Whenever you’re sitting at the dining table with chef Peter Find, it’s always smiles all around. Towering as the German native may be, he’s equally warm and endearing – a gentle giant in the purest way. He’s been a longtime supporter of r é n’s and has worked with us on numerous occasions, training our beneficiaries in the kitchen, collaborating with us on events, and more recently making egg soufflés with our current R21 cohort as part of our ongoing Chef Demo series at Hopewell Mall’s FOOD PARC. 

“When I learned about r é n's work and met the team, I immediately felt their passion,” Peter says. “It’s for a very special cause, and I love what you guys are doing, so when [your founder] Jo asked me if I was open to helping, I didn’t even have to think – I said yes right away. If there’s anything I can participate in, I’m happy to help. For me, it’s always about helping other people, whether it’s through food or things they can’t do themselves - even if it’s just small acts.”

Community has always played a big part in the chef’s life. Growing up in a village of just 800 people, Peter recalls much of his youth on his family farm, where he worked alongside his extended family from a very young age. 

“When you grow up in the German countryside, you’re exposed very early to farming,” he recounts. “My two aunties had these farms with cows and pigs, so of course when it was harvest time, you needed to help. You’re picking up potatoes in the middle of September, 15 rows of them, 100 metres long, just all potatoes.”

Even then, food had already been one of the chef’s favourite memories. “The best part when you’re out on the farm is that after a few hours, you have breakfast sitting next to the truck,” he reminiscences. “There’s handmade bread rolls and marmalade – it was fantastic."

Once a year, Peter also helped with slaughtering the pigs on the farm, and realising he had a knack for it, he started an apprenticeship in his neighbour’s butcher shop at the age of just 14. “I was four or five when I was already seeing pigs get slaughtered, and everybody is together making sausages, so for me, I had always wanted to be a butcher,” he says.

“But it was very, very tough. The first butcher I worked for, he was around 80 years old, just an old school guy, and he was very tough on me. I’d wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and start work at 6. Fridays were slaughtering days, so you’d actually have to be there by 5. And it was so cold outside, the meat was freezing and my fingers were blue.”

Though he managed to learn a lot from that experience, eventually he felt limited by just being a butcher, and decided to pursue the career of a chef. His first kitchen job was in a local restaurant near his home town where he learned how to prepare and cook refined German dishes. The teamwork in the kitchen, he says, was something he particularly enjoyed.

“I’ve always enjoyed cooking – when my mom had her friends over, I’d make something small for them. But when I was in a professional kitchen for the first time, that’s when I really enjoyed the teamwork,” he tells us. “I’m a big team player, and even now as the chef, it doesn’t matter who peels the potatoes. Theoretically, I don’t have to do it, but I do it anyway, because firstly I like to do it, and secondly I know how to do it properly. Serving the entrées is important, but I’ll also go around pouring coffee and checking if plates are empty. I just like working as a team and serving people, and I think this is something that you have inside you, not something you can really learn. It has to come from the heart, and people can feel it if someone is doing what they really love.”

In 1995, after a decade working in some of the top restaurants across Europe, chef Find arrived in Hong Kong, where he joined the Mandarin Oriental as executive chef at Pierrot. “You know, back in my village we had 800 people, and in the Mandarin Oriental they had more people in one building than that, so the difference was beyond day and night,” Peter says laughing. “But for me, it’s always about the job. At the end of the day, there are challenges wherever you go and whatever the opportunity, so I just focus on doing my job well.”

Over the three decades that have since passed, he’s worked at The Repulse Bay, followed by a stint in Singapore at The Ritz-Carlton Millenia as their executive sous chef. He was then promoted to executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel & Spa, before joining Wynn Macau and Encore as director of culinary operations. In 2010, he reunited with Ritz-Carlton, this time in Hong Kong as its opening executive chef, overseeing six restaurants and a team of 100 chefs. 

Today, he’s at the helm of his very own Heimat, an ode to his native cuisine that’ll be celebrating its fourth anniversary this April. Translating to “homeland,” Heimat occupies the eighth floor of the iconic 33 Wyndham Street – formerly the LKF Tower – and offers the industry veteran’s reinterpretations of classic German dishes, combining quality ingredients with precise techniques. On its menu, you’ll find everything from Trüffle-Bockwurst (truffle smoked sausages with warm potato salad) and Brunnenkressesuppe (watercress soup with caramelised bacon) to Kohlrouladen (cabbage roll with duck meat in rich stock) and Wildschweinragout (wild boar ragout with root vegetables, juniper berries, and hand-shaved German noodles) – and even a gummy bear trolley at the end of your meal.

“Heimat means home, so I want my guests to have that cosy feeling when they come, and I want to introduce and explain to them the cuisine of my own home,” Peter says. “German food is actually extremely diverse. We have 16 states, and we have influences from the north to the south. There are also influences from neighbouring countries, like Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, France, and also the Nordic region.

"But Germans are not great at promoting their own cuisine, and not many people know this, so for me, my hope is that when customers leave Heimat, they will see German food in a more positive light.”