It can be argued that chicken was once probably one of the most passed by dishes on an otherwise appealing menu. Today, in part because of executive chef Angus An, the humble bird has ascended from the roost. “I grew up on chicken, so it was very familiar to me,” says the acclaimed chef and restaurateur. “It is a common protein in Taiwan and in Thailand, where I spent a lot of time visiting my grandparents.”
In 2015, the multiple award-winning chef decided to expand his roster of restaurants – Maenam, Longtail Kitchen and Fat Mao Noodles – with Freebird Chicken Shack, a small eatery offering the best Asian-style rotisserie chicken the Lower Mainland has ever tasted. He also opened Sen Pad Thai in 2017.
Over the years, his eateries have amassed several awards, most notably Maenam, which hit number 26 on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants in 2015. In 2016, Maenam was also presented with Vancouver Magazine’s highest honours, Restaurant of the Year, and has consistently won Best Thai since 2009. Freebird joined Angus' collection of awards in 2017 when it earned Bronze in the Best Pan Asian category from Vancouver Magazine.
Lucky for Vancouverites, Angus went from wanting to become an architect to an architect of good food. A graduate of UBC’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program, Angus says: “I love the idea of conceptualizing, planning, designing and production. In many ways, I still do all of that, but with food.”
