E&O Search for AFC’s Next Celebrity Chef Winner Revealed
2 min readE&O Search for AFC’s Next Celebrity Chef Winner Revealed
This afternoon we were invited to St. Mary Residences showroom for the THE UNVEILING OF THE WINNER OF “E&O SEARCH FOR AFC’S NEXT CELEBRITY CHEF” GRAND FINALE PARTY & & PRESS CONFERENCE.
For first ever produced reality series for TV in Asia, the winner of the E&O Search for AFC’s Next Celebrity Chef will be unveiled in person & announced at a special party specially organized for the media in Kuala Lumpur. The winner will be awarded the opportunity of a year-long employment contract with the E&O Group, taking on the mantle of Creative Director and Head of R&D for the E&O Gourmet Group. Crowned as AFC Celebrity Chef, contestants were placed through culinary challenges across five countries – Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. This is the first time in Asia, Eastern & Oriental Berhad (E&O) and the Asian Food Channel (AFC) conducted a region-wide search for Asia’s next Celebrity Chef by creating AFC’s first-ever reality television series, a first for a regional broadcaster.
We were the lucky few to be there to watch the final episode before everyone else. We were also joined by Chef BRUCE LIM, Chef EMMANUEL STROOBANT, Chef Anis Nabilah, MARIA BROWN, AFC CO-FOUNDER & MD of Asian Food Channel and Ms. Lyn Chai, Director – Group Corporate Strategy Eastern & Oriental Berhad.
There we met the winner of E&O Search for AFC’s Next Celebrity Chef in person!
Could it be Dino?
Or Diane?
The winner is revealed and it is Dino. Congratulations on his winning, had a short chat with him just now, he is a great guy!
Thank you Asian Food Channel and E&O Group for the invitation, we were “celebrity chef-struck”.
Finally I met the plate throwing Chef Bruce, had a great time chatting with him!
Thanks for reading everyone!
ish, my fave not into the final >.<
Hi Ai Wei,
Your favourite is Stanley? I’m taking a wild guess here.
Wilson
actually i only watched the last couple of episodes. non of them have the personality of a celebrity chef… i guess the winner will hv to nurture that to make him/herself one
Hi there babe,
I spoke to the judges and trust me they were having hard time selecting the right person. Dino is the closest as they get, probably Diane too. Anyhow, kudos to the team who made this happened. I wished for a Malaysian to win this, but maybe season 2?
Wilson
i’m anxious to know the winner! please update, it’s already midnight!
We just updated!!! Dino is the winner!!
Wilson
yay! i was rooting for him! 😉 diane’s just a bit too over-confident, though in the earlier season i though she’s charming, cute and fun, but i changed my mind afterwards.
so yay again!
Hello Arra,
Thank you for following our blog. Hope you will visit us again for more food and travel reviews. Thanks again!
Wilson
Was Bruce’s temper tantrums genuine or part of E&O/AFC’s script?
Tempers flare from people with chronic health issues.
Hope he recovers and get slim soon.
Hi MikeMD,
I asked Chef Bruce the same question. Did the media in Philippines actually targeted him after his temper in his show? Apparently no.
He told me he is quite notorious for his temper. Thus, he told me that a few days ago, a drunken customer actually threw his plate like him.
Chef Bruce then asked him why and the drunken customer told him that he followed what he did and complained about the quality of his food.
Chef Bruce listened to his grieves. For the conversation I had with the chef, he went through a lot before he becomes a chef. He is a remarkable guy to talk to actually.
So yes, his temper tantrums are genuine.
Wilson
Hey bro, just curious, can you cook?
Hi Thristhan,
I can cook simple dishes that is good enough for me and Rachel.
Thanks for asking, you are the first in this blog.
Wilson
Wow! It’s Dino….he deserved it.
Hi there,
He is a humble and funny guy. Glad to meet him in person.
Wilson
Stanley’s last comment in the show was that he was disappointed that people with mediocre cooking skills could defeat him, and I agree. Not all celebrity chefs are entertaining on television, if Stanley is considered boring, Bruce himself is utterly boringly in Tablescapes, The Boss etc. Now we’ve lost a wizard who could teach us world class cuisines. What the heck, the TV educates less than it entertains anyway.
100% agreed with you… stanley deserves to win
As per my conversation with Chef Bruce, he did say Stanley is one of the best in term of cooking. So is Leong from Malaysia but he pulled off halfway.
We are not sure who made the final decision but it was not easy to Bruce either.
Hmmm… found something disturbing http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23935392/ns/today-food/t/top-chef-richards-winning-smoked-salmon/#.TvKfLNTrqao
right or wrong.. you decide
Hi Jason,
Please do not spam.
Thanks
Wilson
Not spanning Wilson. This is Dino’s “signature dish” aka quickfire challenge winning dish on Top Chef by Richard Blais.
Obviously you didn’t put two and two together
Hi Jason,
Sorry I thought you were spamming. You are right, after reading your link, there is a controversial here. Where is the originality of Dino’s dish? No wonder Diane kept saying that she saw the recipe before.
This is a great find Jason! Thanks a lot!
