Time or Thyme? Chef Vicky Cheng’s Watch Collection Is a Library of Milestones
The culinary genius behind VEA and Wing believes in the unity of timekeeping and haute cuisine
A fascinating point of cultural intersections is where Michelin-starred chef Vicky Cheng draws his inspiration from. The road to building the culinary jewel that’s VEA – an innovative concept that fuses French and Chinese cuisine – was by no means easy, straight, or short, but, instead, arduous and filled with trials and tribulations.
Cheng was born in Hong Kong and raised mostly in Canada. It was during his adolescent years living in San Francisco when the future prodigy first developed an interest in cooking. “Back then, my mom traveled a lot, so often I’d be left alone with many frozen dinners. After a few days of microwaved food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I took the emergency money that she had left me and bought chicken, sausages, etc. and I would find myself cooking,” Cheng explains, “This was also the era of Jamie Oliver – his cooking was so entertaining, which spoke to me.” And the spark never went out. While at school, Cheng landed an apprenticeship at a high-end French restaurant, which he pursued simultaneously with his studies. “The chef and I clicked,” he says, “It was hard – kind of like a military kitchen. The school only allowed me to work eight hours, but some days I would be [at the restaurant] for 13 hours. I would come home and complain to my mom about being exhausted and working five extra hours without ever getting paid for them.” But the comforting words of his mother reverberate through the ballrooms of his mind to this day: “Every piece of knowledge you’re gaining right now, you’ll remember forever.”
In 2015, VEA was born – a space with an open kitchen in which intimacy and sophistication mingle as harmoniously as French techniques and Chinese sensibilities. “We take traditional French cooking methods and incorporate Chinese ingredients and Hong Kong philosophies,” says the chef. But he didn’t stop there. In 2021, Cheng opened Wing – an emporium of refined Chinese esculents.
If you have ever, dear reader, worked in the kitchen, met a chef (or watched the award-winning dramedy The Bear!), you would know that, in the culinary world, time is nearly as important as ingredients. This practical concern was what pushed Cheng to buy his very first watch – the Calibre de Cartier Chronograph. “I got it while working in an open kitchen in Hong Kong. Time is of the essence for chefs, and I thought myself being rude by taking my phone out to check the time, but that was the only way I could do it. Then, I developed a habit of buying watches”
As it also happens, Wing’s verdant interiors also match Cheng’s watch – a Patek Philippe Nautilus in military green with a stunning textured dial – clean and light just like, well, you’re about to find out. “When I purchased this watch, I began thinking about opening my second restaurant, and its color theme is exactly this shade of green,” Cheng tells me, “Obviously, I didn’t build the restaurant around a watch, but it just happened to be the same hue. A few people told me that I had to get it because it looked just like my new restaurant.”
Cheng also has a soft spot for Audemars Piguet – he owns at least three. The one he wears daily is the Royal Oak Openworked in Black Ceramic, “it’s a sporty yet elegant and scratch-resistant watch, which is perfect for me because I’m quite careless.” He tells us a story of how, when he found himself in the marque’s motherland, Le Brassus, he thought the watch indeed got scratched. “I called the watchmaker, who came in and did the full service for it, he then told me that the watch must’ve scratched a piece of metal (not the either way round), so it had some bits of metal deposited on it.” He also owns a “flashy” Royal Oak Chronograph in rose gold with a military-green Grand Tapisserie dial, “I bought it during a phase when I loved everything green,” the chef says. And, how could we forget the gorgeous Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in blue ceramic, a hue which his wife affectionately likens to the movie “The Blue Beetle”.
One of the most interesting watches in Cheng’s collection is, perhaps, the red M.A.D.1 with a rotating display ring and a modified Miyota 8315 movement. The word unconventional doesn’t even begin to describe this timepiece, not least because the time is displayed on the side of the case and not the dial. This stunner was engineered by the MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser and Cheng’s daughter compares it to a fidget spinner (due to, of course, the rotating display ring).
The road to the Michelin is no walk in the park. As chef Vicky Cheng’s story tells us, it’s important to keep yourself motivated by celebrating every milestone. And what’s a more poetic way to preserve a memory of a special time in one’s life than with a watch?
