MasterChef’s Alvin Leung on his ‘x-treme’ Chinese cuisine and why Batman inspires him
Celebrity chef Alvin Leung will film this season’s MasterChef Canada in China and has recently opened restaurants in Taiwan, Singapore, Vancouver and Malaysia
Now in his seventh season of MasterChef Canada, celebrity chef and restaurateur Alvin Leung is filming another television series, Wok the World, with Eric Chong, the first winner of MasterChef Canada.
“We are filming in China next week,” Leung explains as we sit in his flagship three Michelin-starred Bo Innovation in Hong Kong, a restaurant well known for Leung’s twist on local fare, which he calls “x-treme Chinese cuisine”.
Leung says the series traces the history of Chinese food and will air in November. The chef has just finished his first book, Alvin Leung: My Hong Kong.
“There are never enough minutes in the day for what I want to do,” says Leung, who is also known for his Korean television shows Seoul Extreme and Seoul Refined. “I travel on 150 flights a year; I am everywhere.”
Leung travels not just for his television shows, but also for his many restaurants around the world. “We have opened recently in Taiwan, Singapore, Vancouver and Malaysia,” he says.
His restaurant brands include Forbidden Duck, MIC Kitchen, Bib N Hops and Raku in Hong Kong, R&D in Canada, Daimon in Taipei, 15 Stamford in Singapore and FUHU Restaurant & Bar in Resorts World Genting, Malaysia.
“It is all about the right timing. So you meet your wife, you get a break, you do the right thing, you get the opportunity – it’s called the right timing,’’ says Leung, who has just been honoured by the French government with the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole, a special distinction in services to agriculture.
“I think it is important to grab the moment and be ready when the opportunity is in front of you, but people may not be ready when that moment arrives,” Leung says.