Leonard Cheng

Like any other top chefs, Leonard Cheung’s culinary journey has been both immensely rewarding and arduous. After leaving high school, he worked as a trainee at several Michelin-star restaurants in the city including 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana before fully plunging himself into the industry by studying at, and graduating from, the Culinary Institute of America in New York. From there, he moved around the globe, learning his way and honing his skills in leading kitchens and dining rooms before returning to Hong Kong. 

“When I was 20 years old,” Cheung recalls, “I was pulling 14- to 16-hour workdays, 80 percent of which included cleaning up other people’s messes, and the other 20 percent doing repetitive menial kitchen prep work – which I believe is absolutely essential looking back now – that nobody wanted to do. I didn’t accomplish anything by being the fastest learner, or naturally gifted, or being well-connected within the industry, but I had to succeed through sheer determination, the love of challenges and a commitment to follow the course I set, even when it meant walking in the opposite direction from the herd.” 

Now the head chef and owner of Elgin Street restaurant Cultivate, Cheung has found an opportunity to express his own creativity and culinary style in what he calls a “fine casual” dining experience. “My cooking style is incredibly honest,” he says. “I don’t take cheap shots and hide behind highly premium ingredients to impress diners or hide mistakes. There are no mistakes to hide. We take humble ingredients, ones that sometimes aren’t taken too seriously in the world of fine dining, and we elevate them by manipulating textures, pairings and temperatures. We completely alter an ingredient that a guest may have previously assumed was boring or overused.

“The cuisine at Cultivate isn’t necessarily defined by one style,” Cheung adds. “Instead, the food is whimsical, seasonally guided, unconventional and attitude driven. We’re redefining what fine casual and interactive dining should be.”