Edward Voon, executive chef of Hong Kong’s Le Pan, is happy when customers feel the love in his dishes.
A Singaporean Chinese chef doing contemporary French cuisine in Hong Kong—many would have been fazed by this challenge. Not executive chef Edward Voon, a largely self-taught chef who cut his teeth at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and later held leading positions at various top restaurants in Singapore.
Some 10 years ago, Voon had thoughts of opening his own restaurant. It would have resembled a casual sushi joint, only his would have served tapas food. But plans changed when he was asked by Pan Sutong, a Chinese billionaire electronics and real estate mogul, to be his private chef. Voon agreed and since then, has not only cooked for Pan, but helmed Le Pan at Tianjin Metropolitan Polo Club. Two years ago, he started Le Pan Hong Kong, a fine dining contemporary French restaurant when Pan’s Goldin Financial Global Centre opened in Kowloon Bay.
“It was good that it happened. During that time, maybe I wasn’t ready to open my own restaurant. Now I’m quite complete with the whole package, whether it’s the management side or the business part. 10 years in Hong Kong has taught me a lot.”
With chef Yew Eng Tong, formerly of Resorts World Sentosa, joining him at Le Pan earlier this year, Voon says he now has more bandwidth to think further ahead and implement additional projects, such as launching an Asian-inspired 33-course menu and mentoring a young chef.
When you first launched the restaurant, were there doubters?
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New Blood
The next-generation is breathing new life into the forgotten art of spice-mixing, peppering the traditional trade with renewed ideas and fresh perspectives.
Sharing Is Caring
Compared to its flagship at Serene Centre, Fat Belly Social at Boon Tat Street is a classier and bolder affair, in more than one sense.
Nutmeg's Role In Singapore's History
From tales of it being used to ward off the plague in mid-1300s Europe to one of the ingredients in dessert, we have all known, tasted, or at least heard of nutmeg. But not many know of the spice’s role in Singapore’s history.
New And Improved
The ever-profound chef-owner Kenjiro ‘Hatch’ Hashida finds more room, three to be exact, to express a Ha Ri philosophy at Hashida Singapore’s new location at Amoy Street.
Pairing Spice-Driven Cuisines With Wine
Pairing spice-driven cuisines with wine has long been a challenge but with a little imagination, it doesn’t have to be.
Let Land Grow Wild
Niew Tai-Ran has worn many hats: aeronautical engineering major, investment banker, avid surfer, and, for the last 14 years, winemaker. Discover how this Malaysia-born, Singapore-native is championing the “do-nothing farming” philosophy at his vineyard in Oregon.
The South Asian Misnomer
Incredibly diverse and varied than most know, Indian food is far more intriguing than butter chicken or thosai. Here is a crash course on the extensive cuisine from region to region, recognisable for the seemingly infinite ways of using spices.
Keepers Of The Spice Trade
From its glory days along trade routes to pantry staples all over the world, spices have become so commonplace that we’ve taken them for granted. For these three trailblazers, however, spice is their livelihood and motivation: Langit Collective working with indigenous rural farming communities in Malaysia; IDH’s Sustainable Spice Initiative; and chef Nak’s one-woman mission to share forgotten Khmer cuisine.
Sugar, Spice And Everything Nice
Like food, spices bring vibrancy and variety to alcoholic beverages. Surfacing in unexpected ways on the palate, find everything from cumin to tamarind, cloves to cardamom enriching these drinks.
Building Blocks From The Archipelago
For the smorgasbord of dishes found in Indonesian cuisine, it is a little known secret that the modest bumbu, in all its variants, is the bedrock of such flavourful fare.
