The Fullerton Hotel teams up with renowned pastry chef Antonio Bachour for limited time collab till 15 Nov
Not too sweet.
Every Asian person knows that these three little words are the pinnacle of compliments when it comes to dessert. And while award-winning pastry chef Antonio Bachour hails all the way from Puerto Rico, he totally gets it.
“I don’t like sweet desserts,” he declared to MS News when we sat down with him during his recent visit to Singapore, where he’s presenting a three-month collaboration with The Fullerton Hotel that’s as eye-pleasing as it is mouth-watering.
Running from 15 Aug to 15 Nov 2026, the limited-time team-up spans afternoon tea, à la carte dishes, cakes, and viennoiserie, bringing together signatures from Bachour Miami and creations developed specially for the Lion City.
And true to his word, many of the desserts lean more balanced than saccharine, which makes sense once we learn that Chef Bachour generally avoids adding granulated sugar to his creations.
It all started with an Instagram DM
Even if Chef Bachour’s name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, his résumé will certainly impress you.
He has spent around 35 years in pastry, with a journey that began in his family’s bakery when he was just 14, before eventually taking him across the globe and earning him accolades including the title of World’s Best Pastry Chef.
Image courtesy of The Fullerton Hotel
His namesake bakery in Miami is also Michelin Guide-recognised, and he has travelled to more than 100 countries passing down the tricks and techniques behind picture-perfect confections to aspiring chefs along the way.
So when someone with credentials like that says a city knows its food, we are inclined to listen. And Singapore, it turns out, has left quite an impression.
Chef Bachour’s partnership with The Fullerton Hotel began in a way fitting for the modern age: with an Instagram DM from one of the hotel’s chefs sometime last year.
They later moved the conversation to email before setting up a video call to discuss the possibility of collaborating on the hotel’s cake shop and afternoon tea menu.
Chef Bachour was keen, but there was one small problem: his calendar was already packed.
“Listen, this year I’m very fully booked. I cannot do it,” he recalled telling the chef at the time. Rather than shutting the door entirely, though, he suggested they pick up the conversation again in 2026.
Loves Singapore’s mix of cultures and cuisines
As fate would have it, Chef Bachour ended up coming to Singapore in 2025 for a culinary class anyway, which gave him the chance to see The Fullerton Hotel’s stunning space and meet the chef who had first reached out to him in person.
“I loved the hotel. It’s beautiful,” he said. But for him, the people behind a collaboration matter just as much, if not more, than the setting itself.
“If I like the people, I will do it,” he added, describing the chef and his team as respectful, talented, and people he communicated well with.
That warm impression extended beyond the hotel, with Chef Bachour developing quite the soft spot for Singapore itself.
What stood out to him was just how much culinary variety is packed into such a small place, particularly the way so many different cultures come together and, in his words, make the gastronomy here “richer”.
And he has certainly been making the most of that while he’s here. The night before our chat, Chef Bachour made his way to Keng Eng Kee Seafood, where he tucked into “amazing” dishes such as coffee pork ribs and chilli crab, with plans to explore more hawker centres also in the cards.
Between all that eating and the very important job of personally tasting everything created for The Fullerton Hotel collaboration, he joked that he had probably gained about 5kg over the week.
Says Singaporeans know good food when they see it
That enthusiasm for Singapore’s food scene is also part of why Chef Bachour reckons the country is becoming one of the places the global culinary world should be keeping an eye on.
He pointed to the steady stream of good restaurants opening here, as well as local diners who “travel a lot” and, as a result, “know quality”.
Or, as he put it much more simply, “Singaporeans know how to eat”. And that, in his view, is part of what makes the country feel like a natural fit for something more permanent than his three-month stint at The Fullerton Hotel.
For now, nothing is confirmed, though Chef Bachour made it clear that establishing a presence in Asia has long been on his wish list.
In the meantime, Singaporeans can get a pretty good preview of the Bachour experience through his special showcase at The Fullerton Hotel.
Singapore-exclusive desserts join Bachour Miami signatures
For The Fullerton Hotel collaboration, Chef Bachour wanted to give diners here a taste of what they might find at Bachour Miami, while weaving in familiar flavours such as calamansi, yuzu, and coconut.
The result spans afternoon tea, savoury à la carte dishes, croissants, individual desserts, and larger entremets, with both Bachour signatures and creations developed specially for Singapore.
Among the Singapore exclusives are the refreshing Coconut Panna Cotta with Guava Soup and Tropical Fruits, as well as the Calamansi Yuzu Matcha Entremet, which pairs bright citrus notes with earthy matcha.
The afternoon tea line-up also includes Bachour’s Rocher, one of Chef Bachour’s long-time signatures, alongside savoury bites such as Foie Gras Crème Brûlée, Crème Fraîche Tart with Caviar, Lobster Roll, and Lox & Choux.
And circling back to that all-important “not too sweet” test, Chef Bachour prefers to let ingredients such as fruit and chocolate contribute much of the natural sweetness themselves rather than building everything around added sugar.
The idea is simple: keep each dessert balanced enough that, once you finish one, you still feel like happily reaching for another.
If a full afternoon tea isn’t going to fit into your schedule, there is always the more practical option of swinging by The Fullerton Cake Boutique for a pastry on your afternoon break or before heading home.
Designed to make you stop and stare before digging in
Whether you’re settling in for the full afternoon tea or just picking something up from the boutique, you’ll probably want to snap a few photos before digging in.
Chef Bachour is known for creations that are as much about visual impact as flavour, and The Fullerton Hotel collection carries plenty of those playful details too, from the Chocolate Berries Basket, designed to resemble a tiny edible fruit basket, to the Mascarpone Strawberry Bow Tie, shaped like an oversized bow.
That sense of drama is very much intentional. Chef Bachour told us he always wants that initial “wow” moment when someone sees one of his pastries, though he was quick to stress that flavour comes first.
The visual side has also helped him build an online following of almost 1.7 million, with Chef Bachour recalling that people were drawn early on to the colourful, highly stylised look of his desserts.
Long before mirror glazes, edible flowers, and brightly coloured chocolate became familiar social media fodder, he was already experimenting with them, even if some traditionalists were sceptical at the time.
These days, flavour combinations come more instinctively after decades in pastry. The bigger challenge is dreaming up a look that still feels fresh, with some designs taking months, or even up to a year, to perfect alongside his Miami-based R&D team.
So while the pastries are certainly Instagram-friendly, the prettiness is only half the point. For Chef Bachour, the goal is to make something that catches your eye first, then tastes even better once you finally bring yourself to cut into it.
Try Chef Bachour’s creations at The Fullerton Hotel till 15 Nov
If all this has you tempted to see and taste these gorgeous pastries for yourself, you have about three months to do so.
Afternoon Tea by Antonio Bachour runs from 15 Aug to 15 Nov 2026 at The Courtyard, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, with seatings from 12pm to 2.30pm and 3.30pm to 6pm.
It is priced at S$75++ per adult and S$45++ per child aged six to 11.
The à la carte menu is available over the same period from 11am to 9pm, while selected cakes and pastries can be ordered for delivery or self-collection from The Fullerton Cake Boutique, whose takeaway counter is open daily from 10am to 7pm.
For more information or to make a reservation, visit The Fullerton Hotel’s website.
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Featured image by MS News.
