Traders Hotel’s new chefs John Chu and Dennis Liam.

THE two new chefs at Yangon’s Traders Hotel are encouraging customers to complain.

“Cooking means never-ending study so a chef needs to accept feedback sincerely whether it is good or bad,” says John Chu, who took over on May 1 as head chef at the hotel’s Summer Palace Chinese restaurant.

Mr Chu has 17 years of experience in the Chinese culinary industry and is an expert in Cantonese cuisine, so he has reason to feel confident that there will not be too many complaints. He also holds three gold medals and one silver medal awarded to him from culinary competitions in his native China.

Meanwhile, chef Dennis Liam has taken over at the Traders Café.

Also hailing from China, he has more than 50 years of experience cooking in hotels around Asia, including at Shangri-La resorts and hotels.

“Everybody can cook, but not all cooks are patient. You know, cooking is an art. While you cook, use your heart and think of the food as your brother or girlfriend, then you’ll treat it kindly,” he explains.

But he admits a chef’s life is not easy.

“A chef’s life is very boring. You lose a lot of your private time. If you start cooking in the kitchen, it’s like you are married to the kitchen. You have no time to go out,” he says.

These two chefs see Chinese cooking a lot like Kung Fu.

“Unlike with other cuisines, Chinese cooking is very fast. So if you love it, you can enjoy it and dance while you are cooking,” Chef Liam says.

It is strange to hear, then, that he never intended to be a cook.

He dreamt of being a lawyer but failed his studies and found himself in the kitchen instead of in the court room.

“My father was a chef,” he says. “I think I became a chef because of my father’s influence and not because I was very talented in cooking.”

Similarly for Chef Chu, it was his father who set him on the path to culinary greatness.

“Once during my summer holiday, my father took me to a restaurant and let me work in the kitchen. At first, I started with stand-alone restaurants but then I moved on to join the hotel industry,” the 35-year-old says.

The two chefs say they are now feeling out the tastes of their customers and will then make adjustments to their respective menus.

Neither has been to Myanmar before, but both say the only difficulty they have encountered so far is in sourcing ingredients.

“Different chefs have different styles of cooking. Of course our tactics are different but we hold ourselves to the same motto and principals,” Chef Chu says.

“My motto when cooking is ‘work hard and work smart’. People think cooking is a very dirty job. If you cook, the whole body gets dirty, but we are able to cook and keep our shirts clean,” Chef Liam says, pointing to the white shirt of Chef Chu.

“If you just cook, take your salary and leave, you will never succeed. You’ll always be just an ordinary cook,” Chef Chu says.

And the two chefs are serious, they really want to hear people’s comments.
“We can learn from comments,” Chef Chu says.

“The only thing that really satisfies a chef is to receive people’s appreciation.”