Chef André Chiang's secrets to running a top restaurant in Asia

"I don't want to miss any service. It's important for the guests who booked months ahead and expect to see the chef. I've been there since the first day - almost six years. It's also important for my team to know the chef is around. It's a very small team and I plate every dish."

"Our restaurant is in a three-storey building that's nearly 100 years old. I want [guests] to feel like it's a home, so it's an intimate space. When they enter, they see the kitchen and can say hi to me. It's like being invited to André's house."

"I started to work in kitchens when I was 13. My mom was a chef. She cooked home-style Taiwanese food and helped at her friend's restaurant in Japan for 10 years, until her friend left and Mom took over. My older brother and sister aren't into food and thought I would take over the business. I went to Japan for two years to work with my mom. When I was 15, too young to take over, I wanted to see something different - new ideas, new systems of doing things - so I went to France."

"Once I arrived, I realised this was what I wanted to do and stayed for 16 years. Chinese cuisine is all about technique - cutting, making things crispy - with no emotion, and my mom didn't want me to change any of her recipes. In France, it's the opposite - it's all emotional. You go to the market, smell the produce, meet the farmers, breathe the seasonality. Everything is so connected. Chefs would ask me, 'What do you feel?' That triggered my artistic senses. I grew up in an artistic family, my dad is a calligrapher, my brother an actor, my sister a clothing designer, and I am into sculpture and ceramics. I designed all the pottery in my restaurant.