Hong Kong chef Richard Ekkebus on mountain climbing to keep his weight down
- Richard Ekkebus, of two-Michelin-star Amber in Hong Kong, explains the extreme training needed for climbing and how it helps him in his job
Never trust a skinny chef? You can disregard that adage in the case of Richard Ekkebus.
Standing 1.82 metres (6 feet) tall and weighing less than 80kg (176lb), the culinary director of the Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong, known for the award-winning fine-dining fare at its two-Michelin-star restaurant Amber, is definitely thin.
When we speak in June, Ekkebus has just returned from a mountaineering expedition – a three-week trip in Ecuador to climb Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, the latter an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, whose summits are 6,263 metres (20,547ft) and 5,897 metres above sea level respectively.
The chef developed his interest in mountaineering after spending too much time in the kitchen sampling his own cuisine.
“Like some chefs, in different stages of my career, I was a little bit chubbier and bigger and that comes with a lot of health consequences,” Ekkebus tells the Post.
