Cover Potager’s executive chef Masashi Horiuchi (Photo: Potager)
Potager’s executive chef Masashi Horiuchi (Photo: Potager)
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From the pages of the Tatler Best Malaysia magazines is this heartfelt anecdote from Potager’s executive chef
“With long and constant working hours, the F&B industry takes a toll on the body, and it is easy to forgo your health,” says Masashi Horiuchi, the executive chef of Entier and Potager. In June 2024, he discovered a lump in his neck, and upon a medical check up, received the harrowing news that it was Stage 3 lymphoma.
“I had to operate immediately and was in total shock, but the hardest news to take was when I found out I was not able to work,” he recalls somberly. Having spent his life in the kitchen since the age of 16, opening his own restaurant was always Horiuchi’s dream and at 51, running both Entier and Potager, two of KL’s most celebrated restaurants, the news could not come at a worse time.
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Above Potager’s interior
Potager’s interior
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“Working as a chef is everything to me, and being told I may never be able to cook again was painful,” he says. So much so that though he was going through treatment, Horiuchi insisted on attending two collaborations that had been pre-planned in Singapore. “I had radiotherapy in KL, flew to Singapore for the event, went back to the hospital in KL the next day, then flew back to Singapore the same day,” he reminisces. At the beginning of the treatment, he remained in good spirits, but four weeks in, he started feeling a lot of pain. “I could not eat for five months and could hardly drink water—it was tough both physically and mentally.”
While work has always been at the centre of his life, during this difficult period, it was his family that kept him motivated. “I called my mum in Japan, and she told me I could not pass away before her—when she told me this, reality hit, and I realised I needed to fight on, for both her and my two children.”
Thankfully, after six months of radiotherapy, his CT scan showed he was cancer-free. “When I could start to eat real food after my treatment ended, it felt amazing,” he smiles. During this time, he truly felt proud to be a chef: “It is a human need to eat which is why we can give so much happiness to customers in this industry—while it is hard work, I am happy I have chosen this profession for my life.”
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Looking back at his career, he recalls the confidence he had early in his career. “Working in Europe, at the age of 19, I felt I was invincible and that my health, energy, and body would never fault me,” he says. However, he hopes that young chefs take care of themselves, and realise the need to rest, sleep, and eat well. “We are in an industry that requires human touch, passion, and for us to constantly give out all, and without health, that is not possible,” he ends.
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Images: Potager
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Katelyn is the dining and travel editor of Malaysia and Indonesia. Based in Kuala Lumpur, she offers readers an inside look at the movers and shakers in Asia’s growing food and beverage industry.
