Eric Chong (born December 27, 1991) is a Canadian chef, former engineer, and

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...

who became the winner of the first season of ''

MasterChef Canada ''MasterChef Canada'' is a Canadian competitive cooking reality show, part of the '' MasterChef'' franchise, open to amateur home cooks. It premiered on CTV on January 20, 2014, and has aired its seventh season. The show stars three judges: Clau ...

''. Winning at age 21, he was the youngest ever winner of ''MasterChef Canada'' until Beccy Stables entered and won the fifth season of the competition at age 19.

Career

He obtained a degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...

from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical ...

and started working in the field, but quit when he heard the

casting call In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra for a particular role or part in a script, screenpla ...

for ''MasterChef Canada''. After winning the competition, he received an offer from Alvin Leung, one of the judges, to train with him and open a restaurant together. Leung noted similarities between himself and Chong, such as their background in engineering and their families' initial disapproval of their choice of trade. They opened R&D in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

in 2015, serving Asian fusion dishes such as

lobster Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

chow mein ''Chow mein'' ( and , ; Pinyin: ''chǎomiàn'') is a Chinese dish made from stir-fried noodles with vegetables and sometimes meat or tofu. Over the centuries, variations of ''chǎomiàn'' were developed in many regions of China; there are se ...

, inspired by his winning dish in the final round of ''MasterChef Canada''. Chong later made a cameo on ''MasterChef Canada''

season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

, where the two teams took over R&D's kitchen serving various alumni of the show and were judged on their performance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chong, Eric Canadian male chefs Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian Chinese cuisine MasterChef Canada Participants in Canadian reality television series Living people 1991 births