bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Ashlyn Chak

“Some people actually think I’m a legit chef. I’m definitely not,” Chef West says with a laugh. “All I am is a home cook.”
Although not professionally trained in the culinary arts, the Hong Kong rapper-producer – who prefers to go by his alias – has garnered over 45,000 Instagram followers, who tune in to his cooking videos thanks to their blend of music and cooking.
Things started happening for West on February 29, 2024, when he uploaded a video of himself making chicken with garlic and spring onion oil while rapping about it in Cantonese with a sprinkling of English.
At the time of writing, the video has racked up more than 1.5 million views and over 56,800 likes.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by chefwest (@chefwestt)



Since then, he has appeared in adverts for Hong Kong companies such as supermarket chain ParknShop, high-end grocer City’super and the K11 Musea shopping centre.
His content creation does not stop there. In February 2025, West began incorporating a new element into his videos: street-style interviews.
His idea is to connect with influencers and Hong Kong celebrities, make their favourite dishes and film the process.
“I was looking at content creators outside Hong Kong, like this guy who shouts at his gai fongs [neighbours] from his balcony, asking them what they wanted to eat. He then cooks and brings the food down for them.”
West adds: “It’s quite fun, because I get to meet more people out of my usual scope and open up new audience bases.”
His first guest was Tsoul Tin Yiu-shing, a dancer who rose to fame on Hong Kong broadcaster ViuTV’s 2023 reality competition show King Maker V.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by chefwest (@chefwestt)



The dish West cooked was braised tofu and roast pork belly with rice, and the video has 425,000 views on Instagram to date.
The most viewed of these interview videos features indie singer-songwriter Chanka and her favourite dish, Chinese watercress soup. The video has so far racked up 728,000 views.
When West was growing up his mother cooked mostly Cantonese dishes at home. As a child, he would “always stand beside her in the kitchen and watch her cook”, he tells the Post. This meant that making watercress soup, a Hong Kong household staple, came easily to him.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by chefwest (@chefwestt)



“After secondary school, I took a gap year in 2013 and lived in the UK, where the food was really s***,” he says. “It was also expensive to eat out – you won’t get the cha chaan teng [traditional Hong Kong-style cafe] rate in the UK.
West realised it was better to save money and cook for himself. “I gradually began cooking for the eight flatmates I lived with and spent a lot of time watching cooking videos,” he says.
He returned to study at the University of Hong Kong, where he became friends with a fellow music enthusiast who goes by the stage name Shinylungs. The two started jamming for fun. Around 2020, they began making music more seriously and still collaborate regularly on West’s less food-oriented projects.
“We started making music during Covid. We’d get off from our full-time jobs and pull all-nighters to make music until we had to go to work.”

West adds: “That’s how we made our first bunch of music, which was not very meticulous. It was just friends having fun and enjoying ourselves, which, I think, shaped my music now.
“Musically, we want to emphasise making things on the spot.
“A lot of Cantopop or hip-hop artists nowadays take a lot of time to write meaningful lyrics that are very articulate – I’m not saying that’s not good – but that’s just not something we have the most fun doing.”
Music is not the only thing that came around for West organically. He began making videos as a freelance side gig during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the company he then worked for was not doing well.

He transferred the skill set to his first viral video, which was filmed as he moved houses and wanted to document cooking in his old kitchen.
“There are already tons of cooking videos out there. How about I mix in something else that I also know? So, I made the beats and wrote some lyrics for my first food and music video, which went very viral.”
He says he picked the name Chef West because musicians in the English-speaking world, especially hip-hop artists, often refer to making music as “cooking something up” – a phrase which reflects both his musical and culinary inclinations.
West has carved out a niche for himself, which he describes as “so-called successful” because food is such a universal language.
A lot of people make food content, but when you add a unique element the form of your content becomes harder to replicate.
Chef West
“From a dai ma (middle-aged woman) in Guangxi to an extreme right-winger like Donald Trump, everyone likes good food,” he says. “People just connect to it.”
He adds that a large part of his viewership comes from the Chinese diaspora community, and speculates that his “local dishes” resonate with them.
“People from Canada, the UK and the US have told me, ‘My mum used to make this for me when I was young and I miss it so much, being overseas.’ A lot of people message me about that. I think food really connects with people.”
Being at the unconventional intersection of music and food also allows West to explore, while his commercial work – such as creating a track for Hong Kong developer Swire Properties about greenery, inspired by his days studying environmental science – help fund his more creative projects.

