James Won

James MF Won — 文明辉 — works at the intersection of gastronomy, cultural diplomacy, and luxury brand strategy. He is the first Malaysian chef to be honoured by the French Republic with both the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole (2024) and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne (2019) — a pair of honours held by no other chef from his country.

He is Malaysia’s first Krug Ambassade Chef, Gaggenau’s first Malaysian Culinary Spokesperson, and the inaugural ambassador for thePlan luxury kitchen atelier and for Mepra. He has partnered with Hennessy, Mortlach, The Macallan, and BMW. His work has been endorsed by UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy — Kuching for its contribution to the conservation and promotion of Sarawak’s indigenous gastronomy, food culture, and edible medicinal flora and seeds.

He is the chef-curator of Serumpun Sarawak — the cultural-diplomacy movement that staged its founding-year arc across Kuching, Osaka, Mulu, and the Kuching Finale, in honour of the thirty-four indigenous communities of Sarawak.

He lives and works in Kuala Lumpur.

The Foundations — Paris and Lyon

The kitchen began in France. Before that, a scientific academic background — the disposition that later returned in the conservation chapter, in the seriousness with which indigenous medicinal flora and seeds are honoured in the Sarawak work. The kitchen was not the first formal training; it was the next.

James trained in classical technique in Paris and Lyon — the two cities whose culinary discipline forms the spine of every chapter that has followed. Paris taught the register of fine dining; Lyon taught the register of bouchon — the family-recipe bistro tradition of the Croix-Rousse district that would later return, twenty years on, in Bouchon Enfin at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

The French foundation is not decorative. It is the discipline against which every later register has been measured. Krug Champagne, Hennessy Cognac, the Coteaux de Champagne honour — none of them attach to a kitchen without French-classical literacy as a precondition. The foundation earned the credentials.

The chef-mentors who carried the discipline are honoured privately, not on the public record. That, too, is part of the discipline.

The Restaurant Years (2014 – 2025)

Across twelve years, James opened and ran five restaurants in Malaysia — each in a different register, each with a defining editorial chapter:

Brasserie Enfin (2014 – early 2016) at Oasis Square, Petaling Jaya — the founding bistro that earned the kitchen’s first Krug and Hennessy press.

Enfin by James Won (2016 – 2019/2020) at Menara Hap Seng, Kuala Lumpur — the fine-dining room where the Krug Chef’s Table (April 2016) and the Hennessy Salon (November 2016, the world’s only) were established.

Bouchon Enfin (late 2020 – 2021) at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur — the Lyonnaise bouchon whose nine-week opening was followed by the Be Kind humanitarian pivot during the pandemic.

Shin’Labo by James Won (2022 – 2025) at Mitsui Shopping Park Lalaport KL, Bukit Bintang — the yōshoku salon that Robb Report termed Ryoutei Shin’Labo.

MeatMore (October 2023 – 2024) at Bukit Bintang — the SoHo-format steakhouse and cocktail bar that housed the dedicated Mortlach Room.

By 2025, the restaurant chapter had closed. The kitchen pivoted.

The 2025 Pivot — Conservation and Culinary Diplomacy

In 2025, James pivoted the work from restaurant operations to conservation and culinary diplomacy — a deliberate move from the room to the wider register. The Serumpun Sarawak movement was unveiled in Kuching in July 2025, with a four-chapter founding-year arc that travelled to Osaka, Mulu, and back to Kuching by April 2026.

The pivot is not a withdrawal from cooking. It is a re-direction of the kitchen towards work that operates at cultural-policy register — the indigenous gastronomy of Sarawak’s thirty-four communities, the conservation of edible medicinal flora and seeds, the curriculum work at Taylor’s University, and the mentee thread that runs across every Serumpun chapter.

The French Honours

Two French-state honours have shaped the public chapter most clearly:

Chevalier de l’Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne (2019) — the historic French order founded in 1656 by the Marquis de Saint-Évremond, recognising contribution to the cultural standing of Champagne. James was inducted in 2019, with the intronisation held in Singapore, supported by Maison Lanson.

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

The Mérite Agricole conferral established James as the first Malaysian chef to hold both French honours — a pairing that places the kitchen on a small list of practitioners recognised at French-state register from outside France.

The honours are surfaced once on the home page, once here, once in Recognition. Restraint is the operating discipline; the credentials are not the work.

The Maison Relationships

The kitchen has held long-form relationships with several European maisons, each at the register of Ambassade or first-Malaysian spokesperson:

Krug Champagne — first Malaysian Krug Ambassade Chef. The Krug Chef’s Table at Enfin (April 2016 onwards). Single Ingredient cuvées explored across the kitchen’s wider years.

Hennessy Cognac — the Hennessy Salon at Menara Hap Seng (November 2016, the world’s only). Tapestry × Hennessy pairing dinners. The 2014 Appreciation Grows with 1-Star Michelin Chef Accursio Craparo of Sicily; the 2015 Hennessy 250 Collector Blend launch at Brasserie Enfin.

Mortlach (Diageo) — the dedicated Mortlach Room at MeatMore (2023 – 2024); the Beast of Dufftown at the centre of the kitchen’s whisky portfolio.

Gaggenau — first Malaysian Culinary Spokesperson; ongoing activations and content at Gaggenau register.

thePlan — inaugural ambassador for the luxury kitchen and wardrobe atelier (Poggenpohl, Ernestomeda, Sub-Zero & Wolf).

Mepra — inaugural ambassador for the Italian tableware maison.

The Macallan, BMW, HSBC, Taylor’s University — additional partnerships across the wider portfolio.

The Public-Record Voice

The kitchen has been carried on the public record by Malaysian, regional, and international press across more than a decade. 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, Palate Asia — together they constitute the editorial archive against which the work has been documented.

Two interview frames recur across the press chapter and define the chef’s published voice: “culinary storytelling” (Luxuo) and “the future is metta” (Ethel da Costa). They are the two phrases that come closest to capturing the operating register.

The Operating Register

James’s published voice is measured, considered, and unhurried — written in British English, with decorum, humility, and self-awareness. The work is held to the standards of Michelin three-star precision, Relais & Châteaux service philosophy, and First Class commercial airline catering exactitude. Indigenous ingredients, sustainability, and zero-waste are core values, not trends.

The kitchen builds bridges. East and West. Past and future. Nature and design. Silence and soul. The discipline is to honour the past while designing the future — with precision, humility, and purpose.