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The Star
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
How Hong Kong eatery Wing became one of the world's best restaurants
Sometimes the best things are borne out of the worst moments, sparking ripples of change that lead to extraordinary new beginnings. This is exactly what transpired at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 when famed chef Vicky Cheng opened Wing in Hong Kong, just one floor below his French-Chinese Michelin-starred restaurant Vea. At the time, Cheng was already a vaunted, iconic chef in the city-state. His flagship restaurant Vea was opened to widespread acclaim in 2015 and is a perfect representation of who he is – a French-trained chef who has Chinese roots. But Wing? Well, that proved to be a bit of an anomaly. Wing espouses the values of progressive Chinese cuisine viewed through the lens of someone who is Chinese yet simultaneously is a product of the Chinese diaspora. At the time, opening Wing was a bold move – after all, who would have thought of opening a ground-breaking restaurant at a time when most F&B establishments were charting unprecedented losses? To top it all off, Cheng also had to deal with a whole bunch of detractors. The opening was at first met with incredulity in a city state where Cantonese cuisine – honed through generations of training and home cooking – reigns supreme. Wing was converted into a Chinese restaurant during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Cheng's bar business Vea Lounge wasn't doing well at the time. In many ways, Cheng was viewed as a bit of an interloper – having grown up in Canada, where he himself says he only ate Western food as a child. 'When I was young, instead of watching cartoons, I enjoyed watching cooking shows with Jamie Oliver. I only ate Western food because I wanted to be a French chef since I was young and never thought of another path or occupation since then. I didn't dream about anything else,' says Cheng in an email interview with The Star. But in this regard, Cheng's unique upbringing and formative years are what have proven instrumental in driving Wing's success. Different beginnings Cheng was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Canada. From the time he was a kid, he was determined to be a chef and this vein of thought never changed. As a teenager in high school, he started his culinary career working at an upscale sushi joint in Toronto, Canada. Later, he began his formal training and never looked back. 'I began my formal culinary training at George Brown College in Toronto, where chef Jason Bangerter – now a chef at one of Canada's finest restaurants, Langdon Hall – served as my first mentor. It was there that I progressed from not even knowing how to properly hold a knife to mastering every station in the brigade de cuisine. Cheng says he is able to create boundary-less Chinese food because his lens is different from his peers, having grown up in Canada. Pictured here is a dish of smoked eggplant served at Wing. 'Later, moving to New York to work in Michelin-starred Restaurant Daniel under French chef Daniel Boulud, I was given opportunities to work with ingredients in nearly every conceivable form. Through the intense and creative environment, combined with chef Daniel's guidance, my skills were further refined and elevated, forming the very solid culinary foundation I have today,' he says. It was these skills that came to the fore when Cheng first launched Vea, which was celebrated for its unique intertwining of French techniques with Chinese cuisine. When Wing was launched on the other hand, scepticism abounded everywhere. On a wing and a prayer For many purists, Cheng's advent into what he calls 'boundary-less Chinese cuisine' seemed somewhat impertinent. How could a chef who hadn't spent decades cooking Chinese food or growing up in the womb of the cuisine – now suddenly start cooking it and then open a restaurant devoted to this age-old cuisine? 'If you had asked me 10 years ago about opening a Chinese restaurant, I would have firmly said 'No'. The idea never crossed my mind until I began to deeply explore the richness of premium Chinese ingredients and their limitless potential while brainstorming potential dishes for Vea. The lion's head croaker appetiser is a delicacy from Cheng's grandmother's hometown in Shanghai. 'As I continued experimenting with incorporating Chinese ingredients into Vea's Chinese-French concept, I noticed that many of the dishes I created turned out surprisingly well but didn't quite fit into the culinary philosophy to put on Vea's menu. That's when I realised it would be a shame for these dishes to remain hidden,' says Cheng. Cheng started inviting some close friends to try out his Chinese culinary creations for supper and after receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback, he decided to convert what was originally the bar Vea Lounge into Wing. 'The location of Wing (which is one floor below Vea) was converted from Vea lounge to a Chinese restaurant during the pandemic period a few years ago when bar businesses were going down, which led to an opportunity for this space to transform into my Chinese restaurant – Wing. 