Guests choose between à la carte and three guest-led tasting journeys—Formule Monet, Formule Eiffel, and Formule Bernhardt—each drawing on Victorian and Belle Époque-era references alongside his own signatures. The kitchen is run day-to-day by Chef de Cuisine Ben Wang and Sous Chef Roy Kuo, both trained under Chiang for close to a decade at RAW in Taipei.

On how present the Chef Patron will be at 1887, he says, “I am personally involved at both a strategic and creative level, and I expect to spend significantly more time in Singapore than anywhere else, while still travelling when necessary.” The menu, he says, was built by asking whether each dish would “still be relevant in 10 or 20 years later”, a test he calls “Taste of Time.” Change won’t come for its own sake. “Some dishes may remain because they carry an important part of the restaurant’s identity, while others will shift over time as new archival discoveries, seasonal ingredients and new reflections emerge.” The intent, as he puts it, is for the menu to “evolve gradually and thoughtfully, always in a way that feels true to the story of the restaurant.”

Pressed on whether a specific memory from his 1984 arrival appears on the menu, Chiang says. “What stays with me most is not a single dramatic moment, but a collection of impressions; the atmosphere of Singapore, the way food was part of daily life, and the feeling of arriving in a place that was already so layered with culture, ritual and flavour.” Dishes like bak kut teh, laksa, chicken rice and hae bee hiam, he says, are “connected to the lived experience of Singapore,” while archival references like the Turtle Soup tie that personal memory back to Raffles’ own history. “The ‘time capsule’ idea also extends beyond the plate… I wanted guests to feel that they are not simply having dinner, but entering a space where memory, history and the present coexist.”