Dan Segall first found his way to a professional kitchen at 16, when he was the kitchen boy at Camp Tevya in New Hampshire. After a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Syracuse University, he enrolled at ICE. Segall went to Singapore to complete his externship requirements, and within five months was made chef de cuisine of the Regent Singapore. He then spent several years in Beijing, working first at Louisiana Restaurant in the Hilton as chef de cuisine, and then as executive chef at RBL.

He now occupies that position at Zuma, in Hong Kong, which was named best new restaurant by HK Magazine in 2007 and one of CondéNast Traveler’s 2008 hot tables, among other awards. The release of the Hong Kong 2009 Michelin Guide cannot come to soon for Segall, who will find out then if the restaurant earned a star or not. RBL was a 40-seat restaurant, so Segall said he was surprised to be offered his current position, which sees him be in charge of a 10,000-square-foot, 260-seat “monster.” Because he did not have a kitchen in which to let people trail when opening the restaurant, he was only able to hire his staff based on their attitude, he explained. Out of 220 cooks, 30 made the cut, 18 of whom are still there today.

Segal, who specializes in Japanese cuisine and loves cooking and eating Asian food, in contrast to the sometime-heavy Western food, does not think he’ll be leaving Hong Kong anytime soon. He said that his customers keep him challenged: “I love serving people in Asia. They are incredibly demanding of freshness and quality, and they always want something new.”