RESTAURANT
The Hood is an extraordinary Singaporean bistro in “the real Paris”
Nestled in the heart of Paris is a singular and unexpected sight: a corner of Singapore. Aromas of pandan, garlic and ginger invitingly fill the air, making me feel at home. Curious passersby peek in and are greeted warmly in French or English. Diners tuck into hearty bowls of laksa, nasi lemak and chicken rice.
This is The Hood, the first, and so far only, Singaporean restaurant in Paris and the whole of France.
Opened in May 2016, The Hood is the brainchild and labor of love of two female pioneers, Singaporean Pearlyn Lee and French-Vietnamese Chef Khanh-Ly Huynh, who was the first Asian woman to win Masterchef France in 2015.
I happened across The Hood by chance on a recent trip to Paris. It was late summer in Paris, and a gentle breeze floated through the open doors. As I waited to meet Pearlyn, I sipped on my milo dinosaur (a cold chocolate malted drink crowned with a heap of chocolate malt powder) and ogled at the lushly garnished plates of satay, sambal stingray and towering slices of pandan chiffon cake being savored around me.
Pearlyn arrives and informs me I have inadvertently sat at The Hood’s “magic table,” a long, wooden table, meant to be shared. “Whenever people sit here, they end up meeting new friends and forging connections,” she says with a big smile. (It’s Table One, if you want to test out her theory!)
Modern Singaporean cuisine is known as “Mod-Sin”. Pearlyn calls theirs “modern Singaporean kopitiam food,” referring to the food served at humble coffeeshops in her native land. Let’s coin a new term then: Mod-Sin-Kop!
Though the main attractions, like Hainanese chicken rice and nasi lemak, remain more faithful to tradition, there are many innovative twists on classic Singaporean fare. There’s pizza on a paratha, a South Asian flatbread prevalent in Singapore. Kaya, a grainy coconut and pandan jam, is transformed into a silky-smooth crème patissière. They offer vegan and gluten-free options, something unheard of in Singapore hawker culture.
Chef Khanh-Ly excels at combining French culinary techniques with Singaporean and Southeast Asian ingredients like pandan, kaya, ginger, gula melaka and chili. A true meeting of East and West, she pairs the food with natural wines and high-quality specialty coffee. Who says you can’t sip a Pinot Noir while enjoying chicken satay skewers?
“The Hood is a celebration of our roots in Southeast Asia,” chef Khanh-Ly says. “The idea is to educate clients about Asian realness, what our culture, our food and our art de vivre is about.”
It didn’t take long to realize that The Hood takes its flavours très seriously.
As much as they can, everything is made in-house. The result – exceptionally fresh and flavourful dishes. The sambal, chili and ginger sauces especially tantalized my tastebuds. And the fact that the pandan is meticulously extracted from the leaves before it is infused into the chiffon cake gave me a new appreciation for this simple-looking dessert.
Pearlyn and Khanh-Ly are especially proud of their locally sourced free-range, non-GMO yellow chicken from Maison Garat, a small farm in the Basque region of France. The Hood also partners with Natoora, which supports sustainable small farmers, and Terroir d’Avenir, a supplier to Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris.
Pearlyn grew up in Singapore and comes from a background in finance. For almost fifteen years, she worked in the oil and gas sector. She traveled frequently to South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Nigeria and Ghana, refinancing oil debt and structuring finance solutions.
But she always dreamt of owning a café. In 2015, on vacation in Paris, she met Khanh-Ly. The two bonded over their shared Southeast Asian roots and their desire to showcase the diverse culinary cultures of the region. Together, they envisioned The Hood.
Their meeting was only weeks after the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. Deeply shaken, Pearlyn and Khanh-Ly decided The Hood would be an inclusive space built on strong community ties. “Our motto is ‘The Hood Is Yours’ and we mean it.” Says Pearlyn, “It’s a space that welcomes everyone, a space for people to make new connections, that’s why we also organize a lot of events, like art exhibitions, film screenings, jam sessions, book launches and other cultural events.”
