Top chefs address gender inequality, work-life balance and social media use at International Chefs Summit Asia 2023

After a four-year hiatus, the International Chefs Summit Asia (ICSA) returns to Singapore under the theme of “Brave New World”, celebrating chefs who have continuously put Asia on the world food map in a post-pandemic era.

More than 50 renowned chefs from around the region gathered from Oct 8 to 11, including Michelin-star winners such as Jun Lee from Seoul’s Soigné, Tahara Ryogo from Taipei’s Logy, Kim Hock Su from Penang’s Au Jardin and Thitid Tassanakajohn (better known as Chef Ton) from Bangkok’s Le Du. Singapore was represented by the likes of Lolla’s Johanne Siy, Canchita’s Tamara Chavez, Seroja’s Kevin Wong and Labryinth’s Han Li Guang.

During the event, Miele’s in-house chef Lennard Yeong and Morsels chef-owner Petrina Loh moderated panel discussions on female leadership in the industry, Asian fusion, as well as hospitality and sustainability practices in restaurants. 

Related: These Singapore chefs are opening a new chapter for Southeast Asian cuisine

In particular, the panel discussion on “soft power in the industry”, where an all-female panel touched on work-family balance and inspiring future generations of young chefs, struck a chord among the participants. Regardless of gender, many nodded to the universal principles of hard work and exemplary leadership in restaurants.

Burnt Ends’ executive chef Patrick Leano noted: “It was interesting to hear about the sacrifices made by different ones to get to where they are now. We need to be mindful that we are not just business owners. We need to create teams that enable us to take time off for the sake of our mental health.”

Catalan restaurant Gaig’s owner Nuria Gibert, agreed wholeheartedly that effective restaurant management is characterised by exemplary leadership. She said: “It’s impossible for people to respect you without you being there with them every day, fighting side by side. Not everyone is 100 per cent all the time, we need to be understanding of each other.”

The ICSA is one of the many chef-centric events in Singapore this month. Foodies can also look forward to the Singapore segment of the Kita Food Festival, which comprises industry talks and collaborative dinners from October 19 to 23. Raffles Hotel Singapore will bring in Ben Ing of Alberta’s Kitchen & Store in Western Australia, as part of The Second Act, the hotel’s Chef World Tour series from November 2 to 12. Ing worked at Eleven Madison Park in New York City before becoming the head chef at Noma.

Below are the key takeaways from the panel discussions at ICSA.

1. Gender equality in the industry has improved but more can be done

Thanks to the power of the media, being a female chef, especially one in leadership, is increasingly seen as a viable and even desirable career in societies around the world, from Latin America to Asia. However, challenges still exist. In Europe, for example, it is still harder for a female chef to attract funding and gain investor trust for their restaurants, resulting in most of them opening smaller, more casual outfits for a start. 

2. Every chef struggles with work-life balance

Time management remains the biggest struggle for chefs, especially those with young families—and this was not just “a female thing”. Missing social gatherings and milestones in the lives of loved ones are par for the course in the pursuit of excellence. 

Thailand’s Pichaya Soontornyanaki, also known as Chef Pam, confessed that she had an emotional breakdown as she juggled running her contemporary Thai-Chinese restaurant Potong in Bangkok and being there for her two young children. She shared: “I eventually decided that whether I’m at work or at home, I’d give my 100 per cent. It’s not just us. Men suffer from the sacrifice of not being there as fathers too. But everyone has to make sacrifices if we want to chase our dreams.”

3. Social media, while annoying, can be a tool for learning

A visually stunning dish posted on social media is always helpful in generating publicity, but chefs agree that taste must always take precedence over aesthetics when crafting dishes. And since one cannot beat the “camera eats first” practice, one might as well use social media as a training tool. Hong Kong’s Vicky Cheng, who runs French-Chinese restaurant Vea and contemporary Chinese restaurant Wing said that he had shown his staff online pictures of dishes prepared erroneously so that they can improve. He explained: “In some ways, social media makes us better because we need to be alert all the time.”

 4. “Asian fusion” is not necessarily a bad thing

Defining Southeast Asian food as “traditional” is an irony as its history of colonialism, cross-border movement and myriad sub-regions, already renders it “fusion” in many ways. For restaurants mixing cuisines like Cheng’s French-Chinese Vea or chef Hiroyasu Kawate’s French-Japanese Florilège in Tokyo, the most important factor is to learn and understand the original cuisines before combining them into unique concept. 

For Kawate, doing fusion cuisine is a way of preserving Japanese food culture, which risks dying out as problems like a konbu shortage, over-fishing and climate change affect the supply of traditional Japanese ingredients. Hiroyasu shared, “When that happens, I’m concerned that we don’t know how to maintain our culture (because we don’t know what to do without konbu or other ingredients). We’ve to find new ways now to prepare our dishes.”

Related: How Southeast Asia has evolved into a fine-dining force to be reckoned with

5. The human touch will always be essential

A restaurant’s operations can be made more efficient by technology, but the human touch can never be replaced. Investing in staff training ensures consistent standards, even when the head chef is away, and inculcates an ownership mentality—vital at a time where reliable manpower is hard to find. Tristin Farmer, executive chef of Singapore’s Zen and Brasserie Astoria, shared: “I can’t cook and serve everything, or be at the restaurant all the time. Training the younger generation how to take care of people imparts the art of hospitality and helps to balance everyone’s time spent at the restaurant.”