'Because the location is only one floor below, we know that we had to create something very distinct to differentiate the identity of both restaurants,' explains Cheng. Cheng began on shaky, uncertain ground, but as the accolades started pouring in, his confidence in what he is doing has grown. Since its inception, Wing has become one of the hottest restaurants in Hong Kong and this year, it scooped the World's 50 Best Restaurants' Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2025. In the 2025 Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list, Wing is ranked No 3 and in the recent World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025, Wing is ranked No 11. Cheng now officially helms one of the globe's best restaurants, which in turn means any doubts about his Chinese culinary merit have been completely and totally eviscerated. 'In the beginning, I faced a lot of doubt due to my French culinary background. However, receiving recognition from some of the most prestigious international awards made me feel that my passion and hard work and my team's efforts have truly paid off,' he says. Learning curve It has been a weird, wonderful homecoming of sorts for Cheng, who is not trained in Chinese cuisine at all – at least not the traditional way most of his peers have earned their mettle and stripes. In contrast, everything he has learnt about Chinese cuisine has been almost entirely self-taught, although he credits friends and colleagues with helping him along the way. Cheng's goal at Wing is to make Chinese ingredients like sea cucumber more approachable to people who may be unfamiliar with the cuisine by crafting dishes like this sea cucumber spring roll. 'In the beginning, my Chinese cooking was purely from eating Chinese food and observing the dishes of other Chinese chefs in terms of techniques and flavour profiles. Later in my culinary journey, I was fortunate to learn from Chinese cuisine masters such as Chef Tam Kwok Fung from Chef Tam's Seasons (a two Michelin-starred restaurant in Macau) and Chef Adam Wong from Forum Restaurant (a three Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong, famed for creating Ah Yat braised abalone). 'They generously shared the knowledge they gained from over 30 years of experience, which greatly enriched my understanding,' he says. At Wing, the tasting menu is priced at upwards of RM1,100 per person, but Cheng says despite the opulent sheen, the dishes at the restaurant are rooted in the classic flavours of China's eight cuisines and never lose their Chinese soul or essence. In fact, some recipes are bolstered by his own family. 'As for my dishes at Wing, some of them take inspiration from the roots of my family members, like my Shanghainese grandmother, Chiu Chow (Teochew) father, and the Cantonese flavours where I was born (Hong Kong). 'An example that is influenced by my family background is the lion head croaker, a popular appetiser we introduced when Wing first opened. This small fish is a beloved delicacy in Shanghai which is originally my grandmother's hometown. 'For those unfamiliar with eating fish that have tiny bones, it can be challenging to enjoy, but once you learn, you will truly appreciate the rich and full flavour packed into this tiny yet delicious fish,' he says. Ultimately, Cheng says his goal at Wing is to make Chinese cuisine approachable for everyone, especially people who might be entirely unfamiliar with the overwhelming cornucopia of ingredients and dishes that make up Chinese food. 'Take the sea cucumber as an example. For a Westerner trying sea cucumber for the first time in its traditional form, without any modifications, it can be quite challenging due to its unfamiliar texture and the sauces used in its preparation. 'That's why we came up with our Sea Cucumber Spring Roll dish. By wrapping the jelly-like sea cucumber in a crispy spring roll, we offer a more intriguing and accessible experience. The crunchiness of the spring roll appeals to everyone, and it becomes a gateway for them to try the sea cucumber itself. All of Cheng's dishes, like this stinky tofu prawn toast, are devised through his own learning on Chinese cuisine, as he is entirely self-taught. 'This approach allows us to introduce ingredients in a way that guests are more willing to give them a try. This is just one example of our approach to creating dishes that are unique to us while remaining respectful of tradition,' he says. Cheng says what was once viewed as his weakness is something that has instead given him a key point of differentiation and a superpower of sorts. Because, as it turns out, not having grown up surrounded by Chinese cuisine or even learning how to cook it means he is able to see things through vastly different optics compared to his peers. 'Rather than being more creative, I would describe my approach, infused by my background, as distinctive and unique – presenting Chinese cuisine in a way that others have yet to see before,' he says.
