Matthew Kirkley of Belon, French fine-dining restaurant in Hong Kong, on why he’s the right chef to step into Daniel Calvert’s shoes
- The American chef earned a third Michelin star for San Francisco restaurant Coi, then left to lead Team USA in the Bocuse d’Or competition, in 2019
- He has taken over from established chefs at least three times during his career, something he calls his ‘specialty’
Why did you decide to be a chef? “It’s simple. When I was 15, my father told me to go out and get a job. I started at a restaurant in suburban Maryland, as a busboy, but in the US you need a minor’s permit to work if you’re under 16. I couldn’t work past 6pm, but they liked having me there and put me in the kitchen.
“At first it was just an escape from school, but I quickly got attached to the lifestyle. As I got more involved, I realised I had a passion for it and I’ve been doing it ever since. I went to the CIA [Culinary Institute of America] after I’d been working for three years – I had just turned 18.”
You have worked at a lot of great restaurants. Which chef has had the most influence on your career? “There were several. My first fine-dining kitchen was at Seasons, at the Four Seasons in Chicago, with a chef named Robert Sulatycky, who kind of became my first mentor. He was Canadian and the Canadian culinary scene in the late 1990s and early 2000s was heavily emulating what was happening in England, so there was a decidedly French conservative bent as opposed to the culinary zeitgeist of the moment, which was Spanish and molecular.
“I got pushed into French [cuisine] pretty early and stayed on that path. [Joël] Robuchon [at Restaurant Joël Robuchon, in Las Vegas] was a tremendous influence; my stage at Le Meurice [in Paris] when Yannick Alléno was chef, and my time at The Fat Duck [Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, in England] were pretty important.”
You won a third star for Coi, in San Francisco, but then left to lead Team USA in the Bocuse d’Or, in 2019. Why did you want to take part in that competition? “It was always something in the back of my mind, working for Robert Sulatycky. He competed for Team Canada in 1999, and up until Matthew Peters won gold, two years before I took part, Robert was the highest placing North American ever. He was always involved in the competition. I had travelled with him to Lyon in 2007 and I saw the event – he was a judge that year.