Much of a chef’s success is owed to the relationship he has developed with the suppliers of his ingredients — a highly guarded aspect of the business among some of the best restaurants, even today.

Yet, even while more chefs are opting to grow their own vegetables, cure their own meats and age their beef, more restaurant owners here are choosing to share the love. No, Joel Robuchon isn’t giving away the recipe for his grandmother’s buttery mash and Sam Leong isn’t going to retail jars of his wasabi mayonnaise. We are alluding to having a grocery store in a restaurant.

Last year, Korean restaurateur Son Mijin opened her third and largest Hansang Korean Restaurant at the Main Grandstand on Turf Club Road, which houses a mini Korean supermarket. And early this year, Smoke House Charcoal BBQ took the idea further with its self-service shop-and-dine concept at Great World City. On the menu of this venture by RE&S is a wide variety of premium yet affordable Japanese wagyu, with some rare cuts such as the chuck flap and flank to boot. A dine-in cover charge of S$8 and S$10 (for lunch and dinner respectively) also gives diners access to the modest buffet table in the dining room. Choose to cook in the comfort of your home and you can consider purchasing your own charcoal pot or stocking up on charcoal, burners, snacks, drinks and specially imported Japanese condiments sold on site.

It may not be the most outrageous or ingenious proposition, but it does exploit an obvious advantage.

“From a business standpoint, it’s a good revenue stream that makes perfect sense,” shared the Les Amis Group’s spokesperson Raymond Lim. Restaurant leases are always cheaper than retail, he added, citing mainstream options such as Jones The Grocer, “which is seen as a cafe first”, as a good example.

While it would be premature to say if there is a trend brewing, two similar initiatives took root this month — Bochinche’s Gourmet Market and &Son’s house-cured meats — driven by a firm focus on offering consumers access to rare and new-to-market artisanal fare.

ARTISANAL ATTRACTION

This is a model that is not new to Bochinche’s chef patron, Diego Jacquet. It was always the chef’s intention with the launch of Bochinche in Singapore last August — in partnership with the Spa Esprit Group — to bring “the best of Argentinian produce” to consumers here.

Complementing its new relaxed look and price point, Bochinche’s Gourmet Market also features house-made chorizo alongside 15 types of charcuterie, pantry basics as well as its signature Provoleta cheese.

While Jacquet, who also owns and runs two Argentine restaurants in London — Casa Malevo and Zoila — as well as Abasto, an Argentine butcher and wine merchant, said he couldn’t comment on how other restaurants here procure their meats, he said importing premium Argentine beef was incredibly difficult, until now.

“Meat in Argentina is a very big thing ... Meat is used by politicians to their advantage,” he shared. “We need to create constant demand to secure the best cuts.”

Six months ago, he did just that for his Singapore outpost, which now offers prized Argentinian grass-fed fillet, ribeye, sirloin and flank (although the last isn’t currently available from the in-house grocer because of its limited quantities). That said, there are a host of products — nearly 100 speciality items — the chef has curated with pride.

“These are products we use in our day to day operations ... These are suppliers that we are sharing; our friends,” he said. “One of them is The London Honey Company — these people produce honey in different buildings around London. It’s city honey, which is fantastic.”

Other indigenous items that have made their way here via his London operations include a lemon verbena tea blend by The Rare Tea Company of London.

“A year ago, I found out that lemon verbena is originally from the north of Argentina,” said the native of Patagonia, who stressed how honoured he felt that the owner Henrietta Lovell agreed to create this exclusive blend of tea. “She doesn’t even retail lemon verbena commercially ... it’s unbelievable.”

IN-HOUSE DELIGHTS

Another veteran restaurateur with a vested interest in artisanal products is Beppe De Vito. He set up ilLido Italian Dining And Lounge Bar, the more casual Latteria Mozzarella Bar and, most recently, &SONS, an Italian wine bar nestled among the heritage-chic shop-houses of China Square Central.

“&SONS was first conceptualised as a retail-heavy shop, selling all authentic and traditional Italian products, such as homemade pastas and homemade salami made by our chefs, cheeses and organic wines from small-batch wineries in Italy,” said De Vito, who explained how its location suited a bacaro concept better. “But the core concept hasn’t changed — our menu still relies heavily on mostly homemade ingredients ... right down to the sauces we use, as well as Italian cheeses that we import from the best cheese artisans.”

De Vito said they decided to make all their salami in-house, “as there are very few producers who are allowed to import their salami to Singapore”. “On top of that, there wasn’t much variety in terms of the choices available from these producers locally,” he added.

As such, quality meats are sourced from all over the world and turned into cured delicacies made by Italian artisans in Singapore. The selection includes the capocollo black pork — featuring the pork neck of the Spanish Iberian pig and smoked Kurobuta pork loin that undergoes a three-month curing process with red wine, salt, garlic, pepper and fresh herbs.

De Vito said the retail aspect of &SONS remains a growing project. Its home-cured salami and baked goods, which include mini grissini, cheese crackers and almond cantucci (traditional Tuscan cookies), can only be purchased directly from the restaurant. “Ideally we will want to start by selling our goods at farmers’ markets, which we are looking into.”