REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON -- Budiono Bin Sukim (43) had never imagined that he would one day settle and have a career as a prominent chef in London, the United Kingdom (UK).

Chef Budiono has worked in several star-rated hotels and restaurants.

In 2010, he worked as a sous chef in the River restaurant, which later turned into Kasper's at the Savoy, the oldest hotel in Great Britain.

Budiono, originally hailing from Pemalang, Central Java, claimed that cooking has been his hobby since food was his passion. Besides this, Budiono said he could not bear being hungry.

Budiono currently works as an executive chef at the London Marriott Hotel, Country Hall.

Budiono and his Indonesian colleagues, who also work as chefs in London, recently set up an Indonesian Chef Association in the UK.

The association will help promote Indonesian culinary delicacies in the UK in accordance with the call voiced by President Joko Widodo during his visit to London, last April.

At the age of 13 years, Budiono helped his grandfather sell goat's head curry.

Budiono also assisted his parents who sold bon-bon or ice lollies.

When Budiono was 17 years old, he moved to Jakarta and later worked in a Chinese restaurant, Samudra.

Budiono later joined the Dusit Hotel in Jakarta as chef de partie.

Three years later, he worked in the Four Season Hotel and Resort, which then assigned him to London as senior chef de partie.

After staying in London for a few years, Budiono moved to Dubai to work as chef de cuisine at the Four Season Hotel.

A year later, however, Budiono returned to Four Season Hotel in London, again.

Budiono enriched European dishes with Asian spices at the hotel, which is considered as one of the best in Europe.

"I started my career as a night chef and later worked as a breakfast chef, banqueting chef (chef de partie), and restaurant chef (senior chef de partie)," Budiono, who then moved to the Four Season Hotel in Hampshire, South England, noted.

When Budiono was working with the Savoy, he won the AA Award and had the opportunity to learn cooking in the Fat Duck kitchen with world-class chef Heston Blumenthal.

He has experience of working with other international chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay, James Martin, Tom Aikens, Heston Blumenthal, and Tom Kerridge.

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