Meet 5 Asian chefs who break the rules with their unique approach to food

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We can’t help but be inspired by these rule-breaking chefs who have seasoned their own paths to the top of the culinary world.

Roy Choi pioneered the food truck movement way back in 2009 with Kogi, a gourmet Korean taco truck in Los Angeles. The highly respected South Korean chef made a name for himself by declaring his love for un-fancy food, and being the only food truck operator to win Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chef award, proving, yet again, that breaking the rules pays off.

Chef Chan Yan Tak is the executive chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, where he helms the restaurant Lung King Heen, which means “View of the Dragon”. But the amazing views of Hong Kong can’t compare to Chef Tak’s artfully plated dishes. After all, he’s the first Chinese chef to be awarded three Michelin stars, and we hear they don’t give those out very lightly. But Chef Tak’s career didn’t start at culinary school. He took a job in a restaurant to make some cash as a teenager and fell in love with the industry. Decades of hard work later, he’s infusing delicate Cantonese dishes with French flair in a way that no one thought possible.

Photo: A dish at Lung King Heen / Acme Flickr

Rachel Khoo started cooking from her teeny tiny Paris apartment, which she turned into a pop-up restaurant, which became a cookbook, which the BBC made into a TV show aptly named “My Little Paris Kitchen”. With a Chinese-Malaysian-Austrian-English background (phew!), she has a ton of cultural inspiration to draw on. But what makes Rachel so unique is her down to earth approach to French cuisine. She makes chic Parisian dishes look easy, even if she does make a mistake on camera – and who can’t relate to that?

Gaggan Anand’s namesake restaurant opened in Bangkok in 2010. (The restaurant came about after a drunken conversation with friends, but that’s another story.) Since then, Gaggan’s inventive Indian dishes have earned him top accolades in the world of food. His skills may be sharp, but this chef is known for being blunt (get it?). Don’t call his food molecular gastronomy. He’s more about dissecting bold flavors and deconstructing iconic Indian dishes than being part of that trendy genre.

 Photo: Dishes at Gaggan / Kent Wang Flickr

Rudy Takarianta, Executive Chef at Jakarta’s JS Luwansa Hotel, has a unique approach to cooking that involves discipline and efficiency in the kitchen. When it comes to taste, he insists on keeping the right harmony of flavors while preparing the dish as efficiently as possible. His secret weapon? He says Knorr Chicken Powder adds “soul” to the flavors of his cuisine. Chef Rudy goes as far as to deliberately avoid recipes. Instead, he relies on his highly attuned palette to achieve the right balance of freshness and depth of flavor.

Becoming a top chef takes vision, passion, and a little something special to unleash your creativity. That’s where Knorr comes in. Knorr makes it easy for chefs to prepare top quality dishes  with mouth-watering flavors, while saving time and money. That means chefs can get even more creative, develop new menus and build new flavor profiles. Click here to get free samples and experience the flavors of Knorr.



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