Darren Teoh’s Bidou Honors French Culinary Heritage as UOB’s 2026 Opening of the Year Award Winner

"After 10 years [of Dewakan], we’re just itching to do a little bit of something else, try exploring different things. But we also recognized that we wanted to have a restaurant that Malaysians would enjoy in a more casual atmosphere," Teoh explains. "People want to go out and have a good meal and a good time, and they don’t necessarily want to be cerebrally challenged."

Bidou was born in the test kitchen at Dewakan, where Teoh and his team would sometimes cook directly for eight to ten "friends of the restaurant," exploring many forms of cuisine, from Malay-inspired to modern Chinese. The experiment that left the strongest impression was a French menu, which reminded Teoh of the style and approach of his mentors, who were instrumental in shaping his classical French culinary background. He even named the restaurant after his first chef at hotel school: Bidou Boniface, who was executive chef at the Ming Court Hotel, which is the Corus Hotel today. "My first introduction to any form of French cooking came from him."

After college, Teoh joined the Les Amis Group in Singapore, whose flagship restaurant, Les Amis, has been a time-honored stalwart of haute cuisine in the country since 1994. He worked at the group’s sister restaurants, Sebastien’s Bistro and Au Jardin Les Amis, under chefs Paul Kek and Galvin Lim, respectively. "[Kek] was an amazing cook. A lot of the flavor profiles that you find at Bidou are really influenced by the style of cooking that he taught," Teoh recalls. "The finesse you find at Bidou in terms of the cleanliness of plating, the cutting of vegetables, all these super technical skills, have come from being under the tutelage of Chef Galvin."

In conceptualizing Bidou, Teoh sought out the wisdom of those who came before him. "A lot of our menu looks back at classics made famous in the sixties and seventies by these giants of the French culinary world. They were responsible for making French cuisine a global cuisine." That lineage shapes dishes on Bidou’s menu, including Michel Guérard’s salade gourmande, a variety of vegetables that are in season served with a salad and foie gras; the restaurant’s threadfin en croûte, adapted from Paul Bocuse’s legendary loup en croûte; and even a nod to a contemporary in Daniel Calvert of SÉZANNE, with Bidou’s version of his much-talked-about tomato tart.

Though not quite as historic as the rest, Teoh feels Chef Daniel Calvert’s tomato tart shares plenty of the same characteristics. "I asked him for permission to use his tomato tart, and so we have that on the menu. I think it elaborates what we want to achieve: it’s big and robust but still maintains so much finesse in the way that it’s cooked and presented. We’ve taken a couple of liberties based on the ingredients we have and what we’re able to do, but I think Daniel’s tomato tart is quite illustrative of what we’re trying to achieve here."

For Teoh, these dishes endure because of technique, not embellishment. "They’re classics for a reason. The elegance in the dish is in the simplicity of the cooking, but also in the execution of the technique… the doneness of the fish, the ratio of butter in the pastry, making sure sauces don’t split. One of the reasons these dishes became so iconic was simply because they were done really well. It’s not like they tried to put 300 things on the plate; it was just four items on the plate, but done super well." He considers this emphasis on technique to be central to Bidou’s identity.

Also integral to Bidou are the lessons from running Dewakan for a decade and the expectations that come with it. Teoh notes that "it’s hard to distill 10 years of wisdom from mistakes" into a single moment when opening a restaurant. "The biggest takeaway is that people make the business."

"It’s a really big pillar. It means we can allow people to make decisions in the best interest of the restaurant. There’s a lot of space for team members to make decisions that help contribute to the restaurant." Bidou’s operations manager, Leng Yik Siang, has been with Teoh since before Dewakan opened, and chef de cuisine Noel Smith just celebrated his tenth year with the team this month.

Even with all that experience, Teoh was mindful of the expectations that inevitably followed from Dewakan’s success. "You’re always going to worry, and if you don’t worry, that’s a bit arrogant," he says. "Worrying is a good part of putting a restaurant together. You have to be able to measure and have some control over the anxiety; if not, you’ll never be able to do anything, take risks and explore how far you can go."

This grounded approach also sums up Teoh’s reaction to Bidou receiving the Opening of the Year Award, presented by UOB Malaysia. "Any recognition is nice. A pat on the back from one of our regular guests who says, 'today’s meal was fantastic' is equally as impactful," he muses. "Receiving it is one thing, but what do you do after that? You can’t be the best new opening again next year. Grab the moment, enjoy it with the team. They’ve all worked hard, everybody’s put in sweat and tears, and then you gun for the next best thing. It’s about not allowing anything to distract us from what the endgame is about."

So what is the endgame for Darren Teoh, or for Bidou? "Retirement," he quips, dryly. "No, we want to come to a point where the business is flourishing — we’ve always wanted to become a ‘Damansara Heights’ restaurant. We want people in the neighborhood to be proud. We want to be at a point where we’re doing good food, good service, and people enjoy coming to the restaurant. That’s the endgame."

The MICHELIN Guide Opening of the Year Award 2026 is presented in partnership with UOB Malaysia.