Chef Francis Lim didn’t exactly have a five-year plan for the kitchen. While his parents pictured him taking the more familiar corporate route, Lim had a simpler ambition: to see the world.
F&B came into the picture almost by accident. With an elder sister already in the industry, Lim found himself drawn toward the Center for Asian Culinary Studies, where an interest in cooking slowly became something more. What began as an unexpected detour eventually turned into a career built around food, restaurants, business, and the people who bring them to life.
Today, Lim is an F&B director and entrepreneur behind concepts including Chairman Fu Hotpot Bar, Tipple Cafe, Nav, and Tipple & Slaw. Yet beneath the restaurants and polished plates is an industry he knows can be demanding and far from glamorous.
“There’s a lot of heat, chaos, and non-glamorous things that happen in kitchens,” Chef Lim recounts.
Those realities are not simply part of the job; they are part of what makes working in F&B an exercise in persistence, adaptability, and finding joy in the process.
Redefining Success
Early in his career, Chef Lim had a simpler measure of success. When asked how he defined the idea of it, he laughs.
“My definition of success was just money back then.”
Years in the industry gradually changed that perspective. Success, he now believes, is less about a number and more about being able to enjoy the process, navigate problems, and build a life that is sustainable.
That mindset also shapes how he approaches the everyday demands of running a restaurant. There will be difficult days, mistakes, and unexpected problems, but the challenge is to keep showing up and maintain a standard of excellence.
“We have our bad days,” he acknowledges, “but we still need to be consistent.”
Chef Lim believes that consistency is not about pretending everything is perfect. It is about continuing to move forward, knowing when to ask for help, and learning from the people around him.
Over time, the relationships he built have become just as meaningful as the milestones he has achieved. Conversations, collaborations, and the people he has worked with have all become part of his definition of a fulfilling career.
Grit, Passion, and Resilience
If there are three qualities that define Chef Lim’s approach to F&B, they are grit, passion, and resilience.
Grit, as he defines it, means being willing to work for what you want. Passion gives the work its heart, even when the industry becomes exhausting. Resilience means accepting that challenges are inevitable and learning to respond when circumstances change.
Passion does not mean loving every moment, as Chef Lim puts it. Some days will inevitably be difficult. What matters is finding meaning even in those moments.
“There’s joy in chaos. It’s up to us how we approach handling things.”
That perspective is particularly important in an industry where problems rarely disappear completely. They simply evolve.
Chef Lim also understands that culinary talent alone does not make someone a successful restaurateur. Cooking and running a restaurant require different skill sets. A chef may know how to create a great dish, but building a sustainable business also requires management, financial discipline, strategy, and an ability to work with people.
For those entering the industry, his advice is to remain curious:
“Ask questions. If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no. Try to learn as much before engaging in anything.”
Ask questions, understand the foundations, and keep learning. Talent can open doors, but it has to be continually developed.
Leadership Is More Than Giving Orders
Chef Lim began his career during a time when chefs were often expected to lead through authority. His understanding of leadership has since evolved.
Today, he sees leadership as less about commanding people and more about earning respect, establishing direction, and building a team around a shared vision.
“We are not in the business of changing people, it’s a business about getting people who align with our vision.”
Skills can be taught, but finding people who share the team’s values comes first. From there, training, workshops, seminars, and continuous learning can help them grow.
His approach to leadership is also deeply connected to his own experience.
His elder sister was instrumental in helping him find his footing in F&B. Through the networks she had built, she gave Lim access to opportunities that helped propel his career. More importantly, her support gave him the freedom to discover his own character and personality within the industry.
That experience stayed with him. Knowing what it felt like to receive that kind of encouragement made him want to extend the same opportunity to others, particularly those who are just starting out.
Building a successful business, then, is not a solo pursuit. It is about creating an environment where the people around him can grow, contribute, and find their own sense of purpose.
“It’s all about everyone succeeding.”
Building Something That Lasts
As the F&B industry continues to evolve, Chef Lim sees growing appreciation for food and greater recognition of culinary talent as opportunities for the industry to move forward. But while accolades can celebrate achievement, his personal goal is more grounded.
He wants to build something that lasts.
“What I want to prove to myself is that everything I’m doing can be sustainable. It’s something that I can do consistently, repeatable and scalable.”
For Chef Lim, sustainability means more than keeping a restaurant open. It means creating systems that work, can be repeated, and can continue to grow without losing their purpose.
And after years of building businesses around food, his ultimate ambition is surprisingly simple: to cook for the sheer enjoyment of it.
One of his retirement goals is to have a small restaurant where he can cook whatever he wants without having to think about sales.
“Cooking is irrelevant if we cannot enjoy it.”
It is a fitting thought for someone whose career began almost by accident. What started as an uncertain path eventually became a life built around food, business, relationships, and the people who helped him along the way.
Ultimately, Chef Lim does not want to be remembered simply for the restaurants he built or the milestones he reached. He wants the experience itself to have been meaningful.
“I want to be remembered for enjoying what I do. Be it cooking, business, or other activities, I enjoyed it, and I got to share it with everybody.”
Perhaps that is the clearest expression of how Chef Lim now defines success: not simply by what he builds, but by finding joy in the work, growing with the people around him, and having something worth sharing at the end of it.
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