The culinary artistry of Chef Ken

His first time in the Philippines was back in 2001, when he accepted a job with a hotel outside of Manila. He left, worked in Hong Kong for a while, but was back in the Philippines two or three years later. Now Chef Ken Leung has returned for a third tour of duty, this time as the new Chinese executive chef of Marco Polo Ortigas’ Cantonese restaurant Lung Hin.

Chef Ken, who goes by the full Chinese name of Leung Chi Kwan, has more than 20 years of experience in Chinese cuisine, gained mostly from international five-star hotels and well-known Chinese restaurants in different parts of the globe. He has served his authentic creations in the Imperial Treasure in Singapore, in a café-restaurant in Ireland, and in the Gold Pavilion Fort in Hong Kong, to name a few.

Now he’s bringing his culinary artistry to Manila via Lung Hin. Essentially, what this means is creating Chinese food with a twist, which brings a unique flavor experience to every dish he creates. These include Deep Fried Tofu with Seaweed Salad and Double Boiled Tea Tree Mushroom with Chicken Soup, his Drunken Shrimp and Steamed Shrimp Balls with Dried Scallops.

In the beginning, says Chef Ken, he initially preferred working with Japanese cuisine (which, he says, is more artistic, and is also among his personal favorites), but switched to Chinese when he realized that “Japanese restaurants will always prefer to hire a Japanese chef” so career opportunities were limited.

He started at Marco Polo early this year and has already made an impact with his innovative creations. Lung Hin has successfully established itself in the culinary scene and was recently awarded as one of the most outstanding Chinese restaurants outside of China, in the 16th China Hotel Industry Golden Horse awards gala.

According to Chef Ken, anyone can learn how to cook. “It depends on the interest,” he says. “If you have the interest, you have the heart. If you have the initiative and the heart for it, you can do it, even Chinese food, which can sometimes seem complicated.”

Chef Ken first got interested in the possibilities of a career as a chef when he was in high school, but he learned how to cook from his mother. He didn’t go to professional culinary school. Most of what he knows today is the result of practical application and theories he picked up along the way. “My mom is a very good cook,” he says. The best way of learning cooking, he says, is to spend time in the kitchen. “For practical-wise and the best training, the kitchen is the best place,” he notes. “Because even after you go to school to learn cooking, you still have to practice to get it right. For Chinese cuisine, especially, you have to start from the very beginning. You have to cut the vegetables in a certain way, every single thing you have to learn.”

Chef Ken has learned his lessons well.  Now, he is sharing what he has learned with his kitchen staff and chefs at Marco Polo.

He has been teaching them what it is to cook “authentic” Chinese cuisine. Filipinos, he says, don’t really need any coaching in how to appreciate Chinese cuisine since it is quite popular in the country. Pinoys love authentic Chinese dishes. Some of them have already been integrated into the local culture while staying true to the flavors Chinese cuisine is known for. “Basically,” he says, “authentic is in the ingredients a chef uses. So for example, everyone here (in the Philippines) likes to have Sweet and Sour Pork, but we also need to follow the next generation sometimes, so the chef tries to enhance it, but we try not to use the ingredients that are westernized so it will not ruin the traditional taste.”

Chef Ken invites people to come to Lung Hin and try what they have to offer. He promises a culinary experience beyond compare — and we are sure he will deliver on that promise.