When the love for food and a familiarity with the kitchen becomes your way of life, your safest bet of sharing this with the world is by simply creating!
In walks the award-winning chef Craig Wong — a second-generation Canadian — who has studied and worked in France and the UK, but calls the Great White North home.
Who, who was born and raised in Scarborough, is the chef patron of eateries in Toronto, Canada, and Dubai.
is style is best described as Asian meets Caribbean soul food and is rich in Wong’s Jamaican-Chinese heritage.
His mom Shirley, is from Ocho Rios, and his father Lipton, from Kingston, decided to migrate to Canada in the early ’70s.
Wong made the news recently when he introduced his Prosperity Jerk Lobster to viewers on food and dining network Eater.
From his Toronto-based restaurant, Patois – which Wong revelled in 2014 – Wong and his chef de cuisine Nicholas Beckford, who’s also Jamaican chatted, laughed, and seasoned their way to the non-traditional lobster dish topped with Ritz crackers.
Patois, which has been heavily inspired by his love for food and his matriarchal grandmother is closest to home, and where Wong’s creativity comes alive.
‘We start to see multi-ethnic-type restaurants doing some really cool things…so much so that they can literally put themselves onto a plate hundreds and thousands of times,’ Wong shared in a recent interview.
With the post titled ‘How a master chef uses Michelin-Level skills in his Jamaican-Chinese dishes’, Eater provided readers with a fresh take on Jamaican-infused lobster.
‘I came from the world of fine dining, French cuisine, working in three-Michelin-starred restaurants, and I learned a ton of techniques,’ says @patoistoronto chef @craigwong.
‘I think it’s hilarious that they would be snobby towards our use of things like Ritz crackers. It’s delicious.’
Wong is referencing his prosperity jerk lobster— a crispy fried lobster, stir-fried in a wok with jerk butter, onions, and peppers, and topped with a toasted Ritz cracker crumble and cilantro.
It’s one of the many dishes at the Toronto restaurant that riffs on the ingredients and flavours he recalls from growing up in a Chinese family and community.
In 2020, he opened Bar Mignonette a seafood wine bar with a focus on natural wines. He is currently the executive chef of Ting Irie, Dubai’s first Jamaican restaurant.
The video was producer/director/editor: Dnaiel Geneen | Camera: Andrew Budziak and Ryan Morgan.