How Michelin-starred Hong Kong chef Wong Wing-keung keeps standards high in the kitchen
- When Wong Wing-keung was starting out, he worked 11-hour days and had just four days off a year
- Now executive chef at the Mandarin Oriental’s Man Wah restaurant, he inspires a younger generation of cooks
How did you get into cooking? “My father was a chef working in restaurants. I was not studious so I followed him into this field when I was 15 years old because there were fewer opportunities for people who weren’t academically minded.
“I started off doing odds and ends like cleaning up and chopping vegetables. It took me about three to five years to begin to like cooking. At first I wasn’t interested, but after I started cooking and people praised me for it I became more focused.
“My father worked 14 to 15 hours a day and had no holidays. When my generation started it was better: four days of holiday a year, and working for 11 hours a day. My first job in the kitchen was at Sun Hing for six months. Then my father helped me get a job at another place called Tsui Yuen. I worked there for about four years in the 1980s. I was the youngest chef at the wok station and worked my way up.”
My father passed away over 10 years ago and it’s a pity because he was like a food and drink dictionary. So whatever knowledge I have, I pass it down
Where else did you work? “The bosses at Yuen Yuen, in Sheung Shui, liked me and made me head chef. I was around 22 years old. The boss thought I was hard-working and gave me a chance, but expectations for that location weren’t too high. Then I worked at Tsui Tai for over a year. The owner there opened a restaurant in Sha Tin and hired me as head chef, and then he opened two more and I had to look after all three locations.
“I have been with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group for 10 years. I started working at Man Wah in 2011 and, two years later, was transferred to Yee Tung Heen, at The Excelsior Hong Kong [which closed in 2019], where I helped get the Michelin star in 2017. I returned to Man Wah in 2018.”
“My father passed away over 10 years ago and it’s a pity because he was like a food and drink dictionary. So whatever knowledge I have, I pass it down to my colleagues in the kitchen.”