Times
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
All aboard the foodiest train in the East
In the restaurant world you generally won't find great cooking and a great view, the principle being that if you are gorging on what you can see out of the window, there's no need for the chef to blow your mind with what's on the plate. I guess you could, kindly, say that the restaurant is trying to save you from sensory overload, but we all know that the truth is they don't feel they need to try. • Read more luxury reviews, advice and insights from our experts It's clearly not the same on the inaugural Tastes of Tomorrow journey aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express in Malaysia. On the table in front of us are a procession of intricate courses prepared by one of Taiwan's most garlanded chefs, André Chiang, along with the Michelin-starred Vicky Cheng of Wing in Hong Kong, which recently came 11th in the World's 50 Best Restaurants guide. The meal is a masterclass in Asian ingredients presented through the lens of classic French techniques. There's a prawn and clam bisque given a third dimension with miso and seaweed; steamed red snapper that explodes with the rich, multitiered citrus of 30-year-old mandarin peel; and a tropical fruit salad of lychee and pineapple in bergamot elderflower jelly topped with a tart soursop sorbet. As we feast, the ever-changing scenery unfurls beyond the window: hornbills lazily ride the warm air currents over placid lagoons, palm tree-covered hills stretch into the distance and at other times thick, impenetrable jungle crowds in around us. All this to the swaying rhythm of a luxury train as it eases its way along a narrow-gauge track. Great food and incredible views? A big double tick. The inaugural Tastes of Tomorrow journey has been created to enable guests to take in the sights of the less explored parts of the country, while being indulged by the resident chef Chiang and his Michelin-starred friends. Jason Liu of Ling Long in Shanghai joins him in July and in September Jungsik Yim brings some of the Korean flair that has won him three stars in New York and two in Seoul. It's the chance to explore the food and landscape of the region, while cocooned in luxury. Our journey had begun in Singapore, where we were picked up from our hotel (one night's stay just to soften the hard edges of jet lag) and taken to Woodlands railway station on the Malaysian border. While porters took charge of our bags and the boring customs formalities, Navein, our forever obliging steward, showed us around the state cabin that was to be our home for the next three nights. All blue velvet, polished brass and cherrywood and elm marquetry panelling, it exuded the charm of a bygone era, but with all the luxuries that modern travellers expect. There was efficient air conditioning and a fully equipped ensuite bathroom, for a start, plus an armchair and sofa — the better to take in the views through the two picture windows by day. These converted, as if by magic, into two beds every time we went to the dining car for dinner (no undignified postprandial clambering in upper bunks for us). 'And these,' Navein said with a final flourish, 'are the two magic buttons. Press whenever you want anything.' Well, since you ask, a couple of glasses of champagne, please, to toast the start of the journey as we crossed the narrow isthmus into Malaysia. Afternoon tea served in one of the two dining cars introduced us to the level of catering we could expect for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner over the coming days: elegant finger sandwiches, smoked salmon arancini, chocolate tarts with the gentle prickle of green peppercorn heat, served at immaculately laid tables, all silver and pressed linen. It also gave us a chance to explore the train, with its two richly furnished bars and the observation car at the rear, open to the sides the better to see and breathe the sights and sounds of the jungle. We soon fell in to the gentle rhythm of a parallel life: breakfast of eggs, pastries, yoghurts and fruit brought to our cabin by Navein; three-course lunches — sometimes at a table for two, sometimes sharing with another couple — then a modicum of restraint over tea, before dressing up in our finery for champagne and canapés on sofas in the piano bar. This was our chance to get to know the other guests. The train has a