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Tatler Asia
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
11 Asian chefs who didn't start in the kitchen
2. Patrick Go (Philippines) The youthful face behind Manila's Your Local didn't initially plan to be a chef. Patrick Go studied at De La Salle University and worked in banking before enrolling in Norbert Gandler's International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management. After working with local greats like Chefs Florabel Co, Jessie Sincioco and Colin McKay, Go rose through the ranks at Black Sheep, eventually transforming it into a progressive Chinese-Filipino concept. Today, he runs the popular Legaspi Village haunt Your Local and continues to collaborate with renowned chefs across Asia. In case you missed it: The (Prudent) reemergence of Chef Patrick G as Makati restaurant Your Local's new chef 3. Alvin Leung (Hong Kong/Canada) Alvin Leung is the poster child for second-act chefs. Before becoming a Michelin-starred restaurateur and judge on MasterChef Canada , he worked as an audio engineer. With no formal culinary training, Leung bought a speakeasy in Hong Kong on a whim and turned it into Bo Innovation—where foie gras meets xiao long bao in experimental, sometimes explosive ways. His trademark 'X-treme Chinese' cuisine combines science, swagger and tradition. No wonder he's known as the 'Demon Chef'. See more: Chef Alvin Leung continues to remain the master of reinvention and deconstruction 4. Vicky Lau (Hong Kong) Vicky Lau began her career as a graphic designer, discovering food through visual storytelling—but one pastry class was all it took to spark a transformation. Today, at Tate Dining Room, she creates poetic French-Chinese tasting menus, each dish imbued with emotion and elegance. Her design sensibility hasn't faded—it's simply been translated to a culinary canvas. Don't miss: Chef Vicky Lau of Michelin-starred restaurant Tate Dining Room on the importance of adaptability and community in Hong Kong's fine-dining landscape 5. Malcolm Lee (Singapore) Malcolm Lee once imagined a life in finance, having studied business at Singapore Management University. But homesickness and heritage led him to the kitchen. Without formal culinary education, he delved into his family's Peranakan recipes and founded Candlenut—the world's first Michelin-starred Nyonya restaurant. His refined take on traditional flavours has made him a powerful advocate for preserving Singapore's culinary culture. 6. Bee Satongun (Thailand) Unlike other chefs who didn't start in the kitchen, Bee Satongun was already in the industry, albeit holding a secretarial job. However, she never set foot in a culinary school. She learned by absorbing her mother's cooking and poring through ancient Thai manuscripts. At Paste, she resurrects old royal Thai recipes with a modernist edge, earning critical recognition and global acclaim for dishes that are both scholarly and soul-stirring. In case you missed it: Chef Bongkoch 'Bee' Satongun of Paste in Bangkok on preserving Thailand's traditional cuisine 7. Ming Tsai (USA/China) Ming Tsai took the traditional route—at first. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Yale and a master's from Cornell. But summers at Le Cordon Bleu, pastry training in Paris and sushi apprenticeships in Osaka proved irresistible. He launched Blue Ginger in 1998, winning a James Beard Award for its East-West cuisine. Today, he heads Blue Dragon, champions plant-based eating through MingsBings, and stars in multiple Emmy-winning food shows. 8. Peter Cuong Franklin (Vietnam) Peter Cuong Franklin's life reads like a novel. Born in Da Lat, he fled Vietnam in 1975, later earning a finance degree from Yale and working as an investment banker. A pivot to food brought him to Le Cordon Bleu and eventually to opening Chôm Chôm in Hong Kong. In 2017, he launched Anan Saigon, a bold Vietnamese dining concept that's made waves globally. His journey from Wall Street to world-class kitchens is both inspiring and deeply personal. 9. Anh Sung‑jae (South Korea) After moving to California at 12, Anh Sung-jae joined the US Army as a mechanic, later deploying to Iraq. Post-service, he trained at Le Cordon Bleu and worked at elite kitchens including The French Laundry and Benu. In 2015, he opened Mosu in San Francisco, relocating it to Seoul in 2017 and opening a second location in Hong Kong in 2022. Eight years after it opened, Mosu Seoul earned its third Michelin star. Anh's journey from battlefield to fine dining is a testament to precision, creativity and discipline. In case you missed it: Meet Anh Sung-jae, the Korean chef behind Michelin three-star restaurant Mosu and judge on Netflix's hit show 'Culinary Class Wars' 10. Stephanie Wong (Hong Kong) Stephanie Wong spent nearly a decade at HSBC before making the leap to culinary school in Paris. She trained at the Alain Ducasse culinary institute and gained experience at Hostellerie de Plaisance and Hong Kong's Amber. Now, she runs Roots Eatery, a delivery-focused concept rooted in local produce and simple, original fare. Who knew a ledger could be a creative springboard to the kitchen? In case you missed it: Roots Eatery's Stephanie Wong on her Hong Kong street food memories 11. Angelo Comsti (Philippines) Angelo Comsti's path to the kitchen included stints as a writer, editor and food stylist. After earning a marketing degree and studying at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, he formalised his culinary skills at Le Cordon Bleu Australia. Today, he's a champion of Filipino cuisine, leading restaurants and penning food columns that highlight local traditions and innovations. His multidisciplinary approach reflects a deep passion for storytelling through food.
