Q: As a chef, how does your day unfold?
A: I begin the day by checking the fridges, and organising the morning’s meat and vegetable orders. Then I compile a prep list and prioritise my tasks for the day. Once the situation is under control, I have a morning meeting with my team and delegate accordingly. While the team prepares for the day, I spend my time brainstorming and testing new recipes.

Q: What was your first dish?
A: It was a Katsudon at Nihonbashi. As an apprentice, I was only supposed to shadow the fry chef around and listen to every word he had to say. I wasn’t expected to do anything more because it was my first day in the kitchen at that point.
So I watched him all afternoon, repeatedly preparing Katsudons. Eventually, he took a break and asked me to inform another chef if an order came in. But since I’m a shy person, I was a little afraid to speak to anyone on my first day. So I went ahead, and cooked and plated the dish on my own!
With shaky hands, I took it and placed it in front of the head chef. He promptly yelled at the fry chef who was supposed to be mentoring me. Nevertheless, since it went well, I was allowed to work at the fry station in the first week at my very first job.

Q: Who inspired you to venture into the hospitality trade?
A: ‘Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly’ by Anthony Bourdain was what inspired me.

Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement as a chef?
A: By the age of 22, I was running the kitchen of a tapas bar called Long Room in Melbourne, which seated 240 people.
Long Room was a unique venue – it would open up for lunch as a bistro and carry on through the day till around 8 p.m., then slowly shed its skin and turn into tapas bar, and continue this way until 11 p.m. From then onwards, it would be a nightclub until dawn.
This created a high-pressure and fast-paced environment – so keeping my head above water changed me as a person. It was the most exhausting and exciting year of my life.
After experiencing the long shifts and never-ending rush of customers, life was easy once I left the restaurant to pursue my career because I wasn’t afraid to walk into a kitchen and start cooking.