Profile | Restaurants focus too much on presentation, veteran chef at Hong Kong hotel says – ‘When you spend too much time arranging it, the food gets cold’
- Tony Wan, the Conrad Hong Kong hotel’s executive Chinese chef, tells Bernice Chan he prefers to cook food family-style so it arrives hot at the diners’ table
- He recalls a tough apprenticeship under master chefs who were ‘quite gruff’, and says: ‘Even today, if the kids talk back or don’t listen we will scold them’
What was your childhood like? “When I was young I didn’t like to study, instead I played sports like tennis and was on the volleyball team. In junior school, I was on the high jump team.
My parents used to take me for dim sum before school. My older brother was a head chef and I would go into the kitchen looking for him. I thought cooking was a good job. To me, it was interesting – I would rather help my mum cook than study.
I studied until Form 3 and then my family arranged two possible jobs for me – either in a bar or a kitchen. I chose the kitchen because my brother worked in a restaurant.
“My parents were concerned because kitchens can get as hot as 40 degrees Celsius, there wasn’t much ventilation and the floors were wet all the time. But I didn’t think it was a problem, that it was too hot or hard work.”
How did you start cooking? “As an apprentice I was interested in many sections, from chopping to the wok. After about three months I was allowed to use a wok. After we finished dinner service, us apprentices cooked supper for the staff and stir-fried leftover noodles. Each night I helped cook, but I wasn’t good at it. I thought about cooking before and after work, and then in the evening I would try out my theories so I could improve. It’s hard to verbally teach someone how to cook with a wok. Even if you watch, you can’t experience the same thing, nor can you just try to imitate the motions.