My Culinary love affair with Asia

My culinary Love Affair with Asia

When I started cooking, Fusion Food was a big thing.  My first Chef Mentor in Canada was able to experience the world and its culinary traditions during his career and he told me many times that a Chef's career would not be well rounded without significant time working in Asia. His name is  Norbert Chabot had worked 2 years at the famous Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong. The Peninsula was built with the idea that it would be "the finest hotel east of Suez" and opened its doors in December 1928. It had an amazing location in Kowloon, Hong Kong directly opposite the quays where ocean liner passengers disembarked and the last stop on the trans-Siberian rail link that brought travelers from Europe. What a grand hotel to this day.

Norbert Chabot told me I would see so many things in Asia and come to understand a whole different way of cooking, the freshness of ingredients, exotic fruits, and vegetables, along with a cacophony of new and exciting flavors and strange ingredients. After hearing all these stories from someone I considered to be a great chef,  over time it became my dream to follow his footsteps to Asia.  I spent a lot of time on applications early in my career that came to nothing.

It was not until I joined Mandarin Oriental Hotel Company that this became even a faint possibility.

More in my next post- I really want to share my passion for food from all over the world with you and I wish you have culinary adventures!!