The 2016 Annual Reader Restaurant Awards are coming upon us quickly (click here to vote), but do you really know all the personalities nominated in our best personalities category? Here is a brief rundown of the masterminds and characters bringing us some of Beijing’s best F&B establishments.
 

Alan Wong
Alan Wong is really, really crazy about sushi: It turns out that sushi is his favorite food and that he eats it wherever he goes, no matter whether he is on holiday in Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Japan. At the moment, Alan owns 12 restaurants in both Beijing and Shanghai, including Hatsune, Hunan-style restaurant Karaiya Spice House, and Japanese Kagen Teppanyaki, and he is working on another two or three to be opened in the next year to expand the Hatsune brand. This man does not mess around.
 

Andy Horowitz
Andy Horowitz makes about 10 flavors of sausages, two kinds of bacon, and sausage rolls. He provides these for people to enjoy at home, at events and also supply some amazing restaurants and craft breweries. Andy himself works in every area of the business, from production and sourcing to PR and festival cooking.
 

Badr Benjelloun
Originally from Casablanca, Morocco, Badr has spent the last 20 years living in other countries, including China since 2004. Previously the Beijinger’s IT manager, he has always loved eating, bartending, and cooking. Nowadays, he mostly focuses on running his two venues Cu Ju and Caravan, purveying over one of Beijing’s finest collections of rum while cooking up a storm.
 

Christophe Rovan
Christophe Rovan is a gourmand from Auvergne. An editor in Paris, he moved to Beijing in 2006 and redeemed the Café de la Poste by chance. Some sleepless nights later, he participated in the creation of Salud and Boucherie Gerard. In 2013, he launched the O’Steak brand which currently has three restaurants in Beijing. This March, he will open a new restaurant concept: O’Pasta, pasta from all around the world. We look forward taking a look soon!
 

Kin Hong
You might have seen him at his restaurant Taco Bar, refilling the tequila shot glasses, which is usually when we get the most out of Kin, shunning the limelight in favor of working on his next foodie projects. Why he’s in the biz? Well, in our previous interview with him he divulged that he failed at everything except the F&B industry, and with Taco Bar under his belt, he most definitely doesn’t fail.
 

Omar Maseroli
Omar Maseroli, a Reggio Emilia, also known as “food valley”, native, has been in Beijing since 2005. Starting off at the China Italy Chamber of Commerce, Omar is now the proud owner of both Mercante and Fiume, both of which incorporate traditional recipes from Emilia Romagna as well as more innovative recipes using modern flair.
 

Shi Xinzhong
Mr. Shi, a self-confessed common farmer from Hebei turned restaurant tycoon and dumpling master who has always been into making one of our most cherished foods. At home, his mother taught him how to make the perfect jiaozi, which he now shares them us at three different branches of his eponymous restaurants, two of which opened in the last year.
 

Tim Hilbert
Tim Hilbert was born and grew up in Texas, graduating with an accounting degree. After spending 10 years in the oil and gas business, and 16 years in the IT business, he ended up in China. Upon exiting the corporate world of IT, Tim opened up Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q on Guanghua Lu in Beijing, serving my first barbecue meal on Halloween in 2006. Tim has had a bit of a rough past 12 months, getting evicted out of his digs but he’s since happily set up shop in LMPLUS’ former space in Central Park. Let’s hope this rendition lives on unfettered.

Have you met these proud owners? Do you frequent their restaurants? Vote now for your favorite and give a hat tip to these Beijing personalities.

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Photos courtesy of Badr Benjelloun, Kin Hong, Tim Hilbert, Mr Shi, Omar Maseroli, Christophe Rovan