A maverick in the kitchen

Almost as astonishing as the exquisitely delicate food Alvin Leung creates is the fact that he has only been cooking professionally for 10 years. Leung’s aim is to take guests to the gastronomic edge, and, like Heston Blumenthal, he is that extremely rare bird – a self-taught chef with more than one Michelin star, writes Ellie Fazan

In December 2012 Leung opened Bo London, in the city where he was born and lived before moving to Toronto then Hong Kong. One of the tasting menus he has developed for his latest venture celebrates his formative years. “Ode to Great Britain” combines traditional Chinese ingredients with startling innovation and a dose of wry British humor. A slap in the face for British bad weather, “The Cloud” is a mouthful of airy ponzu, a sliver of salty mackerel underpinned with sesame, ginger, and fragrant rose water. Leung’s take on traditional toad-in-the-hole? A Chinese Yorkshire pudding with lotus flower and frogs’ legs.

Everything in the restaurant is designed by Leung, from the delicate cutlery to the silver “tree” in which “Bread and Breakfast” (a smoked quail egg in a crispy taro nest) is served. In between courses, the self-styled maverick chef prowls the restaurant in black chef’s “whites”. Dining at a Bo restaurant is a theatrical experience, and with two more restaurants planned, one in Shanghai and the other in Taiwan, the Bo show looks set to take the international stage by storm.