capacity of about sixty and there were plenty of older couples celebrating landmark birthdays and wedding anniversaries but also younger ones making an early bid for their trip of a lifetime. Then we'd move to the dining cars for a multicourse dinner of more sparkling complexity and innovation — all achieved by just eight chefs crowded into two tiny galley kitchens — and then back for post-dinner cocktails and karaoke (note to self: Bohemian Rhapsody is both too hard and too long). It wasn't all to be nonstop eating, drinking and caterwauling, though: we had to do something to earn our indulgence. Having travelled on the first night up the centre of Malaysia, along a single-track jungle line built in the 1920s during British rule, we awoke to find ourselves in Taman Negara National Park, the last refuge of the elusive Malayan tiger. There was an option after breakfast to meet conservationists and join photographers in their hides (although the chances of spotting a tiger were approximately nil, they freely admitted). Instead my wife joined a morning yoga class beneath towering limestone outcrops, then lay on a lounger in a shallow jungle stream having a sound bath, while I joined five others on an electric bike ride down jungle tracks and past remote villages to explore two of the 130-million-year-old caves that dot those outcrops. After a restorative lunch on the train (kimchi salad nicoise with champagne dressing, scallops with sweet and sour chilli XO sauce, and coconut pannacotta with nyonya chendol, a classic Malaysian iced dessert flavoured with pandan leaves) we spent most of the afternoon in the observation car, chatting to the chefs and other guests and watching as the jungle slipped away behind us. By the next morning the train had doubled back and tracked its way up Malaysia's more populous west coast to Penang Island. We disembarked for a 15-minute crossing on a privately chartered ferry, and arrived in the Unesco-protected town of George Town, famous for its handicrafts and street art. Here, while some guests went for a cookery class, others of us wanting a break from food climbed on the back of vintage Vespas to buzz around the artistic highlights in this fascinating city, taking in the faded elegance of the colonial architecture, seeing the vibrant murals that adorn many of the streets and visiting a young artist and textile maker in their typical old shophouse (built long and narrow to avoid the ubiquitous British window tax). After lunch it was time to head back to Singapore. Our scheduled stroll around an old mining town, Ipoh, en route was thwarted by a sudden darkening of the skies and torrential rain. Such downpours in these parts seldom last more than 20 minutes before the sun comes out again, but my wife was taking no chances and retreated to the onboard Dior Spa for a massage and facial, while I holed up in the bar (again!) to prepare for our final gala dinner. This was to be a seven-course feast that included sushi-grade shrimps marinated in chilli oil and soy, a laksa-spiced bouillabaisse and a dish of salted fish and aubergine with sea cucumber, that Cheng told me took six days of prep. It was all we could do to wobble back to our cabin (oh, all right, stopping off for more drinks and some rather more professional entertainment by the resident pianist and singer) before waking to find ourselves back at the Woodlands border and returning to a Singapore that this year celebrates 60 years of independence. After the high glamour of the Orient Express, it felt appropriate to end our week amid the colonial grandeur of Raffles hotel, whose stately charms have been luring visitors to Singapore since it was established in 1887. Pulling up at its gleaming white-columned portico, with its immaculately liveried Sikh doormen, the humid, busy city outside evaporated away amid its tropical gardens, marble colonnades, teak verandas and suites — each with their own butler. With their ceiling fans and minibars housed within travel trunks, the rooms filled me with nostalgia for an era I never knew (perhaps it was the fact we were staying in a suite named after Joseph Conrad). There was also a corridor of fame featuring guests from Charlie Chaplin and Liz Taylor to Nelson Mandela and pretty well every member of our royal family, plus, slightly incongruously, the band Deep Purple. As you would expect, there was no let-up in the eating and