Going Beyond His Years

Quietly confident and self-assured, his mannerisms belie his age of 23 years. He knows what needs to be done and goes for it, a testament to the countless competitions he has joined since he became a student of the Academy.

Mathew credits the Academy’s study and work pedagogy for giving its students a taste of what the culinary industry is about. This includes the daily line-up, a practice of running through the day’s duties that originated from The Ritz-Carlton, as a culture that should be instilled in all kitchens.

“I enjoy coming to school every day,” he says. “I feel very blessed to have friends who are very passionate and lecturers who care. Wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

Mathew is being mentored by Chef Sébastien Lefort, the Academy's Director of Craft, Excellence and Partnership. Like the mise en place (a French culinary phrase that refers to the kitchen setup before cooking), he has his culinary career mapped out.

Upon graduation, Mathew will continue his apprenticeship at the LeVel33 restaurant for another year. “I told Chef Sébastien I want to get the technical skills right, because ultimately I want to open my own restaurant and I don’t want anybody to question me,” he reveals.

Mathew’s future restaurant has to be one that’s guided by a philosophy, not necessarily based on a cuisine. “It could be either new Nordic or farm to table, similar to Chef Ryan Clift’s Open Farm Community where he serves homegrown herbs and locally-sourced ingredients,” he says.

With his love for Italian food, we asked if he would set up a restaurant in Italy. Mathew replied with a grin: “You wanna do Italian food in Italy? That’s a career suicide.”

From Kitchen To Kitchen We were curious how Chef Aaron adjusted from the kitchens of the Academy to a professional one. He cited time - or rather the lack of it - as every chef’s biggest challenge.

Due to the high turnover rate in restaurants, chefs have to work doubly hard to replenish their mise en place within a short period of time. He even cut his middle finger once while filleting 20 kilos of salmon. The cut was so deep that he had to get two days of medical leave.

But the young chef remains unfazed. Not the cuts nor having to work during festive seasons. He’s well aware that in order to make it in this cutthroat industry, a positive outlook is paramount.

When it comes to his culinary influences, Chef Aaron cited American chef Thomas Keller, owner of three-starred Michelin restaurant The French Laundry in Yountville, California. “I have every cookbook that he’s written. I find the earlier stages of his life, how he started his culinary journey and what shaped him into the chef that he is today, truly inspiring.”

He hopes to open a restaurant by the time he turns 35. Think modern French bistro cuisine like steak and fries, and mushroom risotto. Simple and uncomplicated dishes, much like himself.

Ironically, Chef Aaron prefers not to cook at home, even though he grew up in a home where cooking was a constant. He reveals that most of his chef buddies don’t cook at home either. And when they go out for meals, Hai Di Lao is their restaurant of choice.

Dinner With A Difference

A graduate of At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy, Chef Pang admitted he was no model student. He even received a ‘C’ grade for his final exam. “Back then I was stupid and I didn’t know much. I wasn’t exposed to the world yet. I only started to grow and learn when they threw me into the working environment,” he recalls.

And learn Chef Pang did, especially from his first mentor, Swedish chef Jonas Lundgren, Bocuse d’Or Silver Medallist 2009 and 2010. “Chef Jonas was the first person who made me more precise and refined in the way I cook. Whenever I served his food, I realised I’ll never be the best. And I think that’s a good thing, because the moment you think you’re good enough, you stop learning,” he says.  

Not one to rest on his laurels, Chef Pang has bigger plans for the future. While he sees himself opening a restaurant one day, the recent buzz from the Michelin Guide awards means that it will have to wait to avoid stiff competition from Michelin-starred restaurants.

Instead, the chef who brings his sketch books everywhere with him, will focus his efforts on a pop-up dinner to be held in October. It will be his third one and promises to be more interactive than the last - expect chefs serving food to guests, with some dishes being plated right on the table.

Editor’s Note: Chef Pang is currently serving up Peruvian dishes as Sous Chef at Coya Restaurant in Dubai.

Cooking For Life

For this self-taught chef, nothing comes close to his love for cooking. Despite taking on numerous jobs - he even opened a hair salon - he kept going back to cooking. After establishing himself as a private chef for a few years, he joined At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy to improve his cooking techniques and the rest, as they say, is culinary history.

One of the things he remembers till this very day is Chef Instructor Tan Kok Wah’s soy sauce chicken and bean sprouts dish. “It was a dish that Chef Tan would cook every day and I dare say it’s one of the best I’ve tasted,” he grinned.

He also recalled Chef Instructor McDonald Eng’s tip of deep frying mee sua (salted Chinese noodles made from wheat flour) to remove its starch content, a technique he practises with his own dishes.

As someone who has overcome quite a few hurdles, Chef Dillon has some good advice to aspiring chefs: “Don’t expect anything. Do what you think is your best. One of my biggest challenges as head chef is staffing, as the local F&B job market is filled with overly self-entitled young applicants with a distorted sense of reality.”

“Just a few months back, a local kitchen apprentice with no experience demanded a $10/hour salary because his school fees are high. Managing staff with a distorted sense of reality can be extremely difficult. Sometimes, it is better to be shorthanded with a good team than be staffed up with a bunch of people who cannot help.”

Back To Basics They say it's never too late to learn something new. For Chef Luan, her turning point came at the age of 46 when her children entered their teenage years. “Spreading jam on bread was cooking to me. If you asked me to fry an egg then, I’d probably need 3 backup plans! I decided to learn how to cook because my children were eating too much processed food. I wanted to create memories of cooking good food for them,” she says.

After cooking stints at local food establishments such as Wild Rocket and Food For Thought, she enrolled in At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy to conquer what she calls her “kitchen chasm” - the fear of the unknown. “The Academy provided a very strong foundation for me, even basic knife skills, and it was a very safe environment to learn in,” she says.

While some women might flinch at the prospect of entering the male-dominated culinary world, that wasn’t the case for Chef Luan. “I don’t think of gender, age, race or religion in the kitchen. I just don’t see how a male-dominated industry would make it more difficult for women. You just do what it takes,” she adds.

What, then, does she think defines her as a chef? She pauses before breaking into a smile. “The courage to do something you’re not even trained in. There’s no one to teach you, no precedence, no mentor for a new, pioneering kind of business. The fearlessness to do something so new at the time is what really defines this journey for me.”

Of Flavours and Cultures We had arrived at the tail end of lunch service and satisfied guests were slowly streaming out of the restaurant. But it didn’t stop Chef Malcolm from whipping up his signature Yellow Coconut Crab Curry for the interview.

This dish epitomised simplicity and finesse - morsels of blue swimmer crab meat luxuriating in luscious curry then topped with finely julienned kaffir lime leaves. It was a hallmark of his Peranakan roots. You could say Chef Malcolm was inspired by his studies in At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy and its unique approach in educating students on Western and Eastern culinary techniques.

While he was at the Academy, Chef Malcolm enjoyed attending school for the first time, as it was “all about food, cooking, recipes, and cultures”. He adds: “I will always remember the Thai food classes that were taught by a Thai chef, because it was so different. It made me realise that Asian cuisine is something we can be proud of. It’s not ‘just Asian’ food - it’s about the flavours and cultures we have.”

Staying true to his roots, Chef Malcolm advised aspiring chefs to find their purpose as they pursue their culinary dreams. “You have to find your real reason for cooking and only then can you move forward. Otherwise, you’ll just be going left and right,” he says.