On Friday, 6 November 2026, three chefs from a single kitchen lineage that began in Tokyo in 1958 will cook together at Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro on Orchard Road. They’ll serve an eight-course dinner at S$288++ per person. If you’ve ever wondered what becomes of a family recipe after it leaves the family, this dinner is a rare chance to taste the answer.
The Quick Version
- Where: Main Dining Hall, Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro, Level 35, Hilton Singapore Orchard, 333 Orchard Road, Singapore 238867
- When: Friday, 6 November 2026
- How much: S$288++ per diner
- What to book: A seat at the six-hands dinner. Call 6831 6262 or email shisenhanten@ouerestaurants.com
- Date to note: The dinner runs for one night only
- What to bring up when booking: Any dietary needs. The menu leans heavily on shellfish and pork
A Recipe That Changed Hands
The story starts with Chen Kenmin. He arrived in Japan from Szechwan (now usually spelt Sichuan) in 1952 and opened Shisen Hanten in Tokyo six years later. There he created what the family calls Chūka Szechwan Ryori, which is Szechwan flavours cooked with Japanese technique and ingredients. His son, Chen Kenichi, took the business further and became famous as one of Japan’s original Iron Chefs on television.
His grandson, Chen Kentaro, was born in 1979 and grew up watching his father compete on TV. He joined the family kitchen at 21 without going to culinary school. In 2014 he opened the Singapore outpost as his own venture. The restaurant says it won two MICHELIN stars in 2016, which made it the highest-rated Chinese restaurant in Singapore at the time, and that it held both until 2023. The MICHELIN Guide Singapore lists it with one star in its 2025 and 2026 editions.
The headline glosses over one detail. The three chefs cooking on 6 November aren’t grandfather, father and son. They’re a teacher, his student, and the student’s own student. A family recipe survives because people outside the family were willing to learn it.
Meet the Three Chefs
Chef Hiroaki Suzuki is Culinary Director of Shisen Hanten Japan. He is in the 45th year of his career and trained directly under founder Chen Kenmin. Kentaro came up under Suzuki’s watch, and when he talks about it he sounds like someone who still hears his mentor’s voice in the kitchen. “What has always impressed me most is his uncompromising attitude towards taste,” Kentaro says. “Even with the smallest difference in heat, seasoning, or flavour, he would always ask, ‘Why did this happen? How can we make it even better?'”
The youngest link is Chef Yuya Hayashi, the Singapore restaurant’s Executive Sous Chef. He was born in Fujian, China, and moved to Yokohama at three. At 25 he joined Shisen Hanten’s Akasaka restaurant in Tokyo, where he spent six years on the basics before he earned the right to cook. All told, he trained under Kentaro for twelve years before relocating to Singapore.
Kentaro was the one who first taught Hayashi the family motto, “The heart of cuisine is love; cook with your heart.” Hayashi admits that as a trainee he was “still too inexperienced to fully understand its meaning,” but the lesson stuck. Now that Hayashi is based in Singapore, the three rarely get to cook side by side. This dinner puts them in the same kitchen again.
Eight Courses, Three Points of View
The menu revisits signature dishes from across Shisen Hanten’s history, and two of them are worth booking for on their own.
The first is the Shisen Hanten Phoenix Platter, a cold appetiser built on knife work. Suzuki will carve and assemble it in front of guests at the start of the evening. You get to watch a 45-year veteran do the thing he spent decades perfecting, which is about as close as you can get to seeing the lineage in action.
After that come stewed Hokkaido Hiyama sea cucumber cooked low and slow, and kinmedai (golden-eye snapper) in a fragrant yuxiang fermented chilli sauce.
The second must-try is Chen’s Mapo Tofu. This version folds lobster into a hot Szechwan pepper meat sauce, so it’s essentially the family’s party trick dressed up for the occasion. Close behind is Hokkaido Mangalica pork twice-cooked in the style of hui guo rou, the classic Sichuan twice-cooked pork with cabbage.
Dessert is a gentler pear and almond composition. Every guest also goes home with a specially commissioned mapo tofu keychain.
Is S$288++ Worth It?
The “++” means a 10% service charge and 9% Goods and Services Tax (GST) are added on top of the S$288.
How to Book
The dinner runs for one night only.
🗓️ Date: Friday, 6 November 2026
📍 Location: Main Dining Hall, Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro, Level 35, Hilton Singapore Orchard, 333 Orchard Road, Singapore 238867
💰 Price: S$288++ per person
🍽️ Menu: Eight courses, including the Phoenix Platter, lobster mapo tofu and Mangalica twice-cooked pork
🎁 Memento: A mapo tofu keychain for every guest
⚠️ Dietary note: The menu leans heavily on shellfish and pork, so mention any restrictions when you book
📞 Reservations: Call 6831 6262 or email shisenhanten@ouerestaurants.com
You don’t need a Michelin budget to understand what this dinner is about. Every family has a dish that changes a little each time someone new learns to cook it. On 6 November, Shisen Hanten is putting the three people who carried its version forward into one kitchen. Call the restaurant to book a seat. As Kentaro puts it, tradition “is something we pass on, evolve, and carry into the future.”
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro.
Read us first on Google: add DANAMIC as a preferred source and our stories show up more in your Top Stories and AI results.
