by Dr. Iain
Corness
The executive chef at the Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya is an
interesting Malaysian who was fortunate to find his true calling early in
life. He is a dedicated chef who said, “I might get ‘poo’ from the
GM about the paper work, but I do my talking on the plates, not on the
paper.”
He was born in Malacca in Malaysia, with neither of his
parents involved in the hospitality industry. At school he learned to
speak English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin, as was required of all
students in Malaysian schools. In addition, he was a great sportsman, with
soccer being his forte. He was captain of the local under-18’s soccer
team when he was only 15 years old, and his coach had high hopes that he
would go on to become a professional when he finished school. However,
three items came in the way of that career choice.
The first of these was the part time work that he did
in the evenings, helping out in a kitchen, the bustle and excitement
catching his imagination. The second item was his girlfriend, whose
brother was a chef in New Zealand. The third was the employment situation
in Malaysia at that time, which was not full of opportunities. The end
result of all this was his taking up the offer of helping his
girlfriend’s brother in a hotel kitchen in New Zealand for a couple of
weeks.
That was the Sheraton Auckland, and during his two
weeks assisting, young Tan was noticed by the Austrian executive chef Karl
Konig who liked his enthusiastic industriousness and offered him a job in
his kitchen. That was the start of a life-long career, and incidentally
the start of a life-long friendship with chef Karl. Tan acknowledges just
what a boost this was. “I have been very fortunate in my career that I
had a lot of people helping me. I learned (experienced) every section of
the kitchen under Karl Konig.”
After two years he transferred to the Sheraton Rotorua
and took on an accredited course in cooking, that was to last three years.
Formal qualifications were necessary, not just for his career, but to also
allow an Asian to remain in New Zealand (Thailand is not the only country
to make life difficult for non-nationals). This was the start of probably
the busiest three years of his life. The cooking course was during the
day, allowing him to work at night in the hotel kitchen. Most weeks he had
no days off, and if there were any spare moments he would go and help his
brother-in-law who was setting up a restaurant. However, during this time
he did get married and they had their first child, so he did spend some
nights at home!
His career flourished in this melting pot of work. He
won several culinary awards, and is proud of his gold, silver and bronze
medals won against all-comers in New Zealand. Tan admits that he is a
competitive person, that football spirit still being with him. “I always
wanted to be number 1. These days I like my chefs to be competitive, too,
as it brings the standards up.”
After the busy four years at the Sheraton Rotorua, it
was time to move on. “As a chef you have to keep moving. A new place is
always challenging and I need a challenge.” He took his chef’s toque,
and his skills, to Brunei where the Sheraton had another property and then
a year later returned to the Sheraton Rotorua as the sous chef there. By
now his career was burgeoning and when the opportunity came up to be part
of the opening team at a Sheraton in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), he took on
the biggest challenge he had experienced thus far.
The two years in Kuala Lumpur rounded out his
experience and his next move was to return to Rotorua to be the executive
chef at the Sheraton, a post once held by his brother-in-law. This was a
career move upwards of which it was obvious that Tan was very proud. He
also said that the two Sheraton properties in New Zealand were
advantageous for him. “These are the two properties that brought me
opportunity and encouragement. As an Asian person it was good for me to
cook European food, and I got a lot of support from the staff (during my
training).”
His next step was to Taiwan, and again a Sheraton,
where he was the executive chef with 250 staff in his kitchens covering
eight different restaurants, but with his creative self wanting to explore
Thai cuisine, when the opportunity of the position came up with the local
Hard Rock Hotel, he took it.
The move from sous chef to executive chef is quite a
jump in the culinary career ladder. One is working in the kitchen with
pots and pans, while the other is working in the chef’s office with
schedules, payrolls and computers. Having been a guest of Tan’s for
dinner one evening, I know him to be a wonderfully imaginative chef, and
for whom paperwork is not his preferred option. “To be honest I don’t
like a lot of admin stuff!”
However, he is still seen at the frontline, in the
firing area of the gas ring. “You have to love cooking. You have to
impress your staff with your cooking. I am a creative chef, so I don’t
have a lot of cookbooks, and I want my staff to explore a bit as well.”
I asked Tan where was it all going from here? What was
his ambition? He immediately replied, “I am happy doing what I am doing
now.”
So what is his advice to tomorrow’s chefs? “Cooking is a pressure
thing. The kitchen is hot and the chef will yell at you. The customer is
waiting for his food. At the end of the day you have to look back and see
what you can do better.”
