Meet the speakers

Meet Belgium-born Chef Emmanuel Stroobant. First trained in classical French cooking at several Michelin-starred restaurants, he opened his first restaurant in Liege at 23. Yearning for new challenges, Chef Emmanuel moved to United States, Australia, and Malaysia, where he was exposed to an innovative world of modern fusion cuisine.

In 1999, he settled down in Singapore with his wife, and together they founded fine dining French restaurant Saint Pierre in 2000. Saint Pierre’s modern French cuisine with an Asian accent is a reflection of Chef Emmanuel’s three-decade long culinary journey. His passion and dedication to French gastronomy has earned the restaurant numerous prestigious awards, including a Two Michelin Star accolade since 2019.

A vegetarian and avid yoga practitioner, Chef Emmanuel is also the ambassador of zero-waste, zero-starch WOW Noodle. He is the author of two cookbooks, Cuisine Unplugged and Vine Dining: White and has his own television series, Chef in Black, Chef in Black 2, and 36 Ways to Live.

Meet Eric Teo, an award-winning Singaporean celebrity chef with an impressive career spanning three decades. Chef Teo has garnered numerous accolades and awards, including the prestigious World Gourmet Summit Executive Chef of the Year in 2006, 2008, and 2009. His exceptional achievements earned him a place in the Awards of Excellence Hall of Fame in 2010. He was also recognized as the Best Western Cuisine Chef at the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards in the same year. In 2017, the Ukrainian Ambassador Dmytro Senik presented Chef Teo with the Lifetime Achievement award during the WGS Awards of Excellence.

Chef Teo holds the distinction of being the first Singaporean to be appointed as President of the Singapore Chefs’ Association from 2005 to 2013, and President of Bocuse d’Or Academy Singapore in 2017 and 2021. He has actively participated in various International Culinary Competitions as a Mentor and Deputy Head Judge.

A prominent figure in Singapore's culinary television programs, he has appeared on both Chinese and English shows for Mediacorp Corporation, including a guest appearance on MasterChef Asia in 2015. One of the highlights of his TV career was the program "King of Culinary" .

Executive Chef of Mandarin Oriental Singapore until 2011, since his departure Chef Eric has been running his consultancy company, ET Culinary Pte Ltd. In 2019, he co-founded 3 Embers Culinary Craft Pte Ltd, a catering company, with his long-time culinary-disciple, Chef Teo Yeow Siang. Their joint venture was met with resounding success, earning them the coveted Best Caterer of the Year Awards at the World Gourmet Awards in Singapore for both 2020 and 2022.

Meet Kwan Lui—entrepreneur, educator, and founder of At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy. Dr. Kwan Lui’s career in the culinary world took off when she founded the Asian Home Gourmet range of spice pastes. She began her career in education after selling her business and founded At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy in 2001. Since then, At-Sunrice has developed partnerships with universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia and receives 2,500 students a year from over 34 countries.

Dr. Lui is committed to promoting education in the culinary world and serves on the boards and committees of many universities, in addition to food, gastronomy, tourism, and education initiatives. She has been awarded two lifetime awards and an Honorary Doctorate in Education Leadership for her contributions to the educational landscape of the culinary world.

At the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024, Dr. Kwan Lui will offer insights into the future of culinary education and share her expert advice for both educators and chefs looking to expand their educational and professional experiences.

Meet Edward Voon, one of Asia's most exuberant chefs. The Hong Kong-based Singaporean delivers daring creativity and heartfelt inspiration from a lifetime of family feasts and a career marked by excellence and innovation.

Starting as a 17-year-old in the Mandarin Oriental Singapore kitchen, Edward's passion for precision led him to work alongside top French chefs, exploring the methods of French haute cuisine. Self-schooled with a drive for continuously learning, his competitive spirit found satisfaction during his four-year spell as Singapore National Culinary Team captain, winning gold at the 2005 Salon Culinaire Mondial in Basel.

