Award-winning Thai sommelier Bella Sudarat Jankaew curates a harmonious and thoughtful wine programme at one of Singapore’s most decorated restaurants
The striking of a true balance is a difficult and rare achievement. The idea of bringing multiple components together to formulate a harmonious composition is a paradigm coveted by almost all crafts, but it is perhaps the most subjective in the realm of food and wine.
While the practice of pairing has historically been guided by ancient, regional or seasonal tradition, curating the right glass to effortlessly complement a dish has since grown into a modern art that is now being practised and perfected in haute dining establishments across the globe.
The domain of wine demands the utmost discipline and devotion from those who dare traverse it, and it is this turf that Bangkok-born sommelier Bella Sudarat Jankaew now finds herself striding swiftly and confidently on.
It is just after lunch service when she tunes in to our video call from the two-Michelin-starred Jaan by Kirk Westaway in Singapore, but the ever-diligent and friendly Bella reveals not a drop of fatigue on her face. The 29-year-old head sommelier speaks about what drew her to oenology and how she sees the industry growing with a resolute thoughtfulness and charm we can easily imagine her exuding when engaging with guests.
Since beginning her career in hospitality 11 years ago, Bella has been recognised as a rising star in the industry, having placed second at Thailand’s Best Sommelier 2024 and been a finalist of Asia’s Best Young Sommelier Competition 2025. She was most recently honoured with the Sommelier Award in this year’s Michelin Guide Singapore for her work at Jaan, where she channels her unfaltering passion, deep knowledge and keen instinct into offering guests sincere and sophisticated pairings with executive chef Westaway’s modern British cuisine.
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Bella wins the Sommelier Award in this year’s Michelin Guide Singapore for her work at Jaan / Photo: Michelin Guide
Fresh off the vine
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It might be surprising that one of the island city’s foremost chefs de vin had barely even heard of the liquid during the first two decades of her life. Hoping to earn some extra cash as a third-year political science student at 19, she found a job listing in a semi-fine dining restaurant at the Hotel Indigo on Wireless Road, Bangkok, which opened only for dinner service, meaning she could study mornings and work evenings.“The restaurant had an incredible wine list, and I became so intrigued by this beverage and why it was so popular. I was underage, and wine had never been part of my culture or family,” says Bella.
What began as a part-time gig unexpectedly exposed her to a thrilling new industry. “I received wine training from the F&B manager every day, even though at the time I was just a service staff member. That’s how I realised I wanted to become a sommelier, because I found it so interesting — a wine can come from the same producer and grape, but if it is a different vintage it can have a completely distinct tasting profile. A person’s palate can be transported to a precise country and time of year all through a single sip.”
The young talent pursued her newfound fascination by taking a role at the W Hotel Bangkok, but it was clear the road ahead would not be all roses. “Eleven years ago, female sommeliers weren’t a thing yet. I got a lot of comments asking, ‘Are you sure you’re going to follow this path?’, because all the sommeliers in Thailand then were male,” she recalls. Even now, change has been gradual; Bella is one of few female sommeliers in Singapore.
As she comes from a family with very traditional values, her parents still struggle to understand her job, she says. “They asked me whether I was an alcoholic, or whether it was similar to beer and spirits. I told them, wine is more than just an alcoholic drink. It is a culture, an art, something that brings people together to have deeper conversations. A meeting can go well or not, depending on the bottle being served!”
Proving ground
Sommelier qualifications are often acknowledged as among the most challenging to earn, with the Court of Master Sommelier’s Master Sommelier Diploma Exam famously regarded as one of the world’s most difficult tests. “Preparing for them requires very in-depth study. I remember being unable to sleep for three nights straight until the day of my exam — I could only clear my head and go to bed after I had finished,” recalls Bella, who sold everything she owned in Bangkok so she could afford to attend the esteemed CAFA Wine School in Bordeaux. After a year and a half, she successfully attained her sommelier wine consultant diploma, but rather than stay in Europe, she made the unexpected decision to return home in November 2020.
“It wasn’t my plan, but I’m really glad I came back to Asia. I see so much potential to spread the word, because people here can still learn,” she enthuses. Seeing how Thai drinkers were still fixated on big-name labels, Bella felt compelled to champion smaller producers and help introduce Asian markets to artisanal wines. She did so as a sommelier at several top Bangkok venues, including The Okura Prestige, Kimpton Maa-Lai and Blue by Alain Ducasse.
While day-to-day service enabled her to share her expertise and engage with diners, Bella has also been an avid competitor in sommelier contests, a unique and intense gauntlet where true skill is tested. International stages are not entered lightly. Preparing for Thailand’s Best Sommelier competition demanded so much of Bella’s time that she had to quit her job at Blue. These events require a staggering amount of memorisation and revision for the theory segment, as well as an incredibly comprehensive bank of sensory information for the practical blind tasting portion, where contestants must determine details such as grape variety, year, origin and alcohol percentage, as well as name a food pairing.
