Krug

The relationship with Krug is the longest-running brand chapter in Chef James Won's portfolio. 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, Petaling Jaya. Two years before the formal Ambassade induction. Two years before the Krug Chef's Table opened.

What began at that first table 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.

This sub-page records the chapter, with the restraint the relationship has always carried.

The Krug Ambassade — First Malaysian (June 2014)

The Ambassade status begins on the public record in June 2014 — confirmed at primary-source register 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 the date: “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. James Won 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 surfacing — Malaysia’s first Krug Ambassador. The Ambassade is the relationship the maison conferred. The Krug Chef’s Table — which 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) — recording 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 (Singapore-owned fine china creator), 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 register, per primary-source citation: minimum spend RM 25,000 (RM 1,250 per person, assuming twenty guests, food and Krug champagne).

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 in the Sinophone register; Men’s Uno (April 2016) carried it at full editorial 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 Universe brand register — “home to Asia’s only Krug Chef’s Table.” The Krug Chef’s Table relocated with the chef: Enfin (April 2016) → Shin’Labo (February 2022). The programme followed the kitchen across two venues, six years apart, in continuous register. The kitchen’s flagship programme followed the chef from one venue to the next.

Sample register — the 2016 Krug Chef’s Table at Enfin

The 2016 menu surfaced in primary-source coverage included:

• Brioche-scallops-strawberries amuse — toasted brioche with seared scallops, cream cheese and strawberries (paired with Krug Grande Cuvée)
• Trio of roes — salmon roe, flying fish roe (tobiko), with lemon, parsley, and tapioca; black garlic and almond tofu cream
• Argentinian prawns and soft-shell crab — green apple, papaya, violets; shellfish sabayon
• The signature egg dish — sea urchin, slow-cooked egg yolk in prawn oil, miso-cured egg yolk, charred leeks, handmade egg-yolk pasta
• Skilfish main — French abalone, abura bouzu, cod fish milt and cep mushrooms; fondant potato infused with saffron and lobster reduction
• Opera chocolate dome à la Enfin — closing dessert, lightly sweetened to honour the citrusy finish of the Grand Cuvée

The egg dish became the chapter’s defining signature — “all that might seem like an extravagant overload, especially when you add sea urchin on top of it all, but the salty, sweet, soy and umami flavours play off each other brilliantly” (Time Out KL, April 2016).

The Krug Single Ingredient — Power of the Lemon

The Krug Single Ingredient programme is the maison’s annual tradition: each year, one ingredient — egg, mushroom, lemon, fish, onion — is celebrated through a season of Krug expressions across the global Ambassade.

The Malaysian interpretation of the Power of the Lemon edition, covered by FirstClasse, placed Chef James Won within that international conversation of restraint and singular focus. It is one of the Ambassade rituals that defines the cultural register: a single produce element, transformed across menus by the Ambassade chefs worldwide, with Krug Rosé 26ème Édition and Krug Grande Cuvée carrying the pairing.

The Single Ingredient is not a campaign. It is a discipline — the same discipline that holds the kitchen together.

The Krug Music Pairing — Olivier Krug’s Tradition

The maison’s other defining cultural ritual is 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 — at the same time, in waves.

The pairing format is, in its way, the most distinctively cross-disciplinary register in the entire luxury-spirits landscape. It aligns directly with the culinary storytelling discipline that defines this kitchen — 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 Chef James Won (Malesia) within the European editorial 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 the archive — and it travelled, unprompted, into Italian.

The Maison-Side Counterparts

The Ambassade work has been carried, on the maison side, by a continuous Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia (MHD) counterpart team across the years.

Manuel Reman, President-Directeur of Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia, has carried the Ambassade work at executive register. The Robb Report feature on Manuel Reman speaks to the gastronomic register Krug seeks to achieve.

David Dang, marketing manager of wines and champagne at MHD, is the Krug-side editorial counterpart who carried the Krug Chef’s Table programme alongside Chef James Won. His register, 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 the kitchen, 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

Surfacing the maison-side counterparts is a courtesy that signals institutional standing. The relationship is not with a brand. It is with the people who have carried the brand into Malaysia, decade upon decade.

The Ongoing Chapter — Beyond the Restaurants

After the closure of Enfin and, later, Shin’Labo (2025), 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 register. 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.

Chef James Won — Food for Thought, September 2023