Ex-Hakkasan executive chef Tong Chee Hwee plans new London restaurant

Tong Chee Hwee, The Former executive head chef at international restaurant group Hakkasan, is planning to open a new restaurant in London

The site, which, according to Propel Hospitality, will be located on the ex-Garfunkels site in Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, will be the chef's first venture since he left the Hakkasan Group in 2019.

The chef trained in Singapore, working for chef Cheng Hon Chau, a master of Cantonese cuisine, and it was under his mentorship that Tong Chee Hwee honed his own skills and techniques.

He then moved to their Kuala Lumpur restaurant and in 1995 he moved back to Singapore to work at the hotel Carlton as a fryer chef.

After fourteen years at both Happy Valley Singapore and its sister restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Tong Chee Hwee moved to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Singapore, where was discovered by Alan Yau - who oversaw the kitchens at the highly regarded Chinese restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton. Tong was persuaded to move to London in 2001 to become head chef at Hakkasan.

Within a year Hakkasan won a Michelin star in the 2003 guide, making it the UK's first Chinese restaurant to do so.