Wilson
i think Stanley deserves to win instead of others..Bruce is a boring chef too..his shows are boring..so what’s the criteria of a celebrity chef?
This is really subjective, we wouldn’t know in details. Perhaps a celebrity chef comes in a package? Look, cook and personality?
Wilson
Even Chef Wan who was a judge in this program share the same sentiments, as I commented on Bruce’s inappropriateness, and miscalculation on Dino vs Stanley.
Ref: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/245251
“To be a great chef, you need to be properly trained; you need to spend a number of years in the kitchen; you need to work hard. “Great chefs are not born out of reality shows.”
Neither does he take kindly to the dramas that usually take place in such shows.
“Just look at the selection process,” he says.“Some deserving candidates are not on the show because they have a boring personality… [whereas] some undeserving candidates with attitude problems are in just because their attitude makes the show interesting.
“That should not be the case.”
He also dislikes the fact that some of these reality shows thrive on putting the spotlight on frustrated contestants crying their eyes out and judges being extremely harsh, or swearing their head off and throwing food on the floor.
He says: “The kitchen is a place where passionate souls create delicious cuisine. To produce good food, you need to have love, tranquillity and respect in the kitchen.
“Believe me, you cannot create good food with all kinds of dramas taking place in your kitchen.
“There are many ways to teach young people to become better chefs. We can be stern but we don’t have to be abusive.
“We don’t have to break their spirit in the process of teaching them to be a good chef.”
My favourite was Stanley too. Not only was he an excellent chef, I liked his willingness to help and teach his fellow contestants. That’s true leadership.
As a celebrity chef, he may not be charming in the suave, smile, humorous kinda way, but he is actually very good looking and I feel he has an authoritative demeanour that is not unbecoming of a celebrity chef. He also had the respect of his fellow contestants.
Can’t say the same for Dino – Diane didn’t think he was great. Neither did Christian or Stanley. I certainly think it’s E&O’s loss that the 1 year contract is not going to Stanley but Dino. Overall I found the result disappointing.
Hi PC,
From the beginning we thought Stanley will win it. Of course, for the last two finalist, I would prefer Diane.
Perhaps its law of attractions.
From the comments here, it seems to be Stanley has more supporters than Dino. However, as I commented earlier on, the judges saw otherwise.
I did ask Maria Brown of Asian Food Channel that will they work with those who didn’t win. She said anything still could be possible in the future.
Stanley might lost today but it doesn’t mean he won’t be coming back. For that, only time would tell.
Wilson
Hi Wilson,
I rooted for Diane between the 2 finalists too! I was particularly impressed by her in the fish episode.
I think Diane should win, I supported her not just because she looks sweet and hot but that girl can cook. Not saying Dino can’t but he does have a nice personality which fits in the hospitality industry very well. Jason Lee’s find in the above post is most disturbing indeed. Somebody should inform the organisers?
I like the final 12 contestants, yes, all of them but there can be only one winner and the winner was announced! Like it or not, its not ours to judge and we are not paying for their services. Its the selection and the contest itself that is such a joy to watch.
I have no complain with Bruce Lim plate throwings. Most chefs I trained under have far worse tempers than Gordon Ramsey or Bruce. Plate throwing is inappropriate? I experienced far worse tantrums from various chefs that makes Bruce’s plate throwing looks like a polite gesture.
If there is another season which I hope there will be. I really hope they bring back Chef Wan and Bruce again!
The entire show from beginning to end was a big embarrassment. Bruce was the worst. He should not be allowed to behave the way he did when he himself can’t cook and neither is he confident. It was horrible to watch and extremely painful. What a waste of time and what a waste of money. Horribly executed. shame shame shame
I can say that this show and also other similar shows may be harsh to their contestant, but this is the reality they must faced in the real world. If you are running a restaurant, you don’t have the change to do a second take if your food comes out bad. Your customer will not return for a second time. So, either your food is good or bad in your customers eyes. You think Bruce is being harsh, there are most brutal chef than him out there.
This is reality.
Actually, I don’t think this is ‘reality’ – just the opposite. It’s histrionics played up for television. Drama lah. I’ve met heaps of really good chefs (yes, television chefs also) who say that such things have no place in their kitchens, because in a real-life kitchen, you have no time to throw tantrums and plates (and both cost too much money to waste!). And bullying tactics are really unprofessional, especially when you are in a kitchen where you are trying to produce something wonderful on a plate, and your state of mind plays a great part in that. Good chefs are tough but fair, not abusive.
I felt that Chef Bruce’s plate smashing and temper tantrums are all fake just to spice things up. And to top it all, those are NOT original. Hmmmm, where have I seen another chef that have done that in the past? Well, it’s a michelin star chef from UK that goes by the name of Mr. Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay (which I like to watch by the way). In my opinion, Bruce and all Ramsay wannabes have nothing on the real one. They all acted like tough guys, but Ramsay will eat them for breakfast and run circles on them.
If you want to be a bad-@ss chef on TV, at least try to aim for some originality. And if you think that AFC watchers have not watched Ramsay’s show, then Bruce is dead wrong.
Just my two cents.