History
The restaurant opened in 2015 in Toronto's Chinatown neighbourhood, in collaboration between Leung and Chong, who met on MasterChef Canada . Chong was a competitor on the show's first season, while Leung was one of three judges on the show. [2] After winning the competition, Chong received an offer from Leung to train with him in Hong Kong and eventually open a restaurant together. [3]
The business's name, R&D, stands for Rebel & Demon - a moniker created to reflect the personalities of both chefs. [1] Chong is labeled the "Rebel" for pursuing a career in cooking despite his family's initial wishes for him to remain in engineering, while Leung is known as the "Demon Chef". [4] R&D's meaning is two-fold, also reflecting both chefs' engineering backgrounds, where 'r&d' (research and development) is an important aspect of the field. [1]
Chong initially started as the sous-chef for the restaurant, while the title of executive chef was given to Nelson Tsai. [1] Chong took over the reins as executive chef a year following the restaurant's opening.
Cuisine and notable dishes
The restaurant primarily serves Asian fusion dishes, anchored by Chinese cuisine and Canadian ingredients. [5] It also draws upon French and Korean cooking techniques. [6] A core part of the restaurant's menu is its 'Canadian take on traditional Chinese dim sum', serving items such as char siu bao in icing sugar-topped "Mexico buns" and fun guo filled with chicken and black truffle. [7]
Chef Eric Chong, and the restaurant's, signature dish is the wok lobster (stylized: @WOK_LOBSTER) - a butter-poached lobster chow mein [6] based on the same dish which Chong served in the final round of his MasterChef win. [8]
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