G: Tell us about what do you do? What did inspire you to start?
Group pastry chef for Hakkasan Ltd and oversee all pastry production through our portfolio of restaurants. I have six head chef direct reports who oversee areas and or restaurants within our group. These includes brands Hakkasan, Yauatcha, HKK and Sake no Hana and encompasses nineteen outlets over the world. I started in pastry as it has more mediums for making people happy and has that much more scope for imagination along with the diversity of products that a pastry chef can call upon to bring that experience.
G: What is innovative / unique about your cooking style?
We use classic technique and produce modern dishes, our creations are also elusively light and tasty.
G: How do you select the menu for the restaurant?
Each restaurant has a team and a chef for it, they come up with dishes and I taste and evaluate them whilst offering suggestion of how they may be improved. Once agreed these are them tasted by our VP of restaurants and the GM of the relevant outlet and the wine division to match the beverage to the dish.
G: What would you say has been your most memorable experience while working at Hakkasan?
It has to be looking at where the pastry department is now after two and a half years. Before there was no real department and only five restaurants in the group with say thirty pastry chefs.
Now we have nineteen restaurants, five of which are 1* Michelin with four of those in London. We have a development kitchen and also gained a production site both again in London and most importantly from my perspective, we have 120 pastry chefs over six countries who all share knowledge and understanding of creating top quality products and who’s collective ideas and experiences are shared throughout the group with the personnel used to feed our ongoing global expansion plans.
G: Have you cooked for any celebrities?
Working for Hakkasan, we are sure to have had cooked for celebrities, however our `their privacy is our pleasure.
Social links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HakkasanLondon
Website: www.hakkasan.com
