Krug

My relationship with Krug is the longest-running brand chapter I hold. It begins, on the public record, in December 2014 — when The Star carried Krug Champagne — A Touch of Majesty, photographed at Brasserie Enfin in Oasis Square. Two years before the formal Ambassade induction was named in print. Two years before the Krug Chef's Table opened.

What began at that first table in 2014 has matured, over a decade, into a friendship between a Malaysian chef and a French maison — across three restaurant rooms, a global ambassadorial network, and the maison’s two defining cultural rituals: the Krug Single Ingredient and the Krug Music Pairing.

The Krug Ambassade — first Malaysian (June 2014)

The Ambassade status begins on the public record in June 2014, confirmed at primary-source level by Men’s Uno Malaysia (Issue 216, 1 April 2016, pp. 152–155): “于2014年6月获邀加入此独一无二的Krug大使团队” — In June 2014, James Won was invited to join the Krug Ambassador team. Time Out KL’s April 2016 Now Open feature corroborates: “In 2014, he was inducted into the exclusive Krug Ambassade network.” Options magazine’s An Affair to Remember (Brian Cheong, c. 2016) records the same: “James Won has been a Krug Ambassador since 2014.”

The Ambassade is the maison’s curated international network of chefs invited to interpret each year’s Krug Édition through cuisine. I was the first Malaysian inducted — placed alongside the global roster of chefs working with the house, two years before the formal Krug Chef’s Table programme would open in Kuala Lumpur. Sin Chew Daily, in November 2016, carried the parallel Sinophone surfacing of the same first.

The Ambassade is the relationship the maison conferred. The Krug Chef’s Table that followed in April 2016 was the programme that relationship made possible.

The Krug Chef’s Table at Enfin (April 2016)

The Ambassade became a room. In April 2016, Time Out KL carried Now Open: Krug Chef’s Table at Enfin by James Won (Lim Chee Wah) — the formal opening of Asia’s only Krug Chef’s Table at the time, at Enfin (Menara Hap Seng).

The Time Out KL piece records the global Krug Chef’s Table census as of April 2016: “the only Krug Chef’s Table in Asia; the others being in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Mexico City and the United States.” Six globally; Enfin was the sole Asian representative.

Format. Maximum twenty guests, one party at a time, hosting bespoke menus designed for each seating, paired with Krug Grande Cuvée. Bespoke Luzerne tableware (a Singapore-owned fine-china maker), hand-cut mirrors, natural wood, warm tones — the room was, as Time Out KL put it, “obvious that there was no expense spared in the design of this private dining room.” The pricing: minimum spend RM 25,000 (RM 1,250 per person, assuming twenty guests, food and Krug Champagne).

The Krug Room at Enfin — Menara Hap Seng, April 2016.

Options magazine’s An Affair to Remember recorded the architectural detail: the upper level of Enfin, accessed via a spiral staircase swathed in striking gold; a bespoke long table built from two woods, with the centre tongue in white oak. Oriental Daily’s February 2016 coverage — Krug 香槟名厨尊桌 — placed the chapter on the Sinophone press record; Men’s Uno (April 2016) carried it at full weight in Chinese-language press. The April 2016 launch coincided with The Star — STAR2 Sunday Magazine cover feature (10 April 2016, photographed by David Yeow): A Won-derful new Enfin.

The room moved. When Shin’Labo by James Won opened at Mitsui Shopping Park Lalaport KL in February 2022, it became — per the Shin’Labo positioning — “home to Asia’s only Krug Chef’s Table.” The Krug Chef’s Table relocated with me: Enfin (April 2016) → Shin’Labo (February 2022). The programme followed the work across two venues, six years apart, in continuous form.

The Krug Single Ingredient Series

The Krug Single Ingredient programme is the Maison’s annual tradition: each year, one ingredient is celebrated through a season of Krug expressions across the global Ambassade. As Krug Ambassade Chef, I have interpreted multiple editions of the brief — Rice and Lemon at Shin’Labo, Chilli in Oaxaca — each a distinct annual conversation between the Maison and its chefs.

At the Krug × Rice edition, Shin'Labo — one chapter in the Series.

For the 2024 brief, the Maison chose chilli — and I carried the edition to Oaxaca, Mexico, working with the producers and the ground that defines the ingredient at source.

Krug × Chilli — Oaxaca, Mexico, and the farm where the ingredient grows.

The Single Ingredient is not a campaign. It is a discipline — and one of the closest matches I have found in the wider luxury-spirits world to the discipline I try to hold in my own work.

Krug × Lemon — the Single Ingredient series at Shin’Labo (mid-2024)

For the 2024 Single Ingredient, the Krug Chef’s Table at Shin’Labo carried a six-course pairing with Krug Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition and Krug Rosé 26ème Édition. Citrus held with restraint at every turn — citron ponzu, citron salt syrup, fermented lemon dashi, soja citron caramel, miso lemon tuile, citron crème anglaise. Not lemon as accent. Lemon as architecture.