Scoop
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Car Seat Headrest New Rock-Opera 'The Scholars' Out Now
Today, May 2nd, Car Seat Headrest release The Scholars. The Scholars is the first new Car Seat Headrest album in five years – an expansive suite of songs that sweeps seamlessly from majestic glam to The Who-worthy bombast. Today, you can hear the buoyant rock 'n roll tour-diary 'The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That Man).' Earlier this month, Will Toledo appeared on the podcast How Long Gone and Paste published a cover story featuring the full group. Writing in Mojo, critic David Fricke blessed The Scholars with a four star review, praising the record as an 'audacious, explosive rock opera" and writing 'For a guy who used to be so lo-fi he made records in the front seat of his parents' car, Toledo has a solid grip on arena-rock scale and thrill-ride momentum.' In May of 2020, Car Seat Headrest (frontman Will Toledo, lead guitarist Ethan Ives, drummer Andrew Katz, and bassist Seth Dalby) released their album Making a Door Less Open, right as the world shut down. This led to a long period of enforced inactivity. When they were finally able to tour in 2022 they were delighted that their audience was now younger than ever, thanks to a new generation discovering their coming-of-age classics Teens of Denial and Twin Fantasy. However, the band was soon sidelined again, this time due to illness. This hiatus resulted in a sustained period of contemplation and reflection for Toledo, which ultimately shaped The Scholars. Inspired by an apocryphal poem by "Archbishop Guillermo Guadalupe del Toledo," and featuring character designs from Toledo's friend, the cartoonist Cate Wurtz, the album focuses on the yearning and spiritual crisis of the titular Scholars. They range from the doubt-filled playwright Beolco to Devereaux, a person born to religious conservatives who finds themselves desperate for higher guidance. Meanwhile, the music draws, carefully, from classic rock story song cycles such as The Who's Tommy and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Self-produced by Toledo, the band have never sounded more fully realized or assured of themselves. And while Car Seat Headrest started as Toledo's solo project, it is now fully a band. 'It didn't really feel to me like things got in sync in an inner feeling way until this record, with that internal communal energy,' he explains. 'That's been a big journey.' The band's rebirth did not come easily. In May of 2020, Car Seat Headrest (frontman Will Toledo, lead guitarist Ethan Ives, drummer Andrew Katz, and bassist Seth Dalby) released their experimental, beat-heavy album Making a Door Less Open, right as the world shut down. This led to a long period of enforced inactivity. When they were finally able to tour in 2022 they were delighted, if surprised, that their audience was now younger than ever, thanks to the surprise viral success of their songs 'It's Only Sex' and 'Sober to Death' and a new generation discovering their coming-of-age classics Teens of Denial and Twin Fantasy. The production-heavy Masquerade tour brought forth no shortage of challenges, as the band pushed the limits of their abilities. 'It felt like a very technically challenging set because we had spent so many years doing this loud, fast, dirty rock music,' says Katz. 'And now we're doing this more precise, large production type of set. Eventually, it came together, and then we all got sick.' Both Katz and Toledo came down with COVID-19, and Car Seat Headrest had to cancel their remaining dates and recuperate. Katz was bedridden for two weeks, while Toledo had a much longer period of illness and discovered that he had a histamine imbalance and had to make major dietary changes. 'There's a part of me who's still a kid who likes a sick day from school. You get to lay around and contemplate the details of life.' He began looking into meditation practices, starting with various apps and then into Chan meditation and strains of Buddhism. That eventually led to a 'dedication to following spiritual practices,' he notes, which informed the album. He was raised Presbyterian and now declines to put a label on himself or keep to any strict definitions of faith. 'I think that one of the big blessings I've been given is that I never saw the institution of church as being the place that holds God, ' he says. ' When you look at the history of the Christian Church, it is always constantly breaking open and shattering and giving rise to new forms. Whether you call it spirituality or not, I can't help but see that in society nowadays with queer culture, with the furry culture, with the bonding together of youth for something that is more than what we knew and what we grew up with.' Inspired by an apocryphal poem by "Archbishop Guillermo Guadalupe del Toledo," and featuring character designs from Toledo's friend, the cartoonist Cate Wurtz, the first half of the album focuses on the deep yearning and spiritual crisis of the titular Scholars. They range from the tortured and doubt-filled young playwright Beolco to Devereaux, a person born to religious conservatives who finds themselves desperate for higher guidance. The second part features a series of epics detailing the clash between the defenders of the classic texts 'and the young person who doesn't care about the canon, who is going to tear all of that up, basically,' Toledo says. 