Must-Try Chef Favourites In Restaurants Around the World

At Hive Lounge, InterContinental Hanoi Landmark72’s afternoon tea destination, Executive Chef Jun Kwan Soo welcomes diners to his refreshing spin on the usual high tea experience.

A tantalising selection of bingsus (Korean shaved ice dessert) have become a way for the South Korean native to showcase traditional Korean desserts, which are all about “celebrating the joys of simplicity”, Chef Jun shares. 

True to Chef Jun’s signature culinary style, Hive Lounge’s bingsus strike the perfect balance of modernity and tradition. You’ll find creations like Mango Bingsu, and the decadent Chocolate Bingsu where luscious chocolate shavings and rich cocoa powder nestle within shaved ice to create a dessert that will bring a smile to your face. 

When in Indonesia, you simply can’t miss out on trying one of the nation’s most iconic dishes: rendang. This hearty and comforting dish sees meat cooked slow-cooked with coconut milk and an aromatic medley of spices.

One of the best places to try this unforgettable dish is Duta Café  & Restaurant at Holiday Inn & Suites Jakarta Gajah Mada. Here, Chef “Joe” Juwaini serves up this national dish as a Nasi Rendang, which sees fork-tender rendang accompanied with steamed rice and other side dishes. 

A bona fide expert at whipping up authentic Indonesian fare, Chef Joe’s Nasi Rendang is his way of introducing guests to Indonesia’s rich culinary heritage.

Meanwhile, if you’re a fan of Japanese food, you’ll definitely love the modern Japanese dishes at SugarSand , Hotel Indigo Seminyak Beach Bali’s lively beachfront bar and restaurant.

Here, Chef Rizal serves up authentic and traditional Japanese cuisine—but elevates it with unique touches inspired by his global travels. 

Picking his favourite dish out of the entire menu, Chef Rizal recommends the King Prawn Mango Salsa, a lively dish referencing his time working in Miami’s South Beach. 

Inspired by the South Americans’ love for using mango in their cooking, this dish sees fresh prawns grilled over a robata, glazed with a piquant yuzu pepper paste, and topped with a refreshing mango salsa. Safe to say, the bright colours of this dish pair perfectly with sunsets by the beach.  

What does a chef do when he misses home? Whip up the dish that takes him back, of course! 

Taking you down his memory lane is Executive Chef Chen Wei Ching of Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre. At the hotel’s Halal-certified buffet venue, Window on the Park, Chef Chen fires up wok hei-rich (a smoky flavour imparted by cooking food in a wok over high temperatures) dishes at the restaurant’s Wok Hei Seafood Buffet.

“The wok hei cooking style always reminds me of home,” shares Chef Chen, whose love for cooking was spurred by helping his parents at their humble noodle stall back home in Kuala Lumpur. 

With Chef Chen being a huge seafood fan, you can expect no less than the freshest catch of the day transformed into lip-smacking, wok hei-kissed dishes like Wok-Fried Clams with Black Bean Sauce, and the fragrant Golden Fried Rice with Seafood and Ebiko. 

Also an expert at harnessing the power of flames is Chef Davide Giacomelli of LUCE by Davide Giacomelli at InterContinental Singapore. 

In his signature dish of Polpo e Ceci, Chef Davide masterfully pan-roasts octopus until it is the perfect balance of crispy and tender, and then plates the octopus on a velvety bed of chickpea purée. This dish draws inspiration from Sicily, and transports you straight to the island’s sun-kissed shores with this dish’s delightful oceanic freshness. 

Fans of creative fusion cuisine will also relish Head Chef Jodin Choo’s Asian-Western fusion menu at Holiday Inn Express & Suites Singapore Novena. Chef Choo recommends diners to try his Smoked Duck Kimchi Fried Rice, a bold and flavourful dish showcasing his experimental approach to cooking, a skill he has honed carefully over the years. 

