Chef Tony Khoo, Executive Chef of Marina Mandarin Hotel, has been blazing a trail opening F&B outlets for hotels here and abroad. He’s been winning awards in culinary competitions, individually and on a national level.

But 35 years ago, you’d never figure he’d be at the top of the food (and beverage) chain.
Tony was a school delinquent as a teenager, infamously picking fights and failing studies. Finally deciding he had had enough of school, Tony told his mom that he wanted to start work and support his impoverished family.

Friends were surprised when he became a kitchen helper at a coffee shop. But Tony was no stranger to cooking. Peranakan neighbours helped look after him while his mom was at work. So he grew up helping the aunties pound chili and peel onions, and enjoyed following them to the market.

Soon he became a cook, but he was not satisfied. He wanted to be a different breed of cook – a chef, and specifically a hotel chef. Back in the 1970s, it was not easy breaking into the hotel culinary scene. It was a very closed circle, consisting of mostly Hainanese chefs. But his lucky break came when an old neighbour secured him a hotel commissary cook position at the old Marco Polo Hotel. Once he was in, Tony knew he never wanted to leave the hotel scene.

Tony stood out by doing things just a little differently, whether it was a banquet tray arrangement or employing more locals than expatriates.

He also noted an ironic situation. In the old days, older chefs were afraid to teach, which is why they kept their posts and never progressed.

“Back then, we had to beg the chefs to teach us, unlike now, when we have to beg the younger chefs to learn from us.”

When he opened for hotels in China, he was impressed by the Chinese chefs’ hunger to learn. Whenever he prepared a dish, they would always crowd around him and ask him questions. It’s an essential attitude not often seen in kitchens nowadays.

His second love is competitions. He was so active in the ‘80s and ‘90s that he inspired fellow local chefs to do the same. Winning the “Most Outstanding Chef of the Year” at Food & Hotel Asia in 1990 was the pinnacle for Tony – it was an honour normally reserved for executive chefs, and he had to beat 999 other contenders.

Following that, he was selected to be Singapore National Culinary Team. And that’s where he learned the importance of teamwork. They trained together for months to think as one, and he had to leave his ego at the door. They returned from Sapporo in 1998 with gold.

“I hope that Singaporeans will come to recognise the efforts and achievements of Singapore chefs, their own countrymen, as we have done much in culinary competitions to bring glory to singapore,” said Tony. “I see it slowly happening, but the next time the national culinary team comes back from international competitions, I hope they will be greeted at Changi Airport by enthusiastic fans.”

Today Tony himself is a judge and mentors young chefs. He is well known for his tough and rigorous approach to training new chefs, but it is all for their benefit. Once he was seen as young and snobbish, but his stubborn quest for perfection and insistence on doing things just a little differently has paid off for him.

He continues to be a hands-on working chef, instead of an office one. Although he sets an example of hard discipline, Tony will also defend his chefs as he would family.

“The kitchen is our sanctuary, our second home; as chefs, we should be proud of it and defend it at all costs,” he said.

Tony Khoo has a cookbook “To Be A Chef” out now, available at ToTT (896 Dunearn Road).