Anthony Hoy Fong

Anthony is a scalpel. He’s drum ‘n’ bass. He’s the feeling you get the one time you drive a McLaren F1. Or dream about it.

Mount Albert local, Anthony travels and cooks all over the US at well-known prestigious culinary events and festivals including cooking for President Barack Obama at the White House; and is a regular consulting chef to the West Wing.

Anthony is traditional. He doesn’t wash his hair on New Years Day, his two kids are raised right and will go on to change their pocket of the world.

Anthony continues to work with the biggest names in the culinary business. He is the co-founder of Top Chef University, an innovative, online culinary training platform based on the Emmy-award winning Bravo show Top Chef. Anthony has also appeared on the Cooking Channel’s Unique Eats, on the Food Network show, Rachel vs Guy (including judging Coolio's cooking) and has made regular appearances on his visits home on local productions: Good Morning, Sunday, The Cafe, Whanau Living and Cook the Books, as well as appearing regularly in the media here in NZ when he is home.

Anthony and wife Kai are more architects than chefs. Somehow, after meeting at the French Culinary Institute in New York these two made a pact to work together and work hard. Properly work hard. And raise a family. And do life with integrity and focus.

They have two kids: August is 4 and struts like an 18-year-old. She’s Brooklyn sass and calls her parents frequently. Cameron is two and a grenade of joy and mess.

Anthony and Kai work full-time. She’s American and fell for the line, “Know what your name means where I come from?” Opportunities present themselves to these two. They come back to NZ two to three times during the year. New York is home now but Anthony acknowledges his frustration at the distance.

Anthony and his older brother are Auckland Grammar alumni. Rugby winters and tennis summers. He wrote their cookbook as part of an intensive 18-month project, A Taste of Grammar. It’s done incredibly well.

Anthony’s Mum and Dad made sacrifices to give the family every opportunity at a full life. Anthony and Kai are doing the same it seems, by being 100% present when in the presence of each other and their kids. Work is no different. Anthony has his punch list, his people he knows. He’s dialled in. What needs to be achieved? What needs to be done?

A whole lot of incredible is getting done in Anthony’s name, all to a Shapeshifter soundtrack. Having opened restaurants all across America with partners such as Caesars, Harrah’s and Food Network chefs, he is the consulting chef and partner of the newly opened The Twenty Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.