Sometimes the best things are borne out of the worst moments, sparking ripples of change that lead to extraordinary new beginnings.

This is exactly what transpired at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 when famed chef Vicky Cheng opened Wing in Hong Kong, just one floor below his French-Chinese Michelin-starred restaurant Vea.

At the time, Cheng was already a vaunted, iconic chef in the city-state. His flagship restaurant Vea was opened to widespread acclaim in 2015 and is a perfect representation of who he is – a French-trained chef who has Chinese roots.

But Wing? Well, that proved to be a bit of an anomaly.

Wing espouses the values of progressive Chinese cuisine viewed through the lens of someone who is Chinese yet simultaneously is a product of the Chinese diaspora. At the time, opening Wing was a bold move – after all, who would have thought of opening a ground-breaking restaurant at a time when most F&B establishments were charting unprecedented losses?

To top it all off, Cheng also had to deal with a whole bunch of detractors. The opening was at first met with incredulity in a city state where Cantonese cuisine – honed through generations of training and home cooking – reigns supreme.

Wing was converted into a Chinese restaurant during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Cheng’s bar business Vea Lounge wasn’t doing well at the time.

In many ways, Cheng was viewed as a bit of an interloper – having grown up in Canada, where he himself says he only ate Western food as a child.

“When I was young, instead of watching cartoons, I enjoyed watching cooking shows with Jamie Oliver. I only ate Western food because I wanted to be a French chef since I was young and never thought of another path or occupation since then. I didn’t dream about anything else,” says Cheng in an email interview with The Star.

But in this regard, Cheng’s unique upbringing and formative years are what have proven instrumental in driving Wing’s success.

Different beginnings

Cheng was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Canada. From the time he was a kid, he was determined to be a chef and this vein of thought never changed. As a teenager in high school, he started his culinary career working at an upscale sushi joint in Toronto, Canada. Later, he began his formal training and never looked back.

“I began my formal culinary training at George Brown College in Toronto, where chef Jason Bangerter – now a chef at one of Canada’s finest restaurants, Langdon Hall – served as my first mentor. It was there that I progressed from not even knowing how to properly hold a knife to mastering every station in the brigade de cuisine.

Cheng says he is able to create boundary-less Chinese food because his lens is different from his peers, having grown up in Canada. Pictured here is a dish of smoked eggplant served at Wing.

“Later, moving to New York to work in Michelin-starred Restaurant Daniel under French chef Daniel Boulud, I was given opportunities to work with ingredients in nearly every conceivable form. Through the intense and creative environment, combined with chef Daniel’s guidance, my skills were further refined and elevated, forming the very solid culinary foundation I have today,” he says.

It was these skills that came to the fore when Cheng first launched Vea, which was celebrated for its unique intertwining of French techniques with Chinese cuisine. When Wing was launched on the other hand, scepticism abounded everywhere.

On a wing and a prayer

For many purists, Cheng’s advent into what he calls “boundary-less Chinese cuisine” seemed somewhat impertinent. How could a chef who hadn’t spent decades cooking Chinese food or growing up in the womb of the cuisine – now suddenly start cooking it and then open a restaurant devoted to this age-old cuisine?

“If you had asked me 10 years ago about opening a Chinese restaurant, I would have firmly said ‘No’. The idea never crossed my mind until I began to deeply explore the richness of premium Chinese ingredients and their limitless potential while brainstorming potential dishes for Vea.

The lion’s head croaker appetiser is a delicacy from Cheng’s grandmother’s hometown in Shanghai.

“As I continued experimenting with incorporating Chinese ingredients into Vea’s Chinese-French concept, I noticed that many of the dishes I created turned out surprisingly well but didn’t quite fit into the culinary philosophy to put on Vea’s menu. That’s when I realised it would be a shame for these dishes to remain hidden,” says Cheng.

Cheng started inviting some close friends to try out his Chinese culinary creations for supper and after receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback, he decided to convert what was originally the bar Vea Lounge into Wing.

“The location of Wing (which is one floor below Vea) was converted from Vea lounge to a Chinese restaurant during the pandemic period a few years ago when bar businesses were going down, which led to an opportunity for this space to transform into my Chinese restaurant – Wing.

