| “ | Is this a joke? I mean, this is MasterChef Canada, AND YOU GIVE ME THIS?! | ” |
Alvin Leung King-lon (Chinese: 梁經倫) is a British-born Hong Kong chef and television personality. He is a judge on MasterChef Canada and is widely nicknamed as The Demon Chef.
Career
Leung was born in London in 1961 as the eldest of four brothers, and was raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. His first job in the culinary world was as a waiter, but afterwards trained as an engineer. He moved to Hong Kong and purchased a speakeasy called "Bo Inosaki" for £3,000, renaming it Bo Innovation.
A self-taught chef, Leung gave himself the nickname "The Demon Chef", and is known for a style of cooking he calls "X-Treme Chinese". He describes the Demon moniker as coming from the Greek word "Daimôn", meaning "good-spiritedness". While X-Treme Chinese is a combination of fusion cuisine and molecular gastronomy, and is meant to show that the food he creates is pushing the limits.
His dishes at Bo Innovation include one called "Sex on a Beach" which involves an edible condom made out of a konjac and kappa on a beach made of mushroom. The condom itself is filled with a mixture of honey and ham. All of the proceeds from that dish go to charity AIDS Concern. His restaurant in Hong Kong received two stars in the Michelin Guide's inaugural 2009 Hong Kong and Macau edition, then upgraded to three stars in 2014 edition, and by 2012 was ranked in 52nd place in the list of the World's Best Restaurants.
In December 2012, Leung opened a second restaurant, Bo London, in London, United Kingdom. Within 10 months of opening, Bo London had gained its first Michelin star. Leung said that he intends for it to serve classic British fare such as dishes commonly served at bed & breakfasts, but with Chinese ingredients. He spent £500,000 on the site in Mill Street, Mayfair, and together with equipping the restaurant is expected to spend around £1 million on the restaurant. In March 2014, the restaurant closed following a 'serious water leak'.
He appeared on episode eight of the Bravo cooking travel show Around the World in 80 Plates. The episode was named after him, entitled "Feeding the Demon". Alongside the winner of MasterChef Canada Season 1, Eric Chong, Leung is currently opening a restaurant called R&D in Toronto. The restaurant is expected to be opened in early 2015 and is named after the nicknames for Chong and Leung respectively, Rebel and Demon.
Leung serves as one of three judges in MasterChef Canada. He also serves as one of the judges in MediaCorp Channel 5's Wok Stars. He was also in the show The Listener Episode "Amuse Bouche" as a judge in a reality TV show, Five Star Chef.
In October 2017 it was announced that Leung is opening a Spanish restaurant called Plato 86 and a Peking duck diner called The Forbidden Duck in Hong Kong. In April 2018, Leung will extend his success of his Hong Kong restaurant Forbidden Duck, opening another in Singapore.
He is also set to debut his first book titled My Hong Kong.
Personal Life
Leung is married to Abby Wong, and has a daughter and son-in-law.
Personality
As one of the judges for MasterChef Canada, Alvin is shown to be very strict, with no room for nonsense. Nicknamed "The Demon Chef", In Season 1, his behavior can be similar to Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich in terms of their aggressive, stoic, and extremely serious personality, and also being prone to frequent outbursts of anger from excessive overreactions whenever someone annoys him with serving bad food or having a poor attitude. During Season 1, he was also seen as a nice or strict mentor and teacher to Eric during the competition as Eric would often make success or mistakes for himself. After Eric won Season 1, Alvin was seen to be very friendly towards Eric as he trained Eric in his Michelin star restaurant in Hong Kong and opening a restaurant with Eric in 2015.
Outside of the kitchen, he is a very nice person, with a usual relaxed and easy-going nature. He does care a lot for the home cooks and expects a lot from them, and would often encourage them by showing a good sense of humor from his unexpected personality and his unpredictable form of yelling that became gags in the competition.
Quotes
- (To Eric) "Don't argue, because if you argue, we don't wanna teach you!"
- (To Eric) "Be humble. Learn."
- (To Eric) "Do you know who I am?"
- "Sauce. Sauce. Sauce. Sauce."
- "___ MINUTE(S)!!! YOU HAVE ___ MINUTE(S) LEFT!!!"
- (To Danny, regarding his smelt croquettes dish) "Is this a joke? I mean, this is MasterChef Canada... AND YOU GIVE ME THIS?!"
- (To Pino) You know, you're like a roller coaster. You go up! You go down! You go up! This is down.
- (About Josh's cheesecake) "The only thing tropical about this is that a typhoon hit it!"
- (To Dale) "First of all, don't argue. Nobody eats rib-eye this thick, rare."
- "Alvin: You know the expression, 'my dog ate my homework'? Thea: That's what that looks like. Alvin: No, I think your dog attacked it."