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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