ACTS OF SERVICE

Go on, then. Ask Vea and Wing's chef-owner Vicky Cheng what his love language is

- Joey Wong

While bathed in the blinding fluorescence of a nondescript Dairy Queen on the outskirts of Toronto, Vicky Cheng found himself at a crossroads.

It was a day just like any; a job just like any. While others rostered at the fast-food chain might see only revolving doors of dead-end shifts leading nowhere fast—or even nowhere at all—Cheng was clocking into the time of his life. “I just loved talking to people,” he says. “I loved the interaction. I loved clearing plates and asking, ‘How was your meal?’

“Can you imagine sitting [at a fast-food restautant], and having someone take what’s left of your tray away for you with a ‘Oh, how was your dinner? How was the burger? Would you like an ice cream for dessert? No? Well, let me get you a glass of water so you can keep chatting,’” Cheng quips, with a wry chuckle. “I was that guy.”

During a shift on a day like any other, someone with a modicum of sway slid into Cheng’s section; it might have been a manager at the Marriot nearby, Cheng can’t be sure now. But exactly one ice-cold Blizzard—Dairy Queen’s signature frozen dessert later—later, he offered Cheng a job at the hotel.

This path, if he chose it, would diverge towards the kind of front-of-house hospitality Cheng is so preternaturally attuned to. “But I had to turn him down,” the chef says, “because I love cooking more.”