A sample evening at Shin’Labo (2024). The menu paired Krug Rosé 26ème Édition through the amuse and sashimi courses, then Krug Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition from the entrée onward:

• Amuse-Bouche — uni tofu with rose and watermelon (shira-ae); ikura with white balsamic pearls and kare rice; menchi-katsu with citron crème
• Sashimi & Sushi Moriawase — aged kanpachi with citron ponzu; kombu and citron cured tai; sushi tuna temaki à la citron; lobster nigiri with citron salt syrup
• Le Entrée (signature) — caviar, miso lemon tuile, fermented lemon dashi, kiku chawanmushi · Krug Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition
• Le Plat Principal — Bidor duck with beetroot and soja citron caramel, alongside binchotan-roasted shiitake with gyokuro and rice
• Pre-Dessert — monaka with citron crème anglaise and vanilla parfait glacé
• Le Dessert — citron kuzu mochi with Japanese momo, grape gelée, sake granité, miso tuile

The signature dish was Le Entrée — caviar with miso lemon tuile, fermented lemon dashi, and kiku chawanmushi against Krug Grande Cuvée 170ème Édition. The lemon read at every level at once: tuile, dashi, the citrus carried in the cuvée itself.

Photographs by Bonnie Yap, three pairing films, and the twenty-four-hour Krug Instagram Takeover — the only chef the Maison has invited to do so — sit at the dedicated chapter.

Walk into Krug × Lemon →

The Krug Music Pairing — Olivier Krug’s tradition

The maison’s other defining cultural ritual is the Krug Music Pairing — the annual invitation to musicians to interpret each year’s Édition through music. Tatler Asia’s interview with Olivier Krug, sixth-generation director of the house, captured the spirit: the maison invites musicians into the experience, and the pairing becomes multi-sensory — bottle, plate, music — in waves rather than in sequence.

The pairing is, in its way, the most cross-disciplinary work in the entire luxury-spirits field. It sits directly with the culinary storytelling discipline that has named my own work — and gives the relationship with Krug a coherence that lies deeper than brand work.

Each year, the maison invites musicians into their bubbly experience.

Olivier Krug — sixth-generation director, Krug Champagne · Tatler Asia

The Italian recognition — Suonami e Versami un Krug

In 2024, Italian gastronomy publication Geisha Gourmet carried coverage of the international Krug Ambassade roster — naming me (Malesia) within the European conversation about Krug. The piece carried the Italian title Suonami e Versami un Krug — Sound Me and Pour Me a Krug.

It is one of the most poetic framings of Krug in any language in my archive — and it travelled, unprompted, into Italian.

The Krug Hong Kong shoot — at the table, in the kitchen. Photographs by JZARINS.

The maison-side counterparts

Krug stewards its own brand and cultural standing from Reims; the Ambassade is conferred by the maison itself. In Malaysia, the relationship has been carried on both sides — directly out of Krug Maison de Champagne, and through Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia (MHD), the regional sales-management partner that distributes the maison in market.

Manuel Reman, President of Maison Krug, has carried the Ambassade work at maison level. The Robb Report feature on Manuel Reman speaks to the gastronomy Krug seeks.

David Dang, Marketing Manager of Wines and Champagne at MHD, is the Krug-side counterpart who has carried the Krug Chef’s Table programme alongside me. His voice, captured in Options magazine’s An Affair to Remember:

James shares the same values as the House of Krug. He sees clearly the bridge between culinary pleasures and Krug’s soul, and he puts forward this link in a simple but impactful manner. Both the chef and the restaurant space dedicated to Krug must strive for excellence in the art of food presentation.

David Dang — Marketing Manager, Wines and Champagne, MHD Malaysia

Julien Pepin Lehalleur, Krug’s head of business development for the US and Asia at the time, attended the opening-day dinner at Brasserie Enfin in 2013/2014 — the maison’s first formal touch-point with my cooking, before the Ambassade was announced.

On the opening day of Brasserie Enfin, I actually hosted a dinner for Julien Pepin Lehalleur, the head of business development for the US and Asia at Krug. He had been coming to Asia for years but never been to Malaysia. I was doing crazy things like durian crème brûlée with blue cheese macaroons. We served the Grand Cuvée that evening. Needless to say, he was blown away." — James Won, Options c. 2016*

The relationship is not with a brand. It is with the people who have carried the brand into Malaysia, decade upon decade.

What continues, beyond the restaurants

After the closure of Enfin and, later, Shin’Labo (2024), the Krug Ambassade work has continued. Food for Thought — Nicholas Ng’s piece The Zest is Yet to Come, dated 9 September 2023 — captures the present-day work. Robb Report’s James Won, Krug, Ryoutei Shin’Labo, Champagne carries the work forward into 2024 and beyond.

The Ambassade did not require a restaurant to continue. The friendship had always been larger than the room.

It’s very intimate and personalised.

James Won — Food for Thought, September 2023

In moving image

In 2023, Krug Maison de Champagne invited me to author its official Instagram channel for twenty-four hours — handing the channel’s voice, for a full day, to the Ambassade Chef. To date, the only chef the Maison has extended this invitation to.

The films from the partnership sit here in one roll — the takeover, the promotional film, and the moving-image record of the Single Ingredient editions across the years. Scroll horizontally to walk through them.

All films commissioned by Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia on behalf of Maison Krug.

The Archive

Every photograph, every film. Twelve years of the Krug × James Won partnership, gathered — for inspiration, for the record. The dedicated Krug × Lemon menu chapter holds its own additional photographs and pairing films at /collaborations/krug/krug-x-lemon/.

Open the archive Twelve years gathered — 27 photographs, 3 films

Photographs

Films

Three additional pairing films from the Krug × Lemon menu sit at the dedicated chapter — see Walk into Krug × Lemon.