“Because the location is only one floor below, we know that we had to create something very distinct to differentiate the identity of both restaurants,” explains Cheng.

Cheng began on shaky, uncertain ground, but as the accolades started pouring in, his confidence in what he is doing has grown. Since its inception, Wing has become one of the hottest restaurants in Hong Kong and this year, it scooped the World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2025.

In the 2025 Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Wing is ranked No 3 and in the recent World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025, Wing is ranked No 11. Cheng now officially helms one of the globe’s best restaurants, which in turn means any doubts about his Chinese culinary merit have been completely and totally eviscerated.

“In the beginning, I faced a lot of doubt due to my French culinary background. However, receiving recognition from some of the most prestigious international awards made me feel that my passion and hard work and my team’s efforts have truly paid off,” he says.

Learning curve

It has been a weird, wonderful homecoming of sorts for Cheng, who is not trained in Chinese cuisine at all – at least not the traditional way most of his peers have earned their mettle and stripes. In contrast, everything he has learnt about Chinese cuisine has been almost entirely self-taught, although he credits friends and colleagues with helping him along the way.

Cheng’s goal at Wing is to make Chinese ingredients like sea cucumber more approachable to people who may be unfamiliar with the cuisine by crafting dishes like this sea cucumber spring roll.

“In the beginning, my Chinese cooking was purely from eating Chinese food and observing the dishes of other Chinese chefs in terms of techniques and flavour profiles. Later in my culinary journey, I was fortunate to learn from Chinese cuisine masters such as Chef Tam Kwok Fung from Chef Tam’s Seasons (a two Michelin-starred restaurant in Macau) and Chef Adam Wong from Forum Restaurant (a three Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong, famed for creating Ah Yat braised abalone).

“They generously shared the knowledge they gained from over 30 years of experience, which greatly enriched my understanding,” he says.

At Wing, the tasting menu is priced at upwards of RM1,100 per person, but Cheng says despite the opulent sheen, the dishes at the restaurant are rooted in the classic flavours of China’s eight cuisines and never lose their Chinese soul or essence. In fact, some recipes are bolstered by his own family.

“As for my dishes at Wing, some of them take inspiration from the roots of my family members, like my Shanghainese grandmother, Chiu Chow (Teochew) father, and the Cantonese flavours where I was born (Hong Kong).

“An example that is influenced by my family background is the lion head croaker, a popular appetiser we introduced when Wing first opened. This small fish is a beloved delicacy in Shanghai which is originally my grandmother’s hometown.

“For those unfamiliar with eating fish that have tiny bones, it can be challenging to enjoy, but once you learn, you will truly appreciate the rich and full flavour packed into this tiny yet delicious fish,” he says.

Ultimately, Cheng says his goal at Wing is to make Chinese cuisine approachable for everyone, especially people who might be entirely unfamiliar with the overwhelming cornucopia of ingredients and dishes that make up Chinese food.

“Take the sea cucumber as an example. For a Westerner trying sea cucumber for the first time in its traditional form, without any modifications, it can be quite challenging due to its unfamiliar texture and the sauces used in its preparation.

“That’s why we came up with our Sea Cucumber Spring Roll dish. By wrapping the jelly-like sea cucumber in a crispy spring roll, we offer a more intriguing and accessible experience. The crunchiness of the spring roll appeals to everyone, and it becomes a gateway for them to try the sea cucumber itself.

All of Cheng’s dishes, like this stinky tofu prawn toast, are devised through his own learning on Chinese cuisine, as he is entirely self-taught.

“This approach allows us to introduce ingredients in a way that guests are more willing to give them a try. This is just one example of our approach to creating dishes that are unique to us while remaining respectful of tradition,” he says.

Cheng says what was once viewed as his weakness is something that has instead given him a key point of differentiation and a superpower of sorts. Because, as it turns out, not having grown up surrounded by Chinese cuisine or even learning how to cook it means he is able to see things through vastly different optics compared to his peers.

“Rather than being more creative, I would describe my approach, infused by my background, as distinctive and unique – presenting Chinese cuisine in a way that others have yet to see before,” he says.