The celebrity chefs that have come and gone from Hong Kong’s dining scene over the years are worthy of joining a strong seven-a-side football team, packed with the globe’s top tasters – plus a bench lined up with star-studded culinary names.
Gordon Ramsay came in 2014 and left in 2020, Jamie Oliver lasted just as long, Alain Ducasse landed in 2003 and also went when COVID came, Oliver Bellin arrived for an two-year-stint from 2017, and David Thompson lasted five years.
Joining the pack of the world’s top chefs to test the Hong Kong market also included Paco Roncero, Mario Batali, and Jason Atherton.
Hong Kong’s celebrity chef takeover began in the mid 2000s and petered out as the protests and COVID took hold. Now, a new legion of chef’s with big identities and followings have entered to test the Hong Kong market, or grow their following locally, to prove that a name can mean great food.
The art, or rather trend, of celebrity cooking in Hong Kong came with the landing of Alvin Leung in 2003 with Bo, later renamed to Bo Innovation. Here, he matured his signature of ‘X-treme Chinese’ cuisine, meeting Chinese ingredients with molecular gastronomy techniques.
“There was no such thing as celebrity chefs when I first came to Hong Kong,” Alvin claims during an interview with Foodie. “Today, there are very few celebrity chefs in Hong Kong, but [coming to the city to open a restaurant] is always desirable.”
Alvin, unlike other famous entrants, did not title his restaurants with the signature ‘by Alvin Leung’ trademark, but rather marketed Bo Innovation and other later restaurants with an undeniable link between his celebrity, style of experimental cooking, and Hong Kong.
“Putting your name in front of a product is a means of branding. That branding has to stand for something unique about that particular chef. Being a celebrity means that everybody will know your story.”
Over two decades, Alvin states that his niche of serving Hong Kong fine-dining meals with locally-sourced ingredients has created an “expectation of service and food” for him. Alvin’s celebrity chef icon became synonymous with his experimental Chinese cooking and daring concepts.
“Putting my name behind the brands gives [the restaurants] an edge, a head start, but people will always expect top quality from me or other top chefs.When people come to eat at my restaurants, I need to meet that expectation and give a good dea”
The number of celebrity chef’s operating in Hong Kong has dwindled as a result of financial challenges facing the industry. “It is no longer the case that big names are coming into Hong Kong. The city should promote more rather than going overseas for chefs.”
One overseas chef that arrived in Hong Kong last year, enduring much fanfare and allure, was Mauro Colagreco, who imported his three Michelin star mastery and focus on local terroir to Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco in Central.
“I believe having a name and reputation can certainly help in growing a restaurant, but what is most important is the consistency of the work and the quality of the dishes and service. That’s what truly builds a restaurant’s reputation,” Mauro explains.
The unique concept of Plaisance, as the chef details, is the menu’s connection to the ocean and exploration of locally sourced seafood and farm ingredients. “Hong Kong made me feel an immediate connection to the ocean, so it was clear that Plaisance would draw inspiration from that.” The restaurant joined the Michelin Guide as a recommended restaurant earlier this summer.
“Hong Kong is such an incredibly dynamic food scene that opening here is nothing short of a fabulous adventure that every chef is dreaming of! I had been waiting for the perfect project for a long time as I have always loved and looked up to Hong Kong.”
Mauro cites the city’s blend of cultures, influences from other countries, and rich culinary landscape for his move to open Plaisance in the city. A steady market for the import of high-quality ingredients has allowed the chef “endless possibilities for creativity.”
Whilst the Argentinian-Italian chef is not foreign to Asia – he has restaurants in Bangkok, Tokyo, Macau, and China – his menus use local Hong Kong shellfish, black pig, vegetables, fruits, and spices to embed his restaurant into the local scene, rather than sticking out like a foreign import.
One of the world’s most famous celebrity chefs that has operated in Hong Kong for 15 years, a title he disagrees with using, is chef Nobu Matsuhisa, who recently celebrated the one year anniversary of Nobu’s reopening in Hong Kong in late October.
Hong Kong was the brand’s first outpost to open in Asia in 2006. “I grew up and trained in Japan. I had a very good feeling about Hong Kong, the people here know a lot about food. We were offered to open in Hong Kong and I immediately bumped at the chance,” chef Nobu told Foodie about the origins of the city’s restaurant.
Discussing his personal brand identity, with 56 namesake restaurants dotted around the world, Nobu-san refrains from calling him a celebrity chef, “because he is a chef” first and foremost. “My philosophy is best quality food and best quality service. This is the Nobu restaurant philosophy.”
“Any restaurant in any country, at Nobu, we want to make you feel comfortable with good food and service and make you come back.”
Just like Mauro, the brand has sought to localise its product to adapt to the Hong Kong market. “We have our Nobu signature dishes on the menu, our classics, but I want to use the local products as much as possible, speaking with the chefs to create dishes with fish from Hong Kong.”
Those familiar with Hong Kong’s early 2000s dining scene, as a post-SARS economy promoted the growth of fine-dining and sceney restaurants, might know of the celebrity fame of Harlan Goldstein, who billed himself as the “number one Hong Kong celebrity chef.”
Harlan grew a local fame with such self-promotional tactics during the opening of his first tranche of trademarked restaurants in IFC starting in 2004: Harlan’s, H One, The Box, and G Bar.
Following a legal battle with his business partner that ultimately left the Russian-Israeli chef to lose his namesake IP moniker, the chef decided to brand every restaurant he created in Hong Kong ‘by Harlan Goldstein.’
Within 24 years, he operated 10 restaurants with his personal brand, establishing an assumption of quality and prestige wherever Hong Kongers dined. Gold by Harlan Goldstein and Strip House by Harlan Goldstein both won one Michelin star in the 2013 Michelin Guide.
“Everything became ‘by Harlan Goldstein’,” he explained to Foodie, “I could brand my restaurants with my full name and no one could bother me.” Whether Italian, Mexican, Thai, American, or Japanese food, Harlan believed his name brand would do the heavy lifting to market the restaurants themselves.
Only a few restaurants in Hong Kong have continued such tradition after the 2019 protests and COVID crippled the industry and ejected many celebrity chefs from the city, namely Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic, Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco, AKATSUKI by Konishi, ANIMA by Al ché-cciano, and Carna by Dario Cecchini.
Where Nobu Matsuhisa and Mauro Colagreco are concerned, the identity and name of a well-known international chef still comes with some influence in creating a culture around their food in Hong Kong. Local hometown heroes Alvin Leung and Umberto Bombana know that too well.
