Dynamic Duos

Yin and Yang. Adam and Eve. Posh and Becks. Mario and Luigi. Where would the world be without these dynamic duos? This month TALK highlights a few of the city’s very own power couples who are making waves in the food and beverage, entertainment, creative, environmental and art industries.

Stefan and Yoshi Stiller

Any restaurant worth its salt strives to maintain seamless communication between the front of the house and the kitchen. Chef Stefan Stiller discovered the magic ingredient 12 years ago by marrying his General Manager, Yoshi. 

The dynamo hospitality team met by chance when a friend recommended Stefan ask Yoshi to help while planning a wine festival in Germany. Yoshi was on holiday, but she grudgingly came in and the rest is history.

Now, at the couple’s namesake restaurant, Stiller’s, Yoshi manages the floor of the restaurant, while Stefan heads up the kitchen. They try to keep their roles separate, but more than a decade of co-existing as colleagues, as well as man and wife, have given the couple an almost omniscient ability to predict the other’s moves.

“If I’m working and Stefan is not, I can look at a plate and say, ‘No, Stefan would do it this way,’” Yoshi explains. “And because I know him so well, the staff trusts me to know what he wants.”

While their first-hand knowledge of each other’s habits comes in handy at the restaurant, living and working together has its ups and downs. While Yoshi was sitting her graduate school exams, Stefan opened Grand Cru. “I thought, ‘Oh great! Perfect timing,” Yoshi laughs. It ended up working out for the best, as the restaurant received a Michelin star in just 14 months.

Juggling the restaurant and family life is another challenge for the culinary power couple, especially when it comes to raising Zoe, their eight year old daughter. While they want her to inherit their love of food, they hope she doesn’t follow in their F&B footsteps.

“Zoe asked me the other day, ‘So since the name of the restaurant is Stiller’s, if you’re not there and Daddy’s not there, then I’m the boss, right?’” says Yoshi. They both shake their heads.

“We love our jobs, but we want a more relaxing, less stressful life for our daughter,” says Stefan.

Stiller’s. The Cool Docks, 6-7F, Bldg 3, 505 Zhongshan Nan Lu, near Fuxing Dong Lu. Tel: 6152 6501. Web: www.stillers-restaurant.cn