Introduction
Redzuawan Ismail, or better known as Chef Wan, is a Singapore-born Malaysian celebrity chef.
Career
His early career was as an accountant. He says after seeing the popularity of many types of Asian food in Western countries he decided to promote Malaysia and other South East Asian countries using their food.
He has an associate degree in Professional Chef Training and Hotel Management from the California Culinary Academy and a Ritz Escoffier Diploma from the Hôtel Ritz Paris. In 2009, he won the Best Celebrity Television Chef of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Chef Wan is Tourism Malaysia culinary ambassador. He is currently a brand ambassador for AirAsia.
In 2005, Anthony Bourdain introduced Chef Wan to American audiences during his trip to Malaysia in Season One, Episode five of No Reservations. Chef Wan appeared in Episode 4 of Rick Stein's television series Far Eastern Odyssey (BBC, 2009).
Personal life
In an interview in February 2010, Chef Wan highlighted that he is of mixed ancestry; his father has Malay ancestry while his mother has Japanese ancestry. Chef Wan has two children. One is Serina Redzuawan, an actress who has appeared in several Malaysian drama series; Chef Wan's son, Muhammad Nazri bin Redzuawan, is following in his father's footsteps by becoming a chef as well.
Controversy
Chef Wan was widely criticized for making an inappropriate joke with regard to the missing MH370 flight when he posted a photo on his Instagram account of an object which he linked to the search efforts and referred it as "an old toilet door from Cik Kiah's house". He further enraged the public as he subsequently refused to apologize and defended the joke as a means to gauge the public reaction.
In 2015, while criticising a CNN ranking of the world's best food destinations for its low placement of Malaysia, Wan stated that "[the] Philippines is known to have the worst food in Asia, ask any chefs and they will tell you I am right".