Accidental British Chinese chef and his Michelin-star restaurant in London – the story of A. Wong
After working in his parents’ Chinese restaurant as a child, the last thing Andrew Wong wanted to do was become a cook. He talks about how he ended up opening A. Wong, which has earned a star from the Michelin Guide
“I never really wanted to be a chef, I kind of fell into it,” says Andrew Wong of one-Michelin-star restaurant A. Wong in Victoria, London. “I helped in the family restaurant as a kid – with resentment. That was my motivation to study. I took extra maths classes to have an excuse not to work.”
The classes paid off. Wong studied chemistry at Oxford University, then anthropology at the prestigious London School of Economics. But after his father died in 2003, he returned to support his mother in the family business.
He trained as a chef in London, then travelled to China to study at the Sichuan Culinary Institute in Chengdu – before learning the secret of perfect Peking duck in Beijing and the skilful craft of dim sum in Hong Kong.
He and his wife, Nathalie, opened A. Wong in 2012, in the same location as his parents’ Cantonese restaurant: the place where he had worked so reluctantly as a teenager. The name of the restaurant honours his parents, Alfred and Annie.
I meet Wong on a busy Friday morning, just before lunch service. Sunlight streams through the full-length glass windows from the leafy terrace area. Nathalie briefs the front-of-house staff as they put the finishing touches to table settings.
Inside the open kitchen, bamboo steamers hiss and woks sizzle as chefs prepare dim sum and snacks. The interior has been recently renovated; it is spare and elegant both in design and decor, which suits the small space. It seats only 45 at lunch and 75 in the evening.