drinking opportunities. We ventured out to Singapore's famous hawker markets for laksa and char kway teow (noodles with prawns, cockles and sausage) at nearby Lau Pa Sat and for grilled skewers on 'Satay Street', where the smell of smoke from the various stands hangs heavy in the air. Raffles itself is no slouch on the food front. It houses, of course, Singapore's most famous drinking hole, the Long Bar, and yes, we went there for the obligatory Singapore Slings. But we were happier in the less frenetic and more atmospheric surroundings of the Writers Bar, next to the hotel entrance. Later this year André Chiang opens his own restaurant in the hotel, but for now our favourite was Butcher's Block, where the Hawaiian chef Jordan Keao harnesses fire and smoke with admirable restraint. An eight-course tasting menu included highlights such as yellowtail tuna with tomato sorbet and aguachile, dry-aged wagyu beef with bone marrow custard and pea puree, and a palm sugar ice cream with strawberry and macadamia nut crumble. Sometimes a bit of sensory overload, when done right, is exactly what you need. Three nights on the Eastern & Oriental Express Tastes of Tomorrow tour costs from £5,370 per person in a state cabin, Suites at Raffles Singapore cost from £1,145,
Vancouver Sun
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Travel eats: Exploring Canada's connection to Hong Kong's innovative cuisine
When it comes to Chinese food, Metro Vancouver prides itself on its expansive traditional Chinese restaurants. But how do we fare, comparatively? As I found out on a recent trip, Hong Kong trounces us. For starters, it has seven three-Michelin stars, 11 two-stars, and 38 one-stars, as well as 64 Bib Gourmands. This year, two Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong scored second and third spots at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. When it comes to innovative modern Chinese cuisine, we're barely out of the gate. Two cutting-edge Chinese restaurants I dined at in Hong Kong are run by Canadian-raised chef-owners. One, chef Vicky Cheng (Auberge du Pommier and Canoe in Toronto and Daniel in New York), operates Wing restaurant, which placed 11th in the World's 50 Best Restaurants last week and placed third on the Asia's 50 best list earlier this year. He also runs the one-Michelin-star VEA. While VEA offers Chinese food with a tweezered French personality, at Wing he focuses on China's Eight Great Cuisines with an haute approach — and sometimes eye-popping, as with a vibrant Harbin-style apple-wood smoked braided eggplant dish I had — a visual knockout. Discover the best of B.C.'s recipes, restaurants and wine. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Innovative Chinese cuisine is relatively new to Hong Kong, too, Cheng said. 'It's a culture that embraces tradition. It's got such a rich history and such respect for the masters that chefs don't dare change.' But since Cheng didn't train under Chinese chefs, he did dare when he opened VEA 10 years ago. 'I call it boundary-less Chinese cuisine. While it is not 100 per cent traditional, it is 100 per cent Chinese. When I opened VEA, it was very controversial. We were the first to do Chinese and French together. But now, it's getting more and more popular.' He's blown away by ingredients from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. 'In my mind, Hong Kong's a better place for ingredients (than Toronto or New York). The amount of variety is insane. Some of the best produce I've ever had is from China. Most people have never had blueberries from Yunnan. Most haven't had a mango from Sanya, a small island we call the Hawaii of China,' he says. And now I have, thanks to my dinner at Wing, and I can tell you the blueberries gave me actual thrills! Big as marbles, sweet, and humbling. Ditto the cantaloupe, mango, and lychee, all seductively sweet and at their peak. At Hong Kong's wet markets, Cheng says 'there's always a sense of discovery.' A favourite ingredient is dried seafood. 'It's a true representative of Chinese cuisine' he says, holding a large, dried collagen and protein-rich fish maw (the swim bladder). 'It's been aging for 20 years and almost has a texture like mochi (when cooked),' he says. I had it in a dish with yellow fungus and rice with abalone sauce. He also showed me two giant dried sea cucumbers covered in white ash. 