Chan Yan-tak () is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

, who is best known for being the first Chinese chef to earn three

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

s. He began to work in restaurants in his early teens, and went on to earn his stars at the

Lung King Heen Lung King Heen () is a fine dining Cantonese restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong. Its kitchen is run by chef de cuisine Chan Yan-tak, who came out of early retirement in 2002 for the Hotel. The restaurant has earned many commendations ...

restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong, after they coaxed him out of retirement and back into the kitchen.

Biography

Born in

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

, Chan Yan-tak started working in the kitchen out of necessity: after his father died when he was a child, he began working in kitchens at the age of either 13 or 14 at the Dai Sam Yuen restaurant. He didn't have any particular desire to become a chef, but instead took on the job because his family needed the money. He was so young at the time that he wasn't allowed to use a knife, and was limited to tasks such as plucking chickens and washing vegetables. He became a cook, and worked at a number of restaurants during the 1970s in Hong Kong, including

Fook Lam Moon Fook Lam Moon () is a Chinese restaurant chain with its main and original branch at 35-45 Johnston Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong. Fook Lam Moon means "fortune and blessings come to your home." The restaurant is often dubbed ''the Cafeteria for the Wea ...

. In 1984 he joined a restaurant at the Regent Hotel Hong Kong as sous chef, becoming executive chef the year after, and worked there for the following fifteen years. Yan-tak retired from the catering industry following the death of his wife so that he could care for his daughter, but in 2002 the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong brought him out of his retirement to become executive chef of the

( en, View of the Dragon) restaurant. The restaurant was awarded three stars in the 2009 Guide Michelin for Hong Kong and Macau, for his

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...

dishes. He became the first Chinese chef to obtain this distinction, on the first occasion that Michelin brought out a guide for Asia outside of Tokyo. The only other three star award went to a restaurant by

Joël Robuchon Joël Robuchon (, 7 April 1945 – 6 August 2018) was a French chef and restaurateur. He was named "Chef of the Century" by the guide Gault Millau in 1989, and awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (France's best worker) in cuisine in 1976. ...

in Macau.

Personal life

Yan-tak has two children, one son and one daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Yan-Tak Chinese chefs Living people People from Kowloon Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants Year of birth missing (living people) Hong Kong chefs