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[title]Hidden away in a Tsim Sha Tsui commercial building, Ankôma is an exquisite French restaurant that incorporates Japanese elements and local Hong Kong touches. This is the brainchild of Frankie Wong, who has only just turned 30 and has recently been awarded Michelin Guide Hong Kong and Macau’s Young Chef Award 2025. Just dig into a dish of Uroko-Yaki Tilefish amadai on a bed of silver anchovies, clams, garlic chives, and cashew nuts – a nod to the Hong Kong dai pai dong staple ‘Stir-fried King’ – to understand why he is a culinary star to keep an eye on.
Some of Wong’s culinary inspiration comes from Hong Kong street food, such as in his housemade fish paste roll with French-style curry sauce. Sheung Wan is this young chef’s stomping ground for ingredients and gems, particularly along the streets selling dried seafood. “I like using dried goods like conpoy, mushrooms, conch slices to make stocks and soups. It gives a concentrated form of the ingredients’ tastes, so the sauces are exceptionally flavourful.”
Wanting to move faster than everyone else
At 18 years old, Wong’s life path diverged into three forks: athlete, designer, or chef. In the end, his passion for cooking and long-term consideration of the future led him onto the path of culinary arts, where he could combine design and creativity. During his two years in a culinary institute, Wong started gathering concrete experience earlier than his peers, working part-time in the buffet kitchen of Marco Polo Hotel Group’s Gateway Hotel.
“I wanted to move faster than everyone and prepare myself more. In school, we sliced maybe 10 onions per day, but in my part-time job I had to slice 100 onions each night. My technical skills improved so much faster this way,” he said. After graduating, Wong was recommended by his tutor into ‘the big kitchen’ at The Peninsula Hong Kong, where he prepared ingredients for use by the hotel’s various restaurants, further solidifying his skillset.
Defining success as a chef
But Wong was not the type to get complacent. Having set his sights on the world of fine dining, he first joined the one Michelin-starred Zest by Konishi, then the two Michelin-starred Écriture, to learn cooking techniques and styles from different chefs. It was Écriture that gave Wong the opportunity to grow, where he started leading newcomers at the age of 25 and expanded his managerial experience. “A successful chef doesn’t just grind everyday, they also need to know how to delegate. If you can teach someone to do your job, you can have the time and space to do other things that can increase everyone’s efficiency.”
The eventual fallout with his ‘second brain’
After receiving his accolades from the Michelin Guide, Wong was faced with an unprecedented level of pressure to live up to his award, and to make every customer feel like their Ankôma experience was worth what they paid. Labouring under the ever-higher goals he set for himself, and combined with increased workload from the restaurant’s popularity, it was no wonder that the lid finally exploded from the pot.
“Mentally, I’m pretty decent at dealing with stress, but that didn’t mean my body could take the same beating,” he recalled. “Because I was thinking and worrying too much, it affected the second brain in the body: the digestive system. My gut health was shot, I often got the runs no matter what I ate, and the doctors diagnosed me with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It was all because of stress, and I spent half a year slowly adjusting my mindset and learning to deal with pressure before I got better.”
In the three years since his restaurant opened, Wong has never forgotten the support shown by each of his customers. “One of our customers has dined with us about 30 times! And there was a foreigner who came around two years ago and told me that one day I would get a Michelin award – it was such an encouragement to me at the time,” he looked back fondly. “Recently this customer came back to Hong Kong with his daughter and returned to Ankôma, to congratulate me on my award.”
Becoming a Hong Kong chef
So, given his trajectory, is a Michelin star next on Frankie Wong’s goals? “If you’re only judging me by the quality of my food, I can confidently say I’m at that level. But Michelin looks at the entire restaurant as a comprehensive whole. There are some physical ‘hardware’ things that are out of my control, so right now, I’m not in a rush to chase anything.”
At the moment, what Wong wants most is to relocate to a larger space in early 2026, so customers can have a better dining experience. After 12 years in the industry, he also has a broader goal for the future. “As of now, there aren’t many chefs in their early 30s or younger who can represent Hong Kong on the global stage. I hope to be that name, to shine as a born-and-bred local Hong Kong chef who can represent this city!”