'After soaking for a week, it'll almost double in size,' he said. A braised version appeared later tucked inside a spring roll, marinated and moist, with a slight chew and elevated with a glossy sauce. The tasting menu at Wing included dishes with firefly squid and bull kelp, oysters, house-made transparent 'golden crystal duck egg,' 'drunken' abalone, silver pomfret with mandarin peel with fermented black beans, king crab with crispy cheung fun (steamed rice roll), white asparagus with shrimp paste cured pork. The wow! dish was a glazed, crisp-skinned smoked pigeon, dry-aged 43 days and smoked over sugarcane, served on hay, along with the roasted head, on which my husband crunched and munched. (Call me a coward. I have this thing about eating anything with eyes that stare back.) Chef Alvin Leung, a.k.a. Demon Chef, is another Canadian making a difference. He shocked and astonished the traditionalists with his two-Michelin star Bo Innovation (three-Michelin for a few years). He also runs Michelin-recommended Cafe Bau in Hong Kong, and other global restaurants, including R & D, an Asian fusion restaurant in Toronto. You might remember him as an outspoken judge on MasterChef Canada. When Bo Innovation opened in 2017 with its provocative 'X-treme' Cantonese cuisine, he enlisted molecular gastronomy moves and bad-boy creations such as — blush — Sex on the Beach, an edible condom filled with honey and ham. (Proceeds from the dish were donated to an AIDS organization.) It has, at times, been called the El Bulli of the East. But I visited his two-year-old Cafe Bau, which, unusual for Hong Kong is stubbornly a low carbon, farm-to-table enterprise. Over 90 per cent of products including beef, poultry, pork and seafood, are local and nothing is flown in. Wines arrive by sea rather than air. Rice is from an almost one hectare co-operative farm on nearby Lantau Island. The star of the eight-course tasting menu was a whole roasted local Ping Yuen chicken bred for taste, texture and higher fat content. It was brined in coconut milk, dry aged, stuffed with lemongrass, pandan leaves and rosemary. It arrived in a wooden box, whole and steaming. The server ceremoniously opened it as he would a crown jewel. Upon carving, it was served with the local rice and a velvety sauce with chicken marrow and cartilage. Other dishes included blue crab jelly with housemade foamed cheese and heirloom tomato jelly tomato; jinga shrimp gado gado layered in mille feuille; two kinds of housemade ravioli with Chinese stuffing; pan-fried local perch with banana emulsion and minestrone broth; and Pat Chun (a premium Hong Kong soy sauce) pork knuckle zampone with egg confit and stem ginger. Another mover-shaker adding magic to Chinese cuisine in Hong Kong is Vicky Lau. She studied and worked in New York as a graphic designer and brings artistry and French influences to her Chinese menu. She, too, runs sustainable kitchens at Tate, her two-Michelin star restaurant, and Mora, which opened four years ago, earning one star and a Michelin Green Star for its sustainable practices. At Mora, soy is the star ingredient. Lau even operates a soy milk and tofu factory in Hong Kong, using organic Canadian soybeans. (A taster of her silky soy milk was the best that has passed my lips!) Lau, named Best Female Chef by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in 2015, wows guests with soy's versatility and low-impact soy products. The Mora tasting menu included dishes such as soy mascarpone, with pickled cucumber, green olive grains and soy yogurt foam whipped into a yubu tart shell; geoduck 'noodles' in a soy milk and clam broth, with seaweed and fresh yuba. Deep-fried tofu, even gentler souled than agedashi, was brightened with sesame sauce, dill oil, pine nuts and preserved radish. Chicken roulade got razzle-dazzled with mapo tofu sauce; mushroom rice became addictive with soybean paste, chicken fat, and Chinese ham. But Lau's Tate restaurant is an 'you eat with your eyes' haute experience, each of seven courses, an 'ode to' an ingredient. After three canapés, the Ode to Century Egg course arrives and it's beautiful — a circular presentation of Alaska king crab and century egg covered with rose rice vinegar jelly. Over it, a symmetry of tiny, gelled cubes, aubergine, and croutons. A forestry braised mushroom dish included wood fungus from Yunnan, tree moss and a prized foraged red mushroom from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian province (it grows for only two weeks). A zucchini flower was stuffed with scallop, tofu, abalone, scallop, langoustine and nested on coconut scallop velouté. Ode to Sakura was a meringue shell with fragile meringue sakura blossoms, lychee rice pudding, sakura tea sauce and a raspberry sorbet. A dried lotus flower tea ceremony followed. 