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“It’s very hard, especially if you’re working for a Michelin-starred restaurant. If you do lunch and dinner services, you’re basically at work from morning till night,” she says. “I really needed a routine to spare at least 30 minutes to an hour after reaching home, just to review everything. Every day, the world of wine is changing — new producers, new appellations, climate change, global warming. Just like stocks or politics. That’s what makes it interesting.”
Though being crowned Thailand’s second best sommelier came as a pleasant surprise for Bella, who had only hoped to gain experience, it is seldom about the gold medal at the top of the podium. Rather, competitions are a chance to meet and network with passionate peers within the wine community. “We were not rivals — we were friends gathering in one city, sharing the same values and vision,” she says of Asia’s Best Young Sommelier 2025. “There are so many talents from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan who are now working all over the globe. It opened my eyes to the fact that there are other young sommeliers pushing the industry forward.”
Developing meaningful bonds and friendships has motivated Bella to be better not only for herself but to grow the global wine market, and ensure the community remains welcoming to those who are just starting out. Within Singapore, she says, keeping in touch with other establishments about a particularly impressive bottle or the daily scenarios they face can help them prepare for challenges they have yet to encounter, reinforcing the strength of the community.
Reaching for the stars
It was in fact through her relationships in the hospitality field that she was introduced to her post at Jaan now. While she was on vacation in Singapore after the competition period, a few friends she was visiting proposed that she take the opportunity to meet with several local restaurants to explore potential opportunities. “I didn’t even have a suit to attend my interviews because I was on holiday! But they said, it’s all right, just come as you are. When opportunities come, I will always take them.”
Nowhere made an impression as profound as Jaan, though. “When I spoke to chef Kirk and the restaurant manager Joseph Moltot, I felt this connection. Some places might hide what their work culture is really like, but when they told me they work as a team with no borders, I could see in their eyes they really meant it,” she says.
Since joining earlier this year, Bella now oversees a list of close to 700 labels from the Old and New Worlds, Asian nations such as Syria and China, as well as English bottles. (There are no Thai varieties yet, but she gives an honourable mention to Thailand’s only female winemaker Visootha Lohitnavy, better known as Khun Nikki, of GranMonte in Khao Yai.) The restaurant also retains a generous range of 10 red and 10 white house pours so diners looking for a single glass can still enjoy variety and value. “Our curation philosophy is based on chef Kirk’s dishes. Every wine we have selected needs to work with this cuisine,” she explains.
So, what makes a good pairing? Bella’s approach couples precision with instinct. “All food in the world have five main qualities: sour, sweet, spicy, salty and umami. What we need to find every time is harmony,” she points out. When trying a dish, she recommends experiencing each component separately before combining them as the chef intended to better understand every element, then looking for a wine with a complementary character. “What are the notes in the glass, and how do I match them to the foods in my memories? From there, I narrow my options.” For example, a meal that is too heavy or creamy needs a more acidic wine to lift it up.
Finding balance is easier said than done, though. “Some days with chef Kirk, we could open five or six bottles and still be unable to find the right combination; other days, it’s easy and we get the perfect one very quickly.” Her favourite pairing at Jaan, when pushed to pick one, is the “crisp and brioche-y” Blanc de Blancs from Gusborne Estate, an English sparkling white, with Westaway’s Violet Artichoke dish — an artichoke custard base with cured Japanese egg yolk, Kristal caviar and mushroom toast.
Despite all the painstaking complexity associated with high-calibre food and wine, none of the small stuff matters if a sommelier cannot engage with their guests in a relatable way. “You could be the smartest sommelier or have the most brilliant memory, but river names and parent varieties are not really things you say on the floor,” she notes. “When you are with your guests, the most important thing is to create connections, to be able to find the simplest words to describe an amazing bottle. We are a medium to communicate the winemaker’s intentions. Every day, I learn something from my guests as well.”
Keeping adaptable is a must for any sommelier, and with the younger market now preferring natural or low-ABV options, Bella is conscious of how she must pivot to accommodate these trends. “Older sommeliers might raise their eyebrows at someone coming to their restaurant to ask for a low-alcohol champagne or 5% moscato d’asti. Why not just order a mocktail, or why drink wine at all? But I see myself as a bridge between two generations,” says Bella about helping inexperienced drinkers cultivate their knowledge. “They might not have the wallet for Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, but they are curious and might want to start from something low-ABV. We need to give some love to underrated productions that youngsters are seeking nowadays.”
It is a little early to be thinking of next steps, but Bella offers a clear vision of what could be on the cards. “I would love to go into a big group of restaurants where I can overlook the wine programme of each establishment, especially one that has several different styles and cuisines. But that’s not in the near future; I really want to practise and learn from my present first.”
Like many others in her shoes, she states that passing the CMS Master Sommelier’s exam is her highest ambition, the grand final leg of her journey. For now, we focus on the end of the day: “After work, I don’t drink wine!” says Bella. “I prefer to go for a martini, especially from the [Fairmont Singapore]’s bar Anti:dote — I love the extra dirty martinis there.”