For this purpose, The Hood’s basement has recently been transformed into a dedicated events space that will feature Southeast Asian artists and members of The Hood’s community in Paris.
Cultivating community is central to The Hood’s ethos. “Being away from Singapore so long and becoming a minority in the many countries I’ve lived and worked, has made me develop greater compassion for minority communities,” Pearlyn says. “That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learnt living outside of Singapore.”
It’s fitting that she and Khanh-Ly chose rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Slightly off the touristic beaten track, this dynamic and colorful area is known for its multiculturalism. The neighborhood has been shaped by waves of immigrants and refugees – provincial French from the south and middle of the country, eastern European Jews, North Africans primarily from Algeria, West Africans, and Vietnamese and Cambodian. A few doors down from The Hood is La Maison des Métallos, once the biggest musical instrument manufacturer, supplying many American jazzmen in the 1920s, then the headquarters for labor unions and anti-fascist movements. The street is named after Jean-Pierre Timbaud, a Resistance fighter who was murdered by the Nazis.
This is not the Champs-Élysées, filled with hordes of tourists walking along the Haussmannian boulevard decked with luxury branded storefronts and a backdrop of the Arche de Triomphe. Neither is this the chic and bobo, bourgeois-bohemian (emphasis on the bourgeois) Saint-Germain-des-Prés, with its rarefied air of art galleries and Rive Gauche literati.
“I tell people this is the real Paris,” says Pearlyn. “There are French people living side by side with immigrants – first, second, third generation Asians, Africans, people from the Middle East. There is a mosque and a synagogue nearby.”
The Hood’s website declares itself a “welcoming family of strangers,” whether you are “tourists, locals or visitors from space!” A touch of kampong (village) spirit – in the heart of Paris.
Pearlyn and Khanh-Ly are also on a mission to reframe Asian cuisines in Paris, from low- to high-brow. “Asian food is often stigmatized as poorly plated and made with bad quality produce,” Khanh-Ly says. “We are trying to deconstruct these images through food and friendly service… recreating an identity that we have often been mistakenly attributed.”
“The Asian food scene here was created by the first wave of immigrants. People who came without status, with less skills. The Vietnamese did it out of necessity to survive, that’s how street food came about,” Pearlyn explains. “The food they made has always been affordable, even underpriced, leading to that perception it’s not fresh or requires less skill.” (The exception being Japanese cuisine, which dots Rue Sainte-Anne in the fancy 2ème arrondissement and is viewed as more refined and costly.)
Pearlyn believes “this misperception is carried by both Asians and non-Asians. And it needs to change,” says Pearlyn. “Asians themselves need to feel proud of their own food cultures.”
Despite counting 55 Michelin-starred restaurants and 79 Michelin Bib Gourmand awardees (53 of which are hawker stalls!), Singapore has not quite been able to export its cuisine to the rest of the world. Like a lot of Southeast Asian food, it is still quite rare in many global cities.
And that is why, in 2023, The Hood launched Chope Chope, a series of culinary pop-ups where Singaporean chefs come to Paris and offer their specialties on the menu for a limited time. The idea is to showcase Singaporean culinary talent in Paris, which Pearlyn calls “the world’s most revered culinary capital.”
Last year, Chope Chope invited chefs Willin Low (of the Mod-Sin restaurant The Kongsee in Singapore), Vasunthara Ramasamy (finalist on MasterChef Singapore in 2021), Jeffrey Chia (of the Peranakan restaurant Nonya Bong), and renowned food critic, author and curator of Urban Hawker in New York City, KF Seetoh.
Pearlyn hopes to expand the culinary pop-up concept to other cities and restaurants across the globe.
Watch out World, Singapore’s coming!
The Hood, 80 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Paris +33 143576447
Hours: Monday-Friday 12 – 3 pm and 6:30 to 10 pm, weekends 11 – 10 pm