Edward then headed the kitchen at Aurum, Spanish chef Paco Roncero’s temple of molecular gastronomy in Singapore. In 2007 he was nominated as one of the top 10 most innovative chefs by British magazine, Restaurant. Hungry to expand his horizons, he left Singapore for Hong Kong, served as a personal chef and then presided at fine-dining restaurant Le Pan, showcasing his distinctive style of Contemporary French re-imagined.

In the summer of 2022, he opened his own restaurant, Auor, in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, where he marries prime produce from the world’s seas and top farms with the potent Asian flavors and ingredients he loved as a child. His innovative Six Rounds tasting menu evokes the passage of time and the circle of life, each ‘round’ imbued with meaning from significant moments in his personal journey.

Hear Edward’s reflections on the changing landscape for chefs working their way up in today’s industry and how young chefs can achieve their ambitions at Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024.

Meet Chef Frank Fol – former chef/owner of Michelin star restaurant Sire Pynnock and Founder & Chairman of We’re Smart® World. For more than thirty years he has followed his passion for highlighting the culinary beauty of vegetables and fruits.

In 2018 he took We’re Smart® World to an international level and launched the "We’re Smart Green Guide." Throughout his career he has published more than twenty cookbooks around his philosophy, Think Vegetables! Think Fruit!

At the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024 Chef Frank, alongside Chef Emile van der Staak, will give attendees expert advice on how to look towards the future with the ingredients and techniques they use and how to embrace vegetables and fruits as key ingredients in their dishes.

Meet Charlotte—found of Digital Boomerang, a multi-award-winning agency that offers technology innovations, marketing services, and creative support to clients in the private and public sector such as Health Promotion Board, Singapore Food Agency, and Starbucks.

Her agency’s creation of HealthHub has won several awards, including Frost & Sullivan Global Visionary Innovation Leadership Award in Healthcare Services 2016, Mob-Ex Best App (Gold), ASEAN ICT Award (Gold) among others. Her passion for machine learning has lead her to work with global partners to implement innovative marketing projects using AI. In her free time, she provides guidance on a Roblox metaverse for dreamers, especially little girls, "eDare to Dream,"e which is an initiative under the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations (SCWO)."e.

At the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024, Charlotte Ong will share her expertise on how the culinary world can grapple with the challenges posed by AI and embrace the endless opportunities that it offers.

Meet doctor and scientist, Jeremy Lim. Jeremy is the CEO and Co-Founder of AMILI, Southeast Asia’s first precision microbiome company. AMILI seeks to unlock the power of the microbiome (the trillions of microbes that live in and around us) in improving human health. ‘Food for Health’ is a guiding maxim for AMILI which works with food brands to optimize food benefits for gut health.

Jeremy is a medical doctor by profession and trained in surgery and public health. He is also Director of the Leadership Institute for Global Health Transformation (LIGHT) at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. Jeremy is driven by a passion for how technology can improve health equity and make it easier for more people to access care.

At the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024, Jeremy will share his insights into how the foods we eat can effect not only our physical heath, but our mood and brain health as well. He’ll also share his expert tips that chefs can implement to enhance the brain health benefits of the dishes we create.

Meet Chef David Veenstra and his daughter Joséphine. Chef David knew from a young age that he wanted to become a chef. He entered the culinary world as an apprentice chef after high school and has since worked at several leading restaurants as a chef and executive chef, and even owned his own restaurant. He has also worked as a culinary consultant for a high-end catering food supplier and is a top chef in molecular cuisine. For more than 11 years, he has been working as an independent chef, travelling all over the world to convey the specific characteristics of veal.

His daughter Joséphine trained in patisserie and is now training as an independent working chef, following in her father’s footsteps. This father-daughter duo enjoy making culinary discoveries together in the kitchen and learning from each other.

At the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2024, David and Joséphine will walk you through everything you need to know about veal—from technical cuts to culinary techniques that highlight the beauty of veal.