S'porean Mathew Leong finishes top Asian chef in Bocuse d'Or

Singaporean chef Mathew Leong has clinched a sixth-place finish at the 2025 Bocuse d'Or, the prestigious cooking competition often seen as the gastronomic equivalent of the Olympics.

The gold went to France, while Denmark and Sweden rounded off the podium, snatching silver and bronze respectively.

This is a personal record for Leong, who last finished 12th out of 24 contestants in 2021. It is also Singapore's best showing since William Wai, now healthcare corporate chef at ground handler and in-flight caterer Sats, won bronze in 1989.

The competition, held over Jan 26 and 27 in the French city of Lyon, featured top chefs from 24 countries. Each contestant and his or her commis (or assistant chef) had 5½ hours to craft two dishes.

Leong's platter of roe deer, foie gras, green mango and flower "dumplings" was inspired by the vibrant blooms of Singapore and the wild elegance of Nordic nature. The 30-year-old is executive chef at three-Michelin-starred Norwegian restaurant Re-Naa.

His plate entry drew inspiration from Asia's bustling markets. It featured a rice-coated stone bass stuffed with lobster, celeriac silken tofu with lobster oil and kompot pepper, a celery and green apple medley with yuzu gel, as well as an Asiatic-spiced lobster sabayon with tomato "caviar".

These two dishes, as well as the meticulously choreographed routine required to execute them, were the result of nearly three years of hard work. Preparations hit a fever pitch after Leong stopped work in October, ploughing through 19-hour training sessions seven days a week.

The close of the competition also came as a relief to his wife, 30-year-old Jolynn Alayna Chan, a former public relations executive who has since stopped work to move halfway across the world to be with her husband.

"Every time he returns home from training, I'll be like, 'Who are you? I feel like I haven't seen you in so long'," she quipped, adding that his training schedule had been especially difficult because he typically left for work before she woke up and returned home only late at night.

Leong's lack of days off also meant the couple, who got married in March 2024, did not get to spend much quality time together.

Still, Ms Chan has tried to make it work. Over the past few months, she had followed him to his training facility in Norway and prepared meals - Asian food, which he describes as "fantastic" - for his 10-person team.

For Leong, this emotional support has been crucial. "It's always nice to see your family when you're working hard. It just makes your day."

His wife was not the only one who flew to Lyon to cheer him on. Also in attendance were his parents and mother-in-law, one of his most ardent supporters. Loudspeaker in hand, she tried her best to make her cheers heard above the roar of the crowd.

Together with the rest of Team Singapore, they formed a small but spirited contingent in a sea of European supporters.

His first mentor, veteran chef Jimmy Chok, was especially proud. Leong, he said, has come a long way from the mischievous 13-year-old he first met at a cooking competition at Pioneer Secondary School in 2008.

"Back then, he was a very wild kid, very gangster. But I saw he had an interest in cooking and told him to look for me if he was serious about becoming a chef," said the 55-year-old, who is now a private chef and part-time food and beverage consultant.

A few years later, Leong did just that. Chok took him under his wing, albeit without pay initially, letting him come on board as an apprentice at the now-defunct Bistro Soori in Teck Lim Road.

Chok said: "In the beginning, he was a slow learner, but he could take whatever I threw at him. Back then, I was a very temperamental, strong-headed chef, so I would yell at him, but he still showed up every day. That's quite rare for a youngster, so that was how I knew he was really serious about doing this."

Leong, for his part, regards his trial by fire in Chok's kitchen as a privilege. "He was willing to teach me when I was nothing. He shouldn't be paying me - I should be paying him. I needed to experience that hardship to learn discipline and grow up."

It instilled in him an appetite for adrenaline that has sustained him through multiple high-stress situations, from the pressure cooker of a Michelin-starred kitchen to the fluorescent glare of the Bocuse d'Or stage.

Along the way, Leong, who moved to Norway at age 21, also had to combat homesickness and sheer physical exhaustion. But none of it has fazed him. Armed with a single-minded desire to succeed, he is determined to rise above whatever comes his way.

"I always want to achieve the things nobody can do. Every year, I have a list of achievements I need to hit. It makes my life more interesting."

Though he did not quite check a Bocuse d'Or victory off his list this time, he is still set on world domination. His eyes are fixed firmly on the future, where he one day hopes to realise his childhood dream of opening 20 restaurants, including one gilded with three Michelin stars he can call his own.