A Few Words With: Chef Rob Cunningham of East Hotel

This year our 2015 Reader Restaurant Awards have four personality-based categories: Best Chef, Best Manager, Restaurant Personality of the Year, and Food Entrepreneur of the Year. During the voting period that runs through March 8, we’re profiling a few of this year’s crop of nominees.

This time around we present Rob Cunningham from EAST Beijing, who has been nominated in both the Best Chef and the Restaurant Personality of the Year categories. Cunningham is the Executive Chef and Assistant Food and Beverage Director for all of EAST's drinking and dining venues, which includes Feast, Hagaki, Domain and Xian Bar.

TBJ: Tell us how about how you got to where you are today.
Rob Cunningham: It's kind of simple, the same way as anyone that works hard. For a chef it's just a matter of putting in your time, working hard and accomplishing your goals. The main reason I ended up here in Beijing is because I love Asian culture, and always have. So when the opportunity came to live in China I jumped at it straight away. Also, growing up as a country boy in Victoria Australia, I was very eager to get out there and travel the world. 

TBJ: What dish are you most proud of?
Rob Cunningham: I tend to like the dishes that get the biggest response from customers. So it's interesting when I serve people pavlova. In Australia you always bring pavlova to family gatherings and parties. The fact that we serve it here is great, because it's a unique dish for Beijingers, and gets a good response. I love when people go "Wow, I like this." 

TBJ: Tell us about your biggest kitchen disaster.
Rob Cunningham: When I was getting started back home, as a 16 year old 29 years ago, there were all kinds of problems. Once a sewage main broke and leaked in the kitchen. Another time the electricity went out in the middle of service, with 180 people seated. Power outs are a huge problem because you lose refrigeration, and it always seems to happen in the summer in Australia, when it's so hot. 

In Beijing I've been lucky, apart from a fire extinguisher that burst and flooded the floor. That was quite interesting, but it happened at 10pm, near the end of service when there was only one table left to wait on. So that was manageable. But normally the kitchen and floor teams work quickly together to resolve the issue, so that it won't impact the customer.

When the power went out, back in Australia, my manager got a truck load of candles, and put them on every table, along with bottles of Champagne. It's all about how you handle it.

TBJ: How does Beijing rate on the scale of international dining destinations?
Rob Cunningham: For one, Chinese food is amazing. And China is evolving and pushing the boundaries. In the six years that I've been here it's been amazing to see the growth. It's not often that you're involved in an evolving industry. In London or New York you get some interesting things, but ground is being broken here. You'll be training all these young people, who go on to be managers themselves. When I first got here it was hard to get Western products, the service was awkward and the staff wasn't engaging with customers. But it's changed so much now, and the quality is growing so quickly. It's exciting to be part of a changing industry. 

TBJ: Tell us about one of your favorite places to eat in Beijing, aside from your own.
Rob Cunningham: I love many Western places, because there's a lot of good guys working in the expat dining scene here. But my favourite places are Chinese, because the caliber and diversity is amazing. Foreigners will think they know something about Chinese food, but when you get here you suddenly realize you have no idea. My favorite place for Yunnan food is the In and Out (一坐一忘). I frequent it at least once a week, it's so affordable. And for southern style fine dining I'll go to Huai Yang Fu, because they're so atypical. They serve these giant freshwater fish, and they do an amazing mushroom dish that tastes just like beef. 

TBJ: Have you always been this charming?
Rob Cunningham: Ask my wife! I was once charming, while trying to develop a relationship with a woman. But in the kitchen, when I was younger, I'd be a bit ego driven and crazy. But now that I'm older, and settled, I just enjoy people's company and nurturing relationships, instead of the opposite.

TBJ: What does Beijing need to become a more personable city?
Rob Cunningham: I think it's doing everything possible so far. And we're all working together, in a way. It's one of the only places I've lived where you can talk to someone else in the industry, and they will pass on information about suppliers or things like that. That doesn't occur so often elsewhere. And Beijingren are naturally quite personable. If you look lost, people will try to help. I've been helped many times here. So I think Beijing is already quite personable and always evolving. It's an exciting place to be, and it's on the right track, we just have to continue working towards being a dining destination like other world capitals, which we are definitely doing.

TBJ: If you could host anyone at your restaurant, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Rob Cunningham: My Dad, definitely. He died not too long after I got to Beijing. I would have loved to cook for him here and show him around. He, like me, was always fascinated by Asian culture and its history. He would've loved it here.

Click here to read previous editions of A Few Words With wherein we profile some of the top players in Beijing's food scene during the voting period for the 2015 Reader Restaurant Awards, which runs through March 8.

Photos: EAST Hotel