Words matter. These are the best Alvin Leung Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
By the time I was in high school, I was big enough to beat the hell out of everybody who said anything to me. And I learned how to blend in. All of that made me a very confident man. A very aggressive man. I developed it to survive.
I love cooking with wine.
Cooking is physical; it’s easier to learn than playing golf. You chop food, you pan fry it – what else is there to it?
Chinese parents always think you can do better. But it comes from wanting you to succeed.
I love to go to Hunter’s Pizza on Huntingwood and Birchmount. That’s in Scarborough, of course! It’s been in the same family for two generations. It’s been there since I moved there in ’67, so it’s been there for 50 years. I can’t claim it’s the best pizza in the world but I can say it’s my favorite pizza place.
I travel on 150 flights a year; I am everywhere.
You don’t call yourself the Demon Chef by being gentle. I am tough.
Being a scientist/engineer by nature, I approach everything as a problem.
I want to explore the borders between being a genius and being an idiot.
I can’t remember a dish my mother made that to me was pleasant. To this day I have a phobia of instant noodles.
Engineers are very logical and everything has to be tested so when we fail, we’ll know why and how to improve things.
It’s good to go down because then you know you have to climb back to your old spot. And you can’t be on top and not know that you can only go down.
Everything I do is about Chinese culture. My dishes have to symbolize something because they taste better when people understand.
I don’t sleep. I have a notepad next to my bed.
I take whatever I can get with grace.
I’m not cheap but I’m not unaffordable.
I used to create meals for my friends. Eventually one of them suggested opening a restaurant. So I did.
There always needs to be some excitement and some peace and quiet – otherwise you’ll have a heart attack.
Don’t go outside the box when you’re still not very good inside the box.
Hong Kong never had prestige. It’s gone from fishing village to where it is today.
The ‘Maverick Chef’ is one concept that I would really want to do again because I am traveling from country to country taking from what is in that country that is iconic, special, funky, weird and doing it my way. That is something I really enjoy.
My success rate is about 80 percent. Two of ten dishes won’t work.
One overseas diner told me that he was not going to come back to Hong Kong, but after visiting my restaurant he saw that there was more to our city than he originally thought, and he would therefore be back. That made me proud.
Foie gras is a breeze to cook, something that can’t go wrong.
Unless people die from it, a little diarrhea isn’t going to stop us from having our live fish.
When I’m in the moment, I’m in the moment.
A lot of people who come to my restaurant bring their parents over because it brings back good memories.
I used to love eating rice and noodles, and that was all carbs, so I had to cut that out. I started eating mostly salads.
I don’t like being labelled so I decided to label myself.
I feel and look healthy. So I will look good in a waitress uniform.
My approach goes way beyond simply ingredients and techniques. Every dish has to have a story.
I think it is important to grab the moment and be ready when the opportunity is in front of you, but people may not be ready when that moment arrives.
All my dishes are engineered.
You can’t hide behind a Michelin star.
It’s not that hard to make good food.
Your best guide is a good word from a friend.
If you only use rich and luxurious ingredients, you end up with excess.
A dish should have flavor, texture, appearance and smell, but I’m doing it differently. We take Chinese food, play with your sentiments, memories of it, and then take you to the border; you won’t fall over the edge, but you get excitement.
My mom wasn’t a good cook. No, that was an understatement. She was really horrible. And in a Chinese family, that’s a disaster.
Chinese cuisine has so much diversity, the area it covers is so great and so is the taste.
People keep saying I’m westernizing Chinese food. No I’m not. McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks, have done it big time, way before me.
I honestly feel the term ‘molecular gastronomy’ is mostly misunderstood. It is not a style of cooking. Rather, it is a philosophy which encourages chefs to be more creative.
As I have to have low-sugar foods, I eat more berries, dragonfruit and kiwis. Aside from that, my go-to sweet treat is Chinese dessert soups.
I like comfort and I like simplicity.
Just because it tastes good in Hong Kong, it doesn’t necessarily translate elsewhere.
I like using Pat Chun in several ways but the most common one is to pair with tomatoes and Chinese preserved olives because of its sweet taste. I turn it into a sort of Chinese balsamic.
Airplanes are a good place to concentrate because you get no emails, no phone calls.
When you stop adapting, you lose your edge and you can only go down.
My grandmother and father both had diabetes.
In London, the food critics are harsher, the clients milder; in Hong Kong, the clients are harsher, the critics milder.
I said I want to get outside the box, but what can I change? I don’t want my cookies to reek of ammonia, so we used baking soda instead of lye. We added ground almonds, which is expensive. We used butter, which is expensive. And we didn’t want any food coloring.
A symbol in Chinese Buddhism is the lotus plant, which regenerates every year, symbolizing life, renewal, and the Buddha himself. Actually it is used in many Asian religions including Hinduism. Few people think of it as food even though it is used as an ingredient all the time.
I went from two stars to one star to two stars to three. In the history of the ‘Michelin Guide,’ I don’t think there has been any chef to go up and down – and then up again.
When I first got two stars, I didn’t think I deserved it. Now I have three I think I am worthy.
Change is always good. You can’t keep tradition all the time. Yes, Grandma cooked on a wood stove but she would have used electricity if she could.
You learn from a mistake by just not doing it ever again. And then you forget about it.
Lowbrow ingredients don’t equal inexpensive or not tasty food. In fact, it requires even more skill to make something simple into something spectacular.
Diabetes is not curable. It’s sustainable.
A friend of mine had a private kitchen that was available and it was an inexpensive way of starting a restaurant and testing whether or not I could sell my cuisine.
It is not difficult now to make good food because we have sophisticated equipment and refined ingredients. Being innovative also helps you. It sets you apart from other chefs. But taste is king.
