Caprice head chef Vincent Thierry moved from France to Hong Kong with his wife and two young children (they have since had a third) when the Four Seasons Hotel opened in 2005. He quickly built up a reputation for fine French cooking. He changes the restaurant's menu every two weeks and sources almost all the produce from France.
Prior to Caprice, Thierry was sous chef at the Michelin three-star Le Cinq restaurant at the Hotel George V in Paris. But his career did not begin there - his r?sum? also includes stints at Les Cray?res in Reims, France, and the acclaimed Taillevent in Paris.
Thierry won his three Michelin stars for Caprice within four years (for the 2010 edition) after having two stars in the first Hong Kong and Macau Michelin guide for 2009. Caprice remains one of only three restaurants in Hong Kong and the only French restaurant in the city to hold the coveted three stars, along with Sun Tung Lok and Lung King Heen.
What first brought you to Hong Kong?
When I got the offer from the Four Seasons general manager, I called my wife to discuss it, and by coincidence she said she had been looking at a map of China and thinking: 'We must go there.' So I thought, why not? I had never visited Hong Kong before, and I didn't have any preconceptions of it at the time. I only knew that it had a lot of tall buildings.
What was the biggest challenge that you faced moving here as a head chef?