Winning against the odds
Choy plating the Beef Wellington.

Having chalked up two decades’ worth of international experience, Andy Choy Kyai Tuck’s inimitable flair for French cuisine has garnered Chateau Dionne in Kuala Lumpur a cachet of loyal, discerning customers.

It’s hard to believe that its co-founder and executive chef Choy, 37, had a severe case of allergies and could only eat bland and soupy foods when he was young.

“I was asthmatic throughout my childhood. Anything oily, salty or spicy would trigger my asthma attacks, and I had to use inhalers,” he explains.

His parents sought countless remedies to cure his asthma but nothing worked.

Much to their relief though, his asthma miraculously disappeared when he turned 10 and Penangite Choy went on a revenge-eating spree!

“I made up for all the times I had to miss out on popular Penang hawker foods. My grandparents also bought all sorts of food to cook for me, sparking off my interest in cooking.”

You can’t miss the sleek bar juxtaposed against a floor-to-ceiling, backlit wine display on the ground floor as you enter. — Photos: LOW LAY PHON/The Star

His earliest cooking attempt was making mashed potato from scratch, complete with home-made gravy. Later on, he bought cookbooks and learnt how to cook his favourite dishes.

“After finishing secondary school, I got a scholarship to pursue culinary arts at (the then) Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU) in Petaling Jaya. Subsequently, I obtained a scholarship from KDU’s partner university to further my studies in Switzerland.”

It was during his industrial training at Equatorial Penang that Choy discovered his affinity for French cuisine.

“Initially, I was based in the pastry kitchen. When I told the executive chef my ambition to run my own restaurant, he advised me to pursue my dream instead of limiting myself to pastry-making.

“I tried entering the Japanese and Chinese kitchens but due to my inability to speak, read and write both languages, I failed to make any progress. At Equatorial’s fine-dining kitchen, however, I could handle all the tasks easily. That paved my way into the world of French cuisine.”

After graduating, Choy worked for a year at the Gordon Ramsay Restaurant in London, followed by a two-year stint at Gordon Ramsay Restaurant in Dubai. After that, he worked for a private club in Bahrain for a year.

“I represented the Swiss government at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. From there, I joined Beijing-based Groupe Flo Asia, a huge French food and beverage company with 300 restaurants around the world. During my eight-year tenure with them as executive chef, I managed 10 restaurants for them,” says Choy.

The romantic and arty setting at Chateau Dionne.

It was during his time with Groupe Flo that he met one of his earliest mentors, F&B entrepreneur David Lim.

Choy’s French culinary prowess was duly recognised when he emerged champion in the 2017 Chef Par Excellence Cooking Competition and a finalist in the coveted Concours Gastronomie Paris in 2018. The following year, he found himself in Paris after accepting the French government’s internship offer and gained invaluable experience at the three-starred Michelin restaurant Guy Savoy.

Upon returning to Malaysia, Choy did some private dining gigs in Penang whilst hunting for a suitable location to open his restaurant. Serendipity led him to meet Lim again. The latter suggested that they partner up to open Chateau Dionne in Damansara Heights in Kuala Lumpur.

“Chateau Dionne was launched in September 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and nobody wanted to order French food. But we did manage to sell a lot of canelés! We also tried offering Beef Wellington, but it wasn’t ideal for delivery as the pastry turned soggy by the time it reached our customers,” says Choy.

To cope with the ever-changing regulations of the lockdown period, he hit on the idea of starting a supper club.

“To avoid confusing our Chateau Dionne customers, I created the CKT Supper Club using my initials and the dishes were based on a supper club concept. Mostly experimental dishes were featured – Japanese, Middle Eastern and Taiwanese. Seasonal themes like Christmas and Chinese New Year were popular too, but the festive dishes were reinterpreted my own way.”

A bird’s eye view of the front entrance from the spiral staircase.

Choy says he is not partial to cooking any particular dish.

“My cooking preference evolves and changes over time. There was a phase when I was completely into making poached chicken until I got tired of it. Then my focus switched to soups, and lately, I find myself leaning towards Japanese food.”

He yearns for simple, clear, back-to-basic flavours harking back to his childhood, such as pork noodles and Teochew porridge. When it comes to culinary inspiration, Choy reveals that guiding and training his young team is a great way to generate new ideas.

“I’d lead them through the whole process first, sharing with them key guidelines and challenging them to push the boundaries. Then, we would work together to test the feasibility of their ideas.”

Due to the increasing demand for their canelés and pastries, the Chateau Dionne team decided to move the pastry kitchen off the restaurant premises.

“When our plans for a cloud kitchen fell through, we were lucky enough to find an upstairs shoplot in Section 17, Petaling Jaya, and Doux Doux by Chateau Dionne was born.”

Feels like you’re dining in a classy wine cellar.

Besides using the space as the central pastry kitchen, Doux Doux (which means sweet in French) has now been transformed into a cozy café known for its freshly baked pastries. Plans for a new casual dining outlet just a few doors away, are already underway.

“Our new restaurant will be called Nice (pronounced ‘nis’) after the French Riviera coastal city. The bistro will have more laid-back vibes, serving easy-to-eat dishes.

“Nice itself used to be under Roman rule before it was ceded to France, so the menu will feature starters and mains with Italian and Mediterranean influences. Prices will be mid-ranged,” he describes.

Married to his high-school sweetheart, Choy is grateful to all the people he has met along his culinary journey, whose help and mentorship have led him to where he is today. He has certainly come a long way from the boy who could only eat bland food.
StarExtra
Having chalked up two decades’ worth of international experience, Andy Choy Kyai Tuck’s inimitable flair for French cuisine has garnered Chateau Dionne in Kuala Lumpur a cachet of loyal, discerning customers.