Born in London and raised in Canada, self-taught chef Alvin Leung lives in Hong Kong, where he got his first Michelin star for his restaurant Bo Innovations Hong Kong.
When a hobby becomes a profession, it is commonly seen as success in life. I don’t feel like the most successful man in the world, but I would say I’m one of the happiest.
My name is Alvin Leung, and I am a happy chef. I was born in foggy London, a city better known for its gray weather and grumpy people, where the most elegant dish is a porcelain plate of oatmeal. That’s only half true, of course. My dear mother did not cook, so I climbed the kitchen mountains alone.
We lived in Canada when I was a kid. I don’t remember much about those times. I was a curious boy, and I suppose I would have felt the same in any other country. I was devoted to cooking and athletics, and there was a time when I thought I would become a professional athlete, but cooking won in the end!
For 10 years now, I have been feeding people my culinary creations, and the best feedback is their “Mmmmmm, delicious”. Remember I told you my mom had no cooking skills? So I kept studying on my own to get the tastes and textures I wanted.
My study is all the experiments I’ve made, the ingredients I’ve hunted down and the recipes I’ve discovered. What I have never had is an official diploma or formal training; I have neither.
I am the second self-taught chef to have two Michelin stars in my pocket. Even so, I consider soup the best dish humanity has ever invented.
I am currently involved in 5 projects: four of them in China and one in London. I live in Hong Kong and am totally in love with it. Besides being a great mix of different cultures, tastes and colors, it fills me with constant wonder, as if I were a child!
It was here that I got my first star, for the restaurant “Bo Innovations Hong Kong”. Nothing will ever erase those emotions. It is like butterflies in your stomach!