And if you ever find yourself at voco Orchard Singapore’s modern-Italian restaurant, il Cielo, don’t miss out on the Tagliatelle Manzo e Tartufo, a specialty of Chef Marco Fregnan. A celebration of Chef Marco’s passion for classic Italian flavours, this luxurious pasta dish sees handmade tagliatelle bathed in a parmesan emulsion, and topped with melt-in-your-mouth wagyu beef and freshly shaved truffles.  

To savour proteins done perfectly, look no further than Xin Tian Di, the beloved Cantonese restaurant at Crowne Plaza Bangkok Lumpini Park. 

When dining here, don’t be surprised to see a succulent Peking duck on every diner’s table. After all, Cantonese cuisine master Chef Song Srihin has proudly perfected the art of barbecuing perfectly crisp and juicy Peking duck. 

True to Chef Song’s inventive take on traditional Chinese food, you can choose to have your carved duck meat served in any number of ways, from being stir-fried with crispy garlic, aromatic black pepper, or in an incredibly moreish sweet-and-sour sauce. 

Proteins too are grilled to perfection over at Hotel Indigo Bangkok Wireless Road’s CHAR Restaurant. Here, Chef Jaime “Jimmy” Rojas invites you to dig into his favourite sharing platters with your family and friends. 

A true Mexican at heart, Chef Rojas loves the way hearty and delicious meals bring people together, and at CHAR Restaurant, the seafood-only, beef-only, and assorted meat sharing platters are the perfect way to savour premium produce that’s expertly cooked just the way you and your loved ones like it."

Also an expert at transforming quality produce into unforgettable dishes? Chef Kate of Dinso Resort & Villas Phuket. With Chef Kate’s love for fresh flavours, it’s no surprise that her star dish is an elegant Pan-Fried Sea Bass in White Wine. Here, freshly caught sea bass and locally sourced vegetables are elevated with a crisp and lively white wine sauce. 

With Thailand’s coastal areas granting it access to the freshest local catch, it’s also no surprise that guests at InterContinental Koh Samui Resort are always treated to the most amazing seafood dishes. 

For Executive Chef Amporn Choeng-Ngam, also fondly known as Chef Berm, a must-try for diners at both Amber and Flames, the hotel’s dining destinations, is his signature Plaa Pla Bai Bua. 

For Chef Berm, who believes “a recipe has no soul; a chef must bring his soul to a recipe”, this storied dish is Chef Berm’s way of spotlighting a fisherman’s hard work that brings delicious seafood to diners. 

Perfectly seared tuna is adorned with aromatic Thai herbs and finished off with a zesty mint-lemon sauce. Served on a misted lotus leaf that evokes the morning dew, this beautifully plated dish celebrates both the bounty of the sea and the fishermen’s labour of love at dawn.  "

Equally storied is Chef Golf’s Crab Meat and Prawn Betel Leaf Curry, exclusively available at Bangkok’78. Located in Sindhorn Midtown Hotel Bangkok, Vignette Collection, this cosy restaurant serves up hard-to-find retro Thai dishes. 

Spicy, flavourful and incredibly moreish, Chef Golf’s curry is served with rice noodles and a perfect soft-boiled egg. With this dish, Chef Golf transports diners back to her childhood years spent helping her mother whip up this curry at their family restaurant, a fond memory which doubtless set her on her way to becoming a top chef. 

With food being such a powerful way to create new memories, Chef Alexandre Frechette of Pinto at InterContinental Phuket Resort also creatively fuses Spanish and Thai flavours with his signature Paella de Langosta to create a truly unforgettable meal for diners. 

Laboriously cooked in a paella dish over a fire, Chef Frechette’s take on the traditional paella sees him accentuating the saffron-perfumed rice dish with freshly caught Phuket lobster. 

Similarly, a bite of Chef Wa’s extraordinary handmade croissants at the hotel’s Devas’ Lounge is guaranteed to become a new food memory for you. Handmade with a house-cultured yeast, these croissants boast a light, fluffy crumb and an incredible depth of flavour, a feat possible only with Chef Wa’s slow-fermentation approach to making her famed croissants. 

Pro-tip: Pair these croissants with some tea and coffee, both sustainably sourced from the foothills of northern Thailand. 

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