Ipoh-born lass Kwen Liew and her Japanese husband Ryunosuke Naito who both co-own Pertinence Restaurant in Paris, have successfully received their first Michelin star from the 2018 Michelin Guide France, just seven months after it opened.
This marks the first time a Malaysian woman has joined the ranks of the highly notable Michelin starred chefs. She is also one out of only two women chefs who earned the star for her restaurant in the prestigious restaurant and hotel guide book, which features 621 French Michelin-starred restaurants, this year.
Run and owned by Kwen Liew and her husband, Ryunosuke, the restaurant serves up classical French cuisine cooked with unconventional Japanese techniques.
Michelin describes the couple’s food as “carefully and expertly transforming market-fresh ingredients into succulent French dishes, brushing away the cobwebs of tradition along the way”.
Becoming Michelin-starred chef is a surprisingly rare feat. The French press reported that women barely make up 5% of all the Michelin-starred chefs worldwide. It is not easy for a woman to make it in the culinary industry, which is dominated by men.
Kwen Liew told the news agency that women always had to prove that they were twice as good as men to get their team of chef’s to listen to them. She said she solved the problem by acting like a man when working in the kitchen.
On the Michelin Guide website, the critique gave Pertinence a rating of 5/5 for quality of the table, 5/5 for service, 5/5 for value for money and 4/5 for frame.
With an average rating of 5/5, Philippe notes that the restaurant serves regular cuisine, tasty and seasonal, which was made better with conviviality and attentive service, although the decor may seem a little outdated. Well, we guess you can put that minor matter aside when these delectable-looking dishes arrive on your table..
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OK, now all we need to do is to save up some money to go to France and dine in Pertinence. Congratulations, Kwen Liew and Ryunosuke Naito. Malaysia is rooting for you!
FYI: Pertinence basically means relevance, so perhaps, this restaurant will never fall out of style? How cute. 👩🏻🍳 👨🏻🍳
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