How a young Turkish-German female chef in Hong Kong makes fine dining fun
'We never want to be too stiff. I don't want people to be scared to laugh or worried that they're talking too loudly,' says Mina Güçlüer, the new head chef at storied French restaurant Belon. 'I want to make sure everybody's having fun and eating good food at the same time.'
It's a fitting declaration of intent, given that at only 29 years of age, her recent promotion makes her one of the youngest
female chefs to helm a fine dining establishment in Hong Kong.
Belon's head chef Mina Güçlüer rose through the ranks after joining the fine dining outlet in 2019. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
The Turkish-German chef has experienced a rapid ascent, landing her first job out of school as a commis chef at the three-Michelin-starred Victor's Fine Dining by Christian Bau, in the German town of Nennig, before moving to the two-Michelin-starred Horváth in Berlin.
'I learned so much about what it means to work in fine dining,' recalls Güçlüer, 'and the amount of care that goes into the product. There's pretty much no room for error.'
Having joined Belon in 2019, Güçlüer has risen through the ranks under
chef Matthew Kirkley , and it shows. The new dishes she has debuted exhibit the same precision and eye for abstraction on the plate, tinged with a commensurate amount of nods to Belon's French roots.
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