'And so within this one campus, there becomes a war.' From Shakespeare to Mozart to classical opera, Toledo pulled from the classics when devising the lyrics and story arc of The Scholars, while the music draws, carefully, from classic rock story song cycles such as The Who's Tommy and David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. ' One thing that can be a struggle with rock operas is that the individual songs kind of get sacrificed for the flow of the plot,' Toledo notes. 'I didn't want to sacrifice that to make a very fluid narrative. And so this is sort of a middle ground where each song can be a character and it's like each one is coming out on center stage and they have their song and dance." Self-produced by Toledo and recorded, for a change, mostly in analog, The Scholars is 'definitely the most bottom up of any project that we've done,' says Ives, who was urged by Toledo to take ownership of the guitar work and sound design for the album. 'I've started nerding out a lot more in the last couple of years about designing sounds more deliberately, rather than just using your lucky gear and hoping for the best. It was really rewarding, being able to sculpt things a lot more specifically, and being able to layer things in more of a dense way and have more of an active design role in how things come across more than any previous album.' While The Scholars has some of the most expansive Car Seat Headrest songs to date, including the nearly 19-minute long 'Planet Desperation', and opener 'CCF (I'm Gonna Stay With You)', they know how to make each part of the journey compelling, filling the runtimes with unexpected turns and stimulating hooks. And moments like the jaunty 'The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That Man)' show they haven't lost their ability to write a short-and-sweet single that chimes like classic '60s folk pop, updated for the present. Having gone through their trials, Car Seat Headrest are now ready for the next chapter in their career. It will astonish both longtime supporters and new fans. While Car Seat Headrest started as Toledo's solo project, it is now fully a band. 'What we've been doing more of in recent years is just taking the pulses of each other. We've really been leaning into that sort of cocoon that started off with the pandemic years and just turned into this special space that we were creating all on our own, ' says Toledo. 'I was coming out of it as a solo project and it always just felt like it was in pieces. There's the album we're working on, and then there's a live show that we're doing, and then there's everything in between. And it didn't really feel to me like things got in sync in an inner feeling way until this record, with that internal communal energy. And it's become that band feeling for me in a much more realized way. That's been a big journey.' It is a journey that listeners will want to embark on again and again as they absorb and discover the rich depths and clanging resonances of The Scholars. The album arrives in three vinyl editions: Classic 2x LP vinyl with gatefold packaging and a 28-page booklet featuring illustrations and lyrics, Deluxe with added bonus CD featuring 19 unheard demos, jams and outtakes, and Super Deluxe with added 2x limited edition colorued vinyl discs, each copy numbered with stamped gold foil.
Miami Herald
28-02-2025
- Miami Herald
Old food. Misplaced Butt Paste. Bakery roaches. A Broward Winn-Dixie had some issues
Inspectors saw food that had aged out of its place in the deli and roaches in the bakery during a stop at a Plantation Winn-Dixie. By the time Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services inspectors Wenndy Ayerdis and Bryan Kirkconnell were done Tuesday at 901 N. Nob Hill Rd., they had shut down the bakery with a Stop Use Order and marched food to the trash with Stop Sale Orders. The Stop Use Order remained in effect after Inspector Pedro Llanos stopped by Wednesday. Here are some of the problems Ayerdis and Kirkconnell listed. ▪ The bakery had 'carbon-encrusted baking trays.' ▪ 'Live roaches were crawling behind and beneath the large bakery oven near a metal pipe.' That brought a Stop Use Order for 'all open food processing and handling, all food related equipment and utensils in the bakery, including the ovens, proofer and bread slicer.' MORE: Federal lawsuit accuses Publix of deceptive pricing practices — and brings receipts ▪ Too old food packed the deli cold unit. Double hardwood ham, oven-roasted turkey, Serrano ham and criollo ham that reached its seven-day limit on Sunday had been allowed to hang around until Tuesday. Stop Sales all around. ▪ Also in the deli: 'Container of Butt Paste stored inside an empty sandwich preparation unit near the steamer/oven unit.' MORE: Bugs in rice and cases of food in standing water among a Miami restaurant's 41 violations ▪ No paper towels at a seafood area handwash sink. ▪ Packages of jumbo frozen scallops in a retail reach-in freezer contained 'no manufacturer or distributor information.' ▪ 'Old food residue encrusted on the blade' of a deli slicer that hadn't been used Tuesday, so the crud was from at least Monday. ▪ In the produce area, there was 'old food residue encrusted on a knife stored in the clean knife holder.' ▪ Watermelon quarters in the backroom walk-in cooler measured 42 to 51 degrees and needed to be at or under 41 degrees. Stop Sales on the watermelon. ▪ For the same reason, Stop Sales also rained on shrimp, mahi fillets, tilapia, bologna, sausage and ham in retail cold units.
