East Hotel's Executive Chef Rob Cunningham Bids Farewell to Beijing After Seven Years

East Hotel's executive chef Rob Cunningham will be leaving Beijing this summer, after having spent seven years cooking up delectable fare in Beijing, the past five spent at Chaoyang's Feast (Food by East). We will most certainly miss Cunningham, who won an Outstanding Award in our 2016 Restaurant Awards' Best Chef category, and took numerous other awards at our previous ceremonies.

Cunningham's next stop is Indonesia: "I'm going to Jakarta to be the group F&B director for Aryaduta Hotel Group in Indonesia," he tells us.

We talked to him to find out what he will miss most about our fair city, and what he most certainly will not miss.

"I’ll miss Chinese food the most. I love the people here and all the friends that my family and I have made here. It’s an amazing city to live and work in. I’ll miss the hospitality industry here in Beijing. Both foreign and Chinese are welcoming here and share an idea of growth. In other cites the industry doesn’t share information the way we do in Beijing. We all want this industry to grow in Beijing and we all do our best to contribute to its growth."

As for what he won't be missing when he moves over to sunnier climes: I definitely won't miss "the winter and the pollution for sure," Cunningham tells us. 

When asked if he has any other advice for newbies moving to the city, he adds, "You need to completely change the way you think and behave. You need to become accustomed to the local culture and customs. Every country is different whether it’s from Australia to London or to China. You need to be patient and learn how the work and life culture of the country exists so that you can fit into that culture. It’ll be different than what you’re used to. You need to accept that fact. You need to be patient. You’ll have a language and a cultural barrier regardless of where you’re from."

If you're interested, on June 28 there will be a farewell dinner at Feast, where Cunningham will be in the kitchen for the last time. The dinner is RMB 258 per person (plus service charge), and you can expect to see a lot of his signature dishes, including his famous pavlova, one of our personal favorites.

We will miss that pavlova, but we still want to wish Rob all the best of luck in Jakarta! 

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Photos courtesy of East, Beijing