A THIRD-GENERATION CHEF’S JOURNEY

Chinese-Canadian chef Kelvin Cheung spent most of his childhood travelling around the world and cooking at kitchens in unfamiliar places

After working his way up to Executive Chef at various restaurants in Canada - where he was born - and the USA, Chef Kelvin Cheung chose Mumbai, India, as his base in 2012, taking on the Executive Chef position at Ellipsis; an American restaurant. He soon became the Corporate Chef and F&B Director in 2015 for both Aallia Hospitality and Bastian Hospitality. In 2021, the award-winning chef moved to Dubai with Kings Group Ventures as Chef & Partner of Jun’s; a modern dining experience where Asian flavours are reimagined with North American influences.

Here, the chef talks about his origins, the evolution of his cooking techniques and signature dishes at his latest venture, Jun’s.

You spent most of your childhood training and cooking around the world. When did you take on the decision to become a chef?

Growing up in my father’s kitchens my entire life, I was born into the hospitality industry. However, as an immigrant’s son, the family plan was always for us children to pursue a career as a doctor, engineer or any other sort of stable professional career outside of the F&B industry. After attending university, and coasting through a couple years of school, I realized that being a Doctor was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My father’s restaurant was already an established industry hangout, at the time, so whenever a chef or restauranteur came by to eat, I would ask them if I could stage their kitchens. This opened up my culinary horizon and taught me how I needed to learn, to grow outside of my father’s kitchens. It helped me realize that this was something I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life. This led me to where I am now.

You were born in Canada, raised in Chicago, and now you are based in Dubai. How has living on different continents influenced your culinary style?

The style of Jun’s is essentially the culmination of everything that I have done in my entire life journey. I have taken the food, ideas and techniques that I learnt at my father's restaurants, and combined them with the skills I acquired while training at school. Everything I did at on my own restaurants and all the places I have worked - Toronto, Chicago, Vancouver, Belgium and India - I have taken all of those influences and food memories and incorporated them into Jun’s, helping my cooking style evolve to what it is today.

What signature dishes represent your cooking style at Jun’s?

I love everything that we are doing now, and one of the best examples is the corn and scallop plate. Growing up in Canada, every summer we would stop going to the local grocery store and instead, make weekly family trips to farms and pick fresh corn and other fruits and vegetables, which remains one of my fondest childhood memories. The Hokkaido scallops have been seasoned with housemade Yuzu Kosho over warm sushi rice and you swoosh it through the corn and in one bite, you have a corn explosion. When you try the dish, even though it's a scallop plate, it tastes like an incredibly corn-centric dish.

“It’s incredible what the leadership has done here in the UAE, as it has created such an amazing environment not only for business in the F&B industry, but also for the quality of life and standards that it's given to its people”

How do you think your cooking techniques have evolved since you became a well-known chef in India?

My journey is an evolution of where life has taken me, and where I am now. I have gone from being trained as a classic Cantonesestyle Chinese chef at my father's restaurants to being trained in classic French cuisine at culinary school, and in Belgium. When I began my career in fine dining, that's when I took a turn towards doing more gastronomy, and a lot of the avant garde kind of dishes, but that never resonated with what I ultimately wanted to cook. I really enjoy what I am creating right now at Jun’s, it is a fun juxtaposition of old school techniques with modern seasonal trends. We have something super classical, like using an old stone rice grinder, where we grind our own rice every day to make fresh noodles. We also have a smoker in-house and do a lot of fermentation, pickling, and kimchi. When needed, I get to use contemporary techniques, like the circulator and even liquid nitrogen for fun. Essentially, it's taken a turn where I'm using all of these techniques and the menu is more ingredient and seasonaldriven. I am taking inspiration from all those old food memories and incorporating it into the Jun's experience.

You have secured plenty of accolades, but what has been

the biggest accomplishment in your career?

As I've grown through the years, accolades, awards and recognitions aren't as important to me as being able to cook the food that I want, to serve to people what I want to give them and the experience I want them to have. That’s what I want to do now, moving forward in my career. One of the things I'm happiest about is that I've been able to find a partner like my wife who supports me unconditionally. She's taken a huge sacrifice in order for me to be able to put my career at the forefront, as well as give me the balance where we can still have an amazing family and be able to focus and prioritise. That's probably one of the proudest things I have been able to accomplish as a chef to date.

You suffered bullying and racism in India and US throughout your career. Have you had any issues since you moved to the UAE?

It’s incredible what the leadership has done here in the UAE, as it

has created such an amazing environment not only for business in the F&B industry, but also for the quality of life and standards that it's given to its people. As the UAE is so safe and is run so well, it removes the natural stressors of safety, danger and people having to be on guard. Even for people who are just visiting or transitioning, it gives them the opportunity to just be human again. It also allows us to act with kindness and honesty, without second thoughts. The UAE is one of the most amazing places that I have been and I am planning on staying here for a very long time.

What is your favourite and least favourite dish to prepare?

My least favourite dish is definitely pasta! For many, many years, I ran a pasta station when I was a sous chef at one of the busiest Italian restaurants in Toronto, and I have a little bit of a post-traumatic syndrome left over from that. I love to cook pasta, because I know people love it and I love making food that people love, but if you put a plate of pasta in front of me, I couldn't finish it!

My favourite dish changes from time to time because it’s according to what's happening in my life right now. As my son is infatuated with eating fresh noodles and soup at the moment, I like being able to make the entire dish from scratch for him. I like to keep fresh bone broth that I make every couple of days in the house, and then I make sure that we prepare fresh noodles for him, so that it's always ready when he wants it.

Any expansion plan in the region with Kings Group Ventures?

I have been blessed to meet Mrs. Ninan, who has a great vision and foresight. She is very business savvy and has a lot of faith in me, so we're definitely planning on a rapid expansion in Dubai, as well as throughout the wider region.