'The symbolism of the lotus flower is strength, integrity and beauty,' our server said. 'It's our way of saying thank you. Now I will manually blossom the flower.' And blossom, it did. What a lovely end, we thought. But the actual finale was a Chinoiserie cabinet filled with petit fours (including chocolate hazelnut lollipops, lemon tarts with marshmallow topping, fortune cookies, canelés, choux pastries) wheeled up to us. I hushed the five-year-old in me and asked for just one — the lemon tart, whereas two young women at another table, less worried about waist expansion, chose about a half a dozen each. miastainsby@
Time Out
24-04-2025
- Business
- Time Out
Wing nabs Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award ahead of World's 50 Best Restaurants
Ahead of the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 award ceremony, scheduled for June 19 in Piedmont, Italy, Cantonese fine dining restaurant Wing has secured the prestigious Gin Mare Art of Hospitality award. This accolade is voted on by all academy members of the World's 50 Best Restaurants, and highlights an establishment for its excellence in restaurant service and dining experiences. This award comes after Wing's achievement of receiving the Highest New Entry award during last year's World's 50 Best Restaurants ceremony. Plus, this marks the second time that chef-owner Vicky Cheng has secured the award, with Vea Restaurant taking the same award home in 2021. 'To be recognised by The World's 50 Best Restaurants for this is a dream come true, and I'm endlessly grateful to our team, our guests, and our community for inspiring us to pour our hearts into every detail', says Cheng. 'This is not just an award, it's a celebration of the connections we forge through food and care.' Since opening Wing in 2021, Cheng's restaurant has gained global recognition for its unique approach to Cantonese cuisine fused with refined French techniques. Each dish breathes new life into timeless Chinese classics, showcasing Cheng's culinary artistry and craftsmanship. Visit the
Tatler Asia
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Tatler Asia
Exclusive: Wing wins The World's 50 Best Restaurants hospitality award, leading a new era of Chinese fine dining
Vicky Cheng's Wing puts Chinese hospitality at the centre of global fine dining, and the world is finally paying attention Wing, the Hong Kong restaurant helmed by chef Vicky Cheng, has been named the recipient of the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2025, presented by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. Announced today, on April 23, ahead of the official awards ceremony in Turin on June 19, the accolade celebrates Wing's exceptional service and steadfast commitment to hospitality. This win follows Wing's No 20 ranking on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2024 list, where it also claimed the Highest New Entry Award. Yet for all the global acclaim, Wing's origins were far more unassuming. The story began somewhat unexpectedly during the pandemic, evolving from an invitation-only, midnight-supper test kitchen at Cheng's debut venue, VEA. 'The whole concept of Wing started when COVID-19 happened,' Cheng recalls. 'I needed the information, I needed the knowledge to learn more about Chinese cuisine so I could continue our Chinese-French concept at VEA.' That pursuit of knowledge transformed an underutilised bar space (below VEA) into Wing, a name symbolising hope, tenacity and perseverance. The original vision, Cheng admits, was more relaxed. 'Believe it or not, it was meant to be a casual Chinese restaurant,' he confesses. The idea of stacking two fine dining venues, one atop the other, felt counterintuitive—until it wasn't. 'It turned out to be the best decision we could have made.' Above Wing's story started as a midnight test kitchen and grew into one of the world's most celebrated Chinese fine dining restaurants What sets Wing apart is the architecture of the experience itself. Cheng has coined his approach 'temperatured hospitality', a philosophy that reaches beyond service choreography to something more elemental: emotional temperature. 