James Won

My name is James Won, 文明辉. I have come to think a chef looks after something older than himself. I trained in French technique in Paris, in the Lyonnaise bouchon tradition and in the precision of Japanese yōshoku, then spent fourteen years in Malaysian food and beverage, twelve of them in fine dining, learning contemporary and modernist cooking. I have taken that craft into the work that now fills my days: conservation and cultural diplomacy through Serumpun Sarawak. I hold two French knighthoods: Chevalier de l'Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne, the Champagne confraternity, from November 2014, and Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole, a French state order, from 2024. I treat both as a responsibility.

I am Co-Founder and Custodian of Serumpun Sarawak, a cultural diplomacy movement in honour of Sarawak’s thirty-four indigenous communities. Its founding year went from Kuching to Osaka and Mulu, and back to Kuching for the Finale. This is my work now.

It also draws on the restaurants I led and the maison collaborations that shaped my brand work.

I am Malaysia’s first Krug Ambassade Chef, Gaggenau’s first Malaysian Culinary Spokesperson, and the inaugural ambassador for The Plan luxury kitchen atelier and for Mepra. I have also done long partnerships with Hennessy, The Macallan, Mortlach and BMW, and I am Adjunct Professor at Taylor’s Culinary Institute. UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy Kuching has endorsed the conservation work I lead on Sarawak’s indigenous gastronomy, food culture, and edible medicinal flora and seeds.

I live in Kuala Lumpur and work around the world.

Paris and Lyon, where it started

My training began in France. Before that I studied science, and that habit of mind came back much later in how seriously I take Sarawak’s indigenous medicinal flora. Cooking was my second formal training.

I trained in classical technique in Paris and Lyon, and those two cities shaped everything after. Paris taught me fine dining. Lyon taught me the bouchon, the family-recipe bistro of the Croix-Rousse, which I brought twenty years later to Bouchon Enfin at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

The classical training was a starting point. The work I am known for, over twelve years of fine dining in Kuala Lumpur, is contemporary and modernist, and the classical grounding is what made it possible. Fluency in French classical cooking is why the Krug Champagne work, the Hennessy Cognac work and the Coteaux de Champagne honour came to me at all. The mastery came after.

The people who passed that discipline on to me, chefs and gurus and above all my beloved grandmother, are honoured on the Mentors page. Thanking them is part of the discipline too.

The restaurant years, 2013 to 2025

Over fourteen years I opened and ran six restaurants in Malaysia, each of a different kind.

BadBoyCooks Diner (2013 to 2018), Oasis Square, Ara Damansara. The American diner reworked for the Asian palate. A casual family room that opened a year before Brasserie Enfin and had queues from morning to the end of service.

Brasserie Enfin (2014 to early 2016), Oasis Square, Petaling Jaya. The first bistro, and the room that brought my first Krug and Hennessy press.

Enfin by James Won (2016 to 2019/2020), Menara Hap Seng, Kuala Lumpur. The contemporary and modernist fine-dining room where the Krug Chef’s Table, begun at Brasserie Enfin, became a dedicated salon (April 2016), and the Hennessy Salon (November 2016, the only one in the world).

Bouchon Enfin (late 2020 to 2021), Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. A Lyonnaise bouchon. Its nine-week opening was overtaken by the second pandemic Movement Control Order and turned into the humanitarian work that followed.

Shin’Labo by James Won (2022 to 2024), Mitsui Shopping Park Lalaport KL, Bukit Bintang. The yōshoku salon Robb Report called Ryoutei Shin’Labo.

MeatMore (October 2023 to 2025), Bukit Bintang. A SoHo-style steakhouse and cocktail bar with its own Mortlach Room, run in partnership with Diageo at the time.

By 2025 the restaurants had closed, and I turned to conservation.

2025: conservation and culinary diplomacy

In 2025 I moved my work from running restaurants to conservation and cultural diplomacy. Serumpun Sarawak was unveiled in Kuching in July 2025. Its founding year had four parts: the unveiling in Kuching, Osaka in August, Mulu in October, and back to Kuching for the Finale in April 2026.

I have not stopped cooking. The cooking now points at the indigenous gastronomy of Sarawak’s thirty-four communities and at conserving edible medicinal flora and seeds. It also feeds the curriculum work I do at Taylor’s Culinary Institute and the In Motion mentee programme that runs through every part of Serumpun. The French Borneo cuisine platform I am developing now draws its substance from this study.

The French honours

Two French knighthoods, one of them a state order, have shaped the work most clearly.

Chevalier de l’Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne (November 2014). This historic Champagne confraternity, traced to 1656 and founded by the Marquis de Saint-Évremond, recognises distinguished contribution to the cultural standing of Champagne. I was inducted in November 2014 through the Singapore Chapter, at an intronisation held in Singapore with the support of Maison Lanson.

Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (2024). The French Republic’s order for distinguished service to agriculture, gastronomy and food culture. It was conferred by Arrêté du 1er juillet 2024, signed by Marc Fesneau, Ministre de l’Agriculture et de la Souveraineté alimentaire. His Excellency Axel Cruau, Ambassadeur de France en Malaisie, presented the insignia at the Résidence de France in Kuala Lumpur on Friday 13 September 2024.

I am the first Malaysian to hold both. The pair puts me on a small list of practitioners from outside France recognised both by the French state and by the Champagne confraternity.

The maisons that have asked me to think alongside them

Long partnerships with European houses, each as Ambassade chef or as first Malaysian spokesperson.

Krug Champagne. First Malaysian Krug Ambassade Chef, since 2014. The Krug Chef’s Table began at Brasserie Enfin, moved to Enfin in April 2016 and to Shin’Labo in February 2022.

Hennessy Cognac. The Hennessy Salon at Menara Hap Seng (November 2016, the only one in the world). Tapestry × Hennessy pairing dinners. Appreciation Grows (2014) with Chef Accursio Craparo of Sicily, who holds one Michelin star, and the Hennessy 250 Collector Blend launch at Brasserie Enfin (2015).

Gaggenau. First Malaysian Culinary Spokesperson, with ongoing activations and content.

The Plan. Inaugural ambassador for the luxury kitchen and wardrobe atelier (Poggenpohl, Ernestomeda, Sub-Zero & Wolf).

Mepra. Inaugural ambassador for the Italian tableware maison.

The Macallan, Mortlach, BMW and Taylor’s Culinary Institute. Further partnerships, ongoing.

The published voice

For more than a decade my work has been written about in Malaysia, across the region and further afield: Tatler Asia, Robb Report Malaysia, Luxuo, Prestige Online, Epicure, FirstClasse, The Star, Free Malaysia Today, Sin Chew Daily, Oriental Daily, Bernama, The Borneo Post, Sarawak Tribune, DayakDaily, Daily Express, India Outbound and Palate Asia. Together they make up the press archive.

Two phrases from interviews come back again and again, and they come closest to how I speak. Culinary storytelling, from Luxuo’s conversation in November 2020, means letting the plate tell the story while the cook stays in the background. The future is metta, Ethel da Costa’s phrase from October 2021, is what came after the restaurants closed, and it still guides the work.

Both phrases are mine in form. Both were given to me by editors who listened well.