Richard Ekkebus

Amber, 7/F, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, The Landmark, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

Over the period when Amber at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental closed for refurbishment, Ekkebus was not one to put up his feet and take a long vacation. In the lead-up to the restaurant’s reopening, the Dutch chef did more than a little soul-searching, taking his team around the region to upgrade their culinary knowledge, and set up a test kitchen in Sai Ying Pun to further put their gastronomic hypotheses under rigorous testing. The result has been an extraordinary comeback for the restaurant. With a bold new dogma—one that eschews most dairy and gluten in the kitchen—that has challenged the team as well as loyal customers, Ekkebus has made a statement about what fine dining could be in this new era. Let’s not forget also the steps he has made before closing the restaurant, either—by pushing the hotel to switch over to in-house filtered water, eliminating single use plastics, and uphold a more sustainable way of running a hospitality business. It’s all in a day’s work for the chef.

RUNNER UP

Peggy Chan impressed our judges with her tireless work ethic and motivation to turn her reliable, popular restaurant Grassroots Pantry into a fine dining vegan temple. The path for the young chef has not been easy, and the success of Nectar, we’re guessing, will taste that much sweeter.