'What stays with my guests is a sense of warmth,' Cheng explains. His team's task is to cultivate that warmth, an atmosphere where guests feel anticipated and well looked after. 'We know that we have roughly three hours to make you feel like you're in our world. And you're here to feel welcomed and pampered. You're here to feel like you're in our home.' Delivering that level of comfort requires more than training. It requires the right people. Cheng's 'red apple, green apple theory' governs hiring. 'Thankfully, my team are all red apples,' he says, referring to those who naturally embody Wing's culture of care. The 'green apple' hire will either 'turn red' or simply won't last. 'We'd rather work a little bit harder to keep the red apple mentality than to hire a whole bunch of green apples just because we're short [-staffed].' This shared sensibility creates a like-minded team that can anticipate guests' needs instinctively, whether that means reading body language or preparing an alternative, off-menu dish before a guest even asks. Above Oma abalone and South African abalone Above Sea cucumber spring roll with spring onion For Cheng, such attentiveness is inseparable from innovation. He's wary of tradition calcifying into dogma, a mindset that helped him push forward, even in the face of scepticism when launching both VEA and Wing. 'Traditions are meant to be made, rules are meant to be broken,' he says, drawing comparisons to corporate complacency. 'Nokia, for example, didn't do anything wrong. Except that they failed to do anything at all.' For Chinese cuisine to remain vital, it must evolve. 'People change, our palates change, our ingredients change, climate has changed. So, it's not wrong to look at the possibilities of change while fully respecting cultures.' Part of pushing boundaries involves seeking out and sharing the lesser-told stories of Chinese heritage through its vast and diverse ingredients. Recent trips have fuelled this passion. 'I recently went to Yunnan and I just came back from Guangzhou,' Cheng shares. He finds immense pride in featuring exceptional produce from China itself, often finding it more compelling than imported luxury items. 'I feel more proud, and I feel people are more interested when we present fruits that are from China, more so than the expensive Japanese fruits.' He mentions discovering 'the freshest blueberries from Yunnan and the most delicious mangoes from Sanya.' His Yunnan trip yielded a particularly fascinating discovery: Mu jiang zi , or tree ginger seeds. 'It's kind of like this tender green Sichuan peppercorn', he describes excitedly. 'The pods themselves are soft and floral,' while the bark, intriguingly, is shaved tableside like zest over noodles. 'I've never seen it in Hong Kong. This is just one of the things that I encountered and found very interesting.' For Cheng, discoveries like this aren't just curiosities, they open up a world of possibility. 'I want to learn more, showcase and use more Chinese ingredients and herbs'. This award feels particularly significant in a global dining landscape where French service standards still dominate perceptions of refinement. Cheng hopes this win signals a broader shift. 'I hope we're just the beginning. The ones opening the doors, not only for Wing, but for Chinese cuisine to gain the recognition it deserves.' In Cheng's eyes, true success isn't measured solely by awards or full dining rooms, though he's grateful for both. For him, these accolades are affirmations of a larger mission: to act as a cultural ambassador. He sees Wing as a platform to showcase the depth, warmth and evolving narrative of Chinese cuisine and its inherent hospitality to a global audience. He speaks of this responsibility not just as a goal but 'almost like a duty. It's like an obligation for me to continue'. Above At Wing, Vicky Cheng continues to push the boundaries of Chinese fine dining, blending heritage, innovation and heartfelt hospitality on a global stage Through its warm, 'temperatured hospitality', Wing is serving more than an exceptional dining experience; it's fostering understanding and rewriting perceptions. As Cheng passionately declares, 'It's time for us to shine. It's time for us to express ourselves on a stage where people will listen.'