“Now that I have this viral food music thing, I can ignore all other noise and just make what I want to make in my music,” he says. “I don’t have to care about streams or whether my songs get popular. My music has become much more versatile. I kind of like it better this way.”
He also credits his business-savvy father, who instilled in him the idea that successful entrepreneurs “are multifaceted with many skill sets, and they find a way to bring them all together in one net”.
“I think making content is similar in this way,” he adds. “Perhaps my ‘stir-fry’ method [of content creation] was subconsciously inspired by my dad’s teachings.
“A lot of people make food content, but when you add a unique element the form of your content becomes harder to replicate.”


Chowa’s Hong Kong chef saw Guangzhou as a challenge. He reveals how he won the city over

Conspiracy Chocolate’s mahjong set unites good luck and tastiness for Chinese New Year

From Atomix to Ta Vie, how couples in restaurants turn kitchen pressure into partnerships

Word on the StrEAT: 6 F&B power couples on what love looks like after service

Food and Drinks

Hong Kong chef-rapper whose hip-hop cooking videos lit up Instagram on the power of food

Hong Kong rapper and cook Chef West. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Chef West in Hong Kong’s Kennedy Town neighbourhood. The musician and cook has found thousands of fans on Instagram by blending food and hip hop. Photo: Jonathan Wong

West, who grew up on home-cooked Cantonese dishes, says he would always stand beside his mother in the kitchen and watch her cook. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Egg and char siu barbecue pork rice by Chef West. The musician started cooking Cantonese dishes to save money while on a gap year in the UK. Photo: Chef West

West says that when it comes to food, “People just connect to it”. Photo: Jonathan Wong

New York bar mixes cocktails and Chinese pop to give the music life beyond karaoke lounges

929’s The Most Familiar Stranger cocktail, inspired by Taiwanese singer Elva Hsiao. Photo: 929

The interior of 929 in New York’s Long Island City neighbourhood. The Chinese pop-inspired cocktail bar serves drinks inspired by stars of the genre accompanied by a soundtrack of Mandopop and Cantopop classics. Photo: 929

New York cocktail bar 929’s walls are decorated with posters of various Cantopop singers, and the soft, red lighting is reminiscent of scenes in Wong Kar-wai films. Photo: 929

Chen Haoran as a child with his mother in Macau, where she was from. Photo: courtesy of Chen Haoran

The Most Familiar Stranger at 929 takes its name from an Elva Hsiao song. Photo: 929

Leslie’s Sleepless Night at 929 is inspired by a Leslie Cheung song. Photo: 929

Love is Like a Bad Cold at 929 borrows the name of a Yuki Hsu ballad. Photo: 929

929’s Not the Melon You Know is a nod to Chinese musician Dou Wei. Photo: 929

Chen Haoran frequently performs DJ sets at the bar, playing Cantopop and Mandopop hits from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Photo: 929

Chen Haoran says music continues to connect him to his roots, and also helped him embrace his identity as a gay man. Photo: courtesy of Chen Haoran

AI in the restaurant kitchen? Top French chefs debate the use of ChatGPT

French-Israeli chef Matan Zaken at his Michelin-star restaurant Nhome in Paris. He is an advocate of using artificial intelligence to create new recipes and flavour combinations. Photo: AFP

French-Israeli chef Matan Zaken at his restaurant Nhome in Paris. He embraces the use of ChatGPT in the kitchen. Photo: AFP

