Cover Edward Voon, chef-owner of Auor in Hong Kong
Edward Voon, chef-owner of Auor in Hong Kong
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In Partnership With
Auor's Edward Voon has had an illustrious career, and he has dirty dishes to thank for that
Walking the gritty road has never been an issue for Penang-born Singaporean chef Edward Voon. In fact, the chef-owner of Auor, an acclaimed French fine dining restaurant in Hong Kong, is drawn to the toughest of terrains.
When asked if he has a thing for herculean tasks and difficult obstacles, he agrees pensively. “I love excitement and adrenaline. I love to work with pressure because pressure will always push you to the next level,” Voon, who is in Singapore to cook for the exclusive Off Menu Luxe event, says.
This dogged determination to beat the odds and prove himself has long been his signature trait. As a 16-year-old dishwasher working at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore, he developed the mantra to always “work against the clock”. To Voon, the clock is not just a “sign of opportunity”, it’s also the best trainer, teaching him to work fast and be organised. In fact, it was this same resolve to overcome the steepest of climbs that led Voon to culinary greatness.
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Above Blue lobster, choi sum, Fujian sauce
Above Amadai, lemon, laksa
Blue lobster, choi sum, Fujian sauce
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The boy who could
Cooking was a love affair that started from the time he was about seven years old. He would observe his mother cooking and be intrigued by the sounds and smells emerging from the kitchen. “I just felt the connection (with the kitchen) at that age,” he says. So despite being small in size, the young Voon decided he could start cooking for himself and nothing could stop him—not even almost burning the kitchen down. Thanks to an uncle who helped to put out the roaring flames, the curious young boy escaped unscathed from what he describes as a “horrible” incident.
By the time he took on his first back-of-house job, Voon’s interest had grown. “I spent my extra time watching people cook in the kitchen,” he recalls, adding that he was not shy to ask them questions. Eventually, the chefs picked up on his interest and helped him attain a transfer to the butchery team, where he “cut my hand 10 times in a week”. Blood was shed, quite literally.
This simple change in job scope proved vital to his learning journey as not only did he learn to work with knives, it honed his interest in the culinary arts even more. After just three months in his new role, the brazen teen challenged the chief butcher to see who could do the job faster—and won. After six months of deboning and filleting, the determined young lad was transferred to the hot kitchen, a place he could previously only watch from afar.
From there, the learning journey became much steeper, but his climb up was expeditious to say the least. After just seven years, Voon went from the boy who could only cook canned food to junior sous chef. “Not bad, right?” he asks with a laugh.
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Above Edward Voon's restaurant, Auor, is based on the essence of time
Edward Voon's restaurant, Auor, is based on the essence of time
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Shaken, not stirred
His enthusiasm and penchant for learning soon caught the eye of then-executive chef of Tower Club, Terence Chew, who pursued him a total of three times. Voon eventually agreed to the position of sous chef, a decision that would mark a turning point in his life. As a chef with no experience in fine dining, these were some of the roughest days in his career. “It was really, really bad… it was so tough, you can’t even imagine,” Voon says of the first 15 months at Tower Club’s kitchen. But again, the precipitous learning curve only spurred him on. “I had to go through this,” he says, describing the experience as the “best thing that’s happened” in his illustrious career.
Voon would later return to the Mandarin Oriental, where he trained for international competitions and brought home a slew of gold medals, an achievement he still wears with pride today. But in true Edward Voon-style, instead of resting on his laurels, he pushed himself harder. “If I’m a world champion, then I have to work like a world champion,” he says, adding that this is one of the principles he still lives by today.
The father-of-three, who turns 50 next year, looks back at the past 30 years of his career with a deep sense of gratefulness. Till today, he still feels indebted to each and every one who took a chance on him, from chefs at Mandarin Oriental and Tower Club to people he met at the Singapore Chefs Association and in Hong Kong. “I'm very blessed and grateful for the people around me. It’s not just about me, it’s never about me. It’s about the people around me. People are what makes things happen. And if you're not good with people, you cannot own a restaurant,” he says introspectively.
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Above Carabinero prawn, Thai pasta available for lunch
Carabinero prawn, Thai pasta available for lunch
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UNEXPECTED BEGINNINGS
After a short stint dabbling in molecular gastronomy, and then returning to Tower Club as executive chef, Voon thought it was time for him to venture out on his own. But just as he was about to sign the lease on a restaurant space at Bukit Pasoh, an unexpected opportunity came knocking once more. A billionaire in Hong Kong wanted to hire Voon as his personal chef. “I told myself that such opportunities are very rare, and so I decided to go to Hong Kong.”
While life as a personal chef travelling the globe was exciting, he admits that the fun lasted for only the first two years. The remaining three years were exhausting, and he saw himself getting rusty. “I felt (like I) really lost out in terms of time in the kitchen, because I wasn’t running a kitchen day-in-day-out,” he says. But it wasn’t all for nothing. As part of his work building his employer’s F&B empire (he helped launch up to 10 restaurants in just three years), Voon also picked up the skills and know-how of running a food business.
Then, in the sixth year, Voon was again tossed into the deep end when his tycoon boss decided to start a new restaurant, this time with Voon in charge. An innovative French restaurant, Le Pan ended up being a huge hit, but Voon recalls the initial months being a struggle. After half a decade away from commercial kitchens, he had lost his momentum. He realised then that he needed to not just work against the clock, but “even faster than the clock”.
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Above Sarawak black pepper au gratin
Sarawak black pepper au gratin
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HOUR OF OPPORTUNITY
After six glorious years at Le Pan, Voon decided it was finally time to open his own restaurant. “And in my late 40s!” he exclaims, seemingly still in disbelief about the mammoth task he had chosen to undertake. But he knew it was the right choice and the right time. “Being in fast-paced Hong Kong has taught me a lot. It taught me to see things from a different perspective, how to be creative and how to work harder,” he says.
So in the summer of 2022, Voon launched Auor, serving innovative French cuisine influenced by Southeast Asian traditions and flavours. For instance, Voon’s creations in the summer 2023 menu include an appetiser of rock lobster in laksa sauce, and a Japanese rice-based main with aubergine rendang, lemongrass, pork lard and crispy seaweed.
Till today, the significance of the clock’s ticking hands follows him everywhere he goes. Even the culinary concept of Auor (pronounced “hour”) is based on the essence of time. And as he gears towards celebrating his golden jubilee, Voon shows no signs of stopping. The chef is currently working on developing yet another restaurant in Hong Kong. But instead of French fine dining, it will serve Cantonese cuisine with elements of his beloved hometown, Singapore. And since time waits for no man, if not now, when?
