Tell us about your plans for the Marriott’s restaurants. I plan to bring in a lot of Asian flavors. Instead of having a standing buffet, I want to do small, individual dishes. Small plates will look more appetizing and flavorsome, and it’ll be easier to do garnish. For the Manhattan Steakhouse, we’ll keep it simple. Customers can order beef by country and by cut and then decide how they want the steak cooked. The Marriott Café is currently a more Asian style bakery, but we’re planning to turn it into more of a deli.

We heard that you spent some time in Egypt. What was the food there like? The traditional food is not easy to get used to. My wife and I tried baby camel and stuffed pigeon with cinnamon (the feathers were still on). She couldn’t stand the sight of poultry for a week. They use lots of dry spices, and the dominate flavors are sweet and bitter. Egypt, oddly enough, is great for fruit though. As a chef, the first year was difficult since I had come from Hong Kong and I had work hard to built up a team in Egypt.

Why did you decide to become a chef? That’s a difficult one actually. When I was younger, my mum used to take me to the supermarkets and I’d always beg her to buy chips and cookies. She never said yes, so I learned to make my own!