Many chefs are reluctant to admit just how much they are already consulting services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help them with recipes and ideas. Photo: Reuters

Philippe Etchebest (right) and a member of his team in the kitchen at Maison Nouvelle. Photo: Instagram/chef.etchebest

Black Pearl Restaurant Guide 2025 makes its international bow in Singapore awards ceremony

Meituan’s Black Pearl restaurant guide held its first awards ceremony overseas, including a gala dinner, in Singapore. Photo: Meituan

Sebastien Lepinoy of Singapore’s Les Amis restaurant, recipient of the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide 2025’s Master Chef Award, speaks on stage at the awards ceremony in Singapore. Photo: Meituan

Tang Yan, the head of the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, addresses guests at the awards ceremony at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands complex. Photo: Meituan

Park Seung-hun of Hong Kong’s Hansik Goo restaurant received the Young Chef Award. Photo: Meituan

Chef Weng Yongjun of Yong Fu in Shanghai introduces his dish for the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide dinner, Ningbo-Style bamboo shoots. Photo: Meituan

Amber chef Richard Ekkebus (left) with other two-diamond awardees at the ceremony in Singapore. Photo: Meituan

On the menu at the ceremony was braised South African abalone. Photo: Meituan

6 of Singapore’s best hidden speakeasy bars that will take you back in time – and how to find them

Bartenders at Chandu create drinks with a narrative that are loosely based on history. Photo: The Robertson House by the Crest Collection

A bartender mixes a drink at Chandu, one of our picks of six of the best hidden speakeasy bars in Singapore. Photo: The Robertson House by the Crest Collection

The Mizuwari whisky highball at Live Twice uses Hokkaido soft water rather than soda to accentuate the malt notes of the Japanese Nikka whiskies. Photo: Instagram/@livetwicesg

Chandu is inspired by Singapore’s colonial era, when opium dens flourished in the city state. Photo: The Robertson House by The Crest Collection

Chandu’s Mata Hari cocktail is named after a Dutch dancer and courtesan. Photo: Facebook/Chandu

Oriental Elixir, located in a Peranakan rowhouse, is a dimly lit watering hole for nonconformist cocktails. Photo: Philipp Meier

Oriental Elixir’s Malabar Tamarind cocktail combines the sour ingredient with roasted cherry tomato gin, dry vermouth. Photo: Instagram/@oriental.elixir

Junior the Pocket Bar is a small, 25-seater speakeasy that tasks itself with changing the menu completely every few months. Photo: Philipp Meier

A cocktail titled Sesame from the Korea-inspired menu at Junior the Pocket Bar. Photo: Junior the Pocket Bar

Jade Harbour is part of The Bund menu currently offered at Junior the Pocket Bar, inspired by the Shanghai district. Credit: Junior the Pocket Bar

For its Korean Joseon dynasty-inspired menu, the interiors of Junior the Pocket Bar featured dragons. Photo: Philipp Meier

Roxy is a hip-hop-inspired speakeasy hidden inside the Miss Fitz restaurant in Singapore’s Marina Bay. Photo: Facebook/Roxy

The drinks at Roxy are based on classics, but are given their own spin. Photo: Facebook/Roxy

Last Word has finessed tipples that were invented in the 1920s. Photo: Philipp Meier

Last Word’s eponymous cocktail is a classic, blending gin, maraschino liqueur, green chartreuse and lime. Photo: Instagram/@lastwordsg

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Viral Cantonese cooking and rapping Instagrammer Chef West talks about how food resonates with people and blending skills for success


Viral Cantonese cooking and rapping Instagrammer Chef West talks about how food resonates with people and blending skills for success.


Hong Kong chef-rapper whose hip-hop cooking videos lit up Instagram on the power of food

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Viral Cantonese cooking and rapping Instagrammer Chef West talks about how food resonates with people and blending skills for success

Viral Cantonese cooking and rapping Instagrammer Chef West talks about how food resonates with people and blending skills for success