Meet Kevin Wong, Asia's representative in a global young chef competition
Young chefs from some of Singapore'south hottest restaurants have over again done this island country and feted food capital proud.
Following the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Asia regional finals on Wed, September x, held at the Ecole Tsuji Tokyo culinary school in Tokyo, Kevin Wong, a sous chef at Meta Restaurant, was crowned the winner and will correspond the region at the finals in Milan in May next yr.
He came out elevation in a group of 15 finalists, which included four of his peers currently working in Singapore; namely Ashlee Malligan of Nouri, Yi Cin Lim of Restaurant Jag, Tor Aik Chua of Restaurant Zen and Fahmi Jamaluddin of Subrosa Dining.
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Contestants were mentored by their respective head chefs. Meta chef-owner Lord's day Kim praised Wong for showcasing "the strongest technical skills, genuine creativity and an infrequent personal belief most gastronomy", winning the judges over with his signature dish, dubbed Celebration of a Duck.
This is also the third time a Singapore-based chef has taken the regional title, post-obit Jaan's Kirk Westaway in 2022 and Burnt Ends' Jake Kellie in 2017.
WEATHERING THE Tempest
This was the quaternary edition of the S.Pellegrino Immature Chefs competition, and the young competitors were as driven and focused as before. Non fifty-fifty a typhoon that hit Japan the twenty-four hours the chefs arrived in Tokyo could break their spirit.
It did, nonetheless, make sourcing for their desired ingredients at Toyosu market the adjacent morning difficult, to say the least. Some chefs were forced to go back to the market place the morning time of the finals.
Team Meta, on the other manus, had a program in place. Dominicus and Wong had acquired the assistance of their friend Luke Armstrong, previously the head chef at Bacchanalia, who is at present working at Standard mandarin Oriental Tokyo, to source for their star ingredient – the duck. In Japan, they could get fresh ducks, not just frozen ones, they fabricated a trip to the hotel a few days before the competition to bank check on the quality of the duck.
And the try paid off as Wong admitted he felt relief having spent the concluding six months preparing for the competition. "If y'all prepared correctly, yous just follow what you trained for," he added.
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One of the judges, Julien Royer of Odette, pointed out that the "near of import thing is the flavour, not the presentation or whatever other things".
So, information technology helped that Wong had prepared the dish every weekend for Sunday to taste. He showed innovation in using dried duck bones to make a glaze, equally he wanted "to express the spirit of the duck". He as well shared how he was inspired by the pop roasted duck found at many hawker centres in Singapore. But instead of molasses, he used a reduced mixture of mirin, Saikyo miso and kinome leaves (from the Japanese prickly ash tree).
For the dish, Wong pan-roasted the duck breast before brushing information technology with the aforementioned mixture and finishing it over a charcoal grill. He also fabricated Japanese-mode meatballs and charcoal grilled it in front of the judges.
He had picked up this tip from Louis Han, the chef at Kimme, who had taken role in the contest last twelvemonth. He advised grilling the meat a la minute as this elevates the flavours, according to feedback Han had received virtually his barbecued quail dish.
COOKING WITH POSITIVITY
Working in Singapore exposed Wong, who was born in Kuala Lumpur, to the broad range of local flavours that he loves to comprise into his dishes, "just in a harmonious manner".
He also acknowledged the importance of the harmony he sees in his "squad", which not only involves his colleagues in the kitchen, just also the producers, and artisans they work with.
"I feel the future of gastronomy is bright," shared Wong, who believes that food is truly a "universal linguistic communication". He sees something inspiring in how the love of food can bring people together.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/access/kevin-wong-s-pellegrino-young-chef-competition-229731
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