One is a master chef with 28 years of cooking experience, the other is a savvy restaurateur running a successful restaurant empire.
With their stellar track records in the food and beverage scene, executive head chef Martin Foo, 50, of modern Chinese restaurant VLV at Clarke Quay, and Imperial Treasure Restaurant Group's founder, Mr Alfred Leung, 63, easily won the special personality awards at The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao Best Asian Restaurants Awards.
It was a unanimous decision to award the Chef of the Year accolade to Foo and the Lifetime Achievement award to Mr Leung.
The two prizes announced yesterday are part of the inaugural Best Asian Restaurants Awards, which celebrates the best in Asian dining in Singapore.
The bronze recipients of the awards were announced last week in the two daily newspapers, in the lead-up to the gala reception at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore on Wednesday. Winners in the silver and gold categories will be revealed then.
The awards, part of the year-long Asian Masters gourmet extravaganza, will be given out annually.
The judges are The Straits Times Life editor Tan Hsueh Yun, Life deputy editor Wong Ah Yoke, Lianhe Zaobao food correspondent Marcus Yeo and Ms Ng Yimin, a correspondent at the Chinese paper.
Asian Masters, which is in its fifth edition, features events such as whisky- and champagne-pairing dinners throughout this month. It continues with monthly dining promotions until February next year.
The event is organised by Sphere Exhibits, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings, and food and beverage consultancy Poulose Associates.
• For more stories on Asian Masters, go to str.sg/4n39
