WILLIAM WONGSO

RESTAURATEUR, AUTHOR AND TV CHEF

Dubbed as the "rendang diplomat", it was of no surprise that Gordon Ramsay had tapped William Wongso to be his mentor on the second season of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted. The British chef admitted the wealth of experience Wongso had, which could teach him and anyone else to be a better chef. Indeed Wongso has mentored many of Indonesia's best chefs over more than five decades of career in the culinary industry. It was more impressive that he learned cooking by observing restaurant cooks and street-side vendors back when his dad used to take Wongso to travel around, and even until today as the co-founder of Aku Cinta Makanan Indonesia (ACMI). ACMI aims to introduce and spread the love for Indonesian food globally, and he believes Indonesia has many unique herbs and dishes for the world to taste. "When I serve my country's food to other nations, I always use 100 per cent of our herbs because they bring out the true Indonesian taste." He also emphasizes the importance of real-life experience to make anyone a great chef, by going through trial and errors and tasting the food with all of the human's senses. In the future, Wongso plans to collaborate with more famous chefs globally to show the beauty of Indonesia.