central Asia — and that’s why I describe it as modern Japanese with European influences. It’s not traditional Japanese food, but it’s not confused either. It’s what I know, and it’s what I do best."
At Domo’s heart is charcoal robata that yields dishes like miso cod and A5 wagyu steak flambe with truffle teriyaki. Diners can also order from the extensive selection of sashimi, maki, sushi, appetisers, salads, soups, noodles and tempura.
Rose Ang was once the executive chef of Nobu as well as F&B manager for owner Nobu Matsuhisa’s restaurant group in Europe. (Photo: Dillon Tan/CNA)
Domo may not be of the ilk that comes to mind when Singaporeans think of Japanese food, but Ang is confident that the dining public will embrace its possibilities. “My focus is to offer my customers and guests a fun and nice place where you won’t feel any pressure when you walk in. You can come and just have a plate of noodles, and we will welcome you as much as if you come here and spend bigger on king crabs or wagyu beef,” she explained. “It's not some high and mighty place where you must have a reservation. Anyone can walk in. We can joke around… it's a friendly place.”
If nothing else, her track record elicits optimism — a bit of hardship has never gotten her down. “There's always a solution to any problem,” she chirped. “If you see it as a problem, you’ll never resolve it. If you see it as an experience and take it as part and parcel of the journey… then you can work through it.”
It’s a philosophy that has taken her across the world, after all.
Continue reading...
How does a Singaporean from Queenstown Secondary School smash every barrier she's encountered in a notoriously male-dominated industry? By working triply hard to stand her ground, of course.
“In the 1990s, women [in the kitchen] were usually given light jobs or something repetitive like peeling onions or the salad station. They wouldn't let us touch anything in the hot kitchen,” she recalled. “So, I did a lot of free work to prove I can do hot-side cooking.”
That meant working her eight-hour shift as a trainee chef before working another eight for free in any other department that would have her. “After several months, one of the pastry chefs saw that I was keen to excel in the industry and took me under his wing. He eventually gave me all the recipes for the department. No one else had those recipes except the sous chef,” she said proudly.
After more than 30 years abroad, Rose Ang finally opened her own restaurant Domo, a modern Japanese establishment at Fairmont Singapore. (Photo: Dillon Tan/CNA)
Rose Ang with Japanese chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa. (Photo: Rose Ang)
While working at the Park Hyatt Canberra as a banquet chef in 1997, Ang found it hard to understand why the front of house insisted on doing things a certain way. To remedy that, she spent her off hours volunteering in a cafe downstairs to learn how restaurant service works. “Firstly, I worked for free because if I got paid, my employers would not be happy. So I spent a few months learning how to do service on my days off. After that, whenever a manager or waiter at the restaurant tried to tell me about something that happened in the front of house, I had some experience of what that feels like. I can do my job better because I understand the whole flow.”
This doggedness has shaped Ang into a rarity in the F&B industry — someone with the skill, adaptability and business acumen who’s as comfortable heading the kitchen as she is handling the business of hospitality. This has made her an asset to some of the most prominent international hotel and restaurant groups, including the award-winning Zest Catering in Sydney, Australia, where she was the only woman in the kitchen heading a team of up to 40 chefs.
Ang in Zest Catering, Australia. (Photo: Rose Ang)
“How I got that job is a funny story,” she said, chuckling. Ang was then the executive sous chef at Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, Sydney. One of her staff members, a Scottish chef, had gone for an interview with Zest Catering, where he was asked who he admired. When he said Ang, the interviewer was intrigued. “I was an Asian lady working in this industry in Australia, so he asked a lot of questions about me and ended up asking if he could contact me. We had coffee, and he later came to the restaurant and offered me a job I couldn't refuse.”
(Photo: Domo)
She assures me that she has remained friends with the Scottish chef who didn’t get the job.
To say that work has a way of finding her might be understating it. Consider the time in 2012 when she returned to Singapore to take a break after working with the Nobu Group. “I came back on a Monday and a head hunter called me on Thursday saying there’s an opportunity in Melbourne. I told them I’m home taking a break, but they said they needed someone urgently,” she said. Long story short, within four days, Ang and her possessions arrived in Melbourne, where she became the executive chef of Sake Restaurant. “That was the quickest job interview ever!”In 2020, after nearly three decades abroad, Ang returned to Singapore to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic. "I was based in Georgia and was supposed to develop F&B projects for a couple of hotels (in the Georgia Real Estate Group). I decided to come back to Singapore because I think it was the safest country to be in times like that,” she said.
Robata Japanese A5 Wagyu. (Photo: Domo)
Wagyu Beef Kimchi Gyoza with Spicy Ponzu. (Photo: Domo)
Signature Sashimi Taco Salmon, Tomato Shiso Salsa. (Photo: Domo)
What Ang didn’t know was that this would be her homecoming. In February 2025, she opened her own restaurant Domo, a sprawling modern Japanese establishment that occupies the space vacated by multi-concept Japanese restaurant Mikuni at Fairmont Singapore. “Chau Pak Heen, the second-generation owner of Asia Grand (the Chinese restaurant beside Domo), approached me when the hotel asked if he was interested in taking over the space,” Ang said. “He knows my background, and when we started discussing it in 2024, there weren't many Japanese restaurants like this in Singapore. I love Japanese culture and cuisine, and of course I was very excited.”
Ang describes Domo as a modern Japanese restaurant with European influences, much like those she helmed across the world. “It’s based on my life experiences,” she said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe — Switzerland, Munich, Zurich, and even Central Asia — and that’s why I describe it as modern Japanese with European influences. It’s not traditional Japanese food, but it’s not confused either. It’s what I know, and it’s what I do best."
At Domo’s heart is charcoal robata that yields dishes like miso cod and A5 wagyu steak flambe with truffle teriyaki. Diners can also order from the extensive selection of sashimi, maki, sushi, appetisers, salads, soups, noodles and tempura.
Rose Ang was once the executive chef of Nobu as well as F&B manager for owner Nobu Matsuhisa’s restaurant group in Europe. (Photo: Dillon Tan/CNA)
Domo may not be of the ilk that comes to mind when Singaporeans think of Japanese food, but Ang is confident that the dining public will embrace its possibilities. “My focus is to offer my customers and guests a fun and nice place where you won’t feel any pressure when you walk in. You can come and just have a plate of noodles, and we will welcome you as much as if you come here and spend bigger on king crabs or wagyu beef,” she explained. “It's not some high and mighty place where you must have a reservation. Anyone can walk in. We can joke around… it's a friendly place.”
If nothing else, her track record elicits optimism — a bit of hardship has never gotten her down. “There's always a solution to any problem,” she chirped. “If you see it as a problem, you’ll never resolve it. If you see it as an experience and take it as part and parcel of the journey… then you can work through it.”
It’s a philosophy that has taken her across the world, after all.
Continue reading...