How Top Chef changed the life of Barry Quek, chef of a Michelin-star Hong Kong restaurant, and the TV cooking competition’s ‘really big impact’ on him
- Watching Top Chef, Barry Quek of one-Michelin-star Whey learned about ‘a lot of cooking techniques’, from making geoduck sashimi to cooking with liquid nitrogen
- The chef talks about how the American TV show also taught him the importance of ‘a plan B’ in the kitchen, but also why he’d never consider appearing on it
Long-running American television cooking competition “Top Chef” pits contestants against each other in a series of culinary challenges, using a progressive elimination format.
Barry Quek, head chef at Michelin-star Hong Kong restaurant Whey, where he serves modern European cuisine featuring ingredients influenced by his Singaporean background, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
Watching it, there were a lot of cooking techniques and flavours that I’d never seen or heard of before. I remember watching season three, and the winner (Hung Huynh) was Vietnamese-American.
He used geoduck, which I’d never seen before, and the way he prepared it, to be eaten raw, like sushi, was super interesting to me. It had a really big impact on me – all these years later, I can still remember that particular ingredient he used.