It was Vindex Tengker's grandmother who inspired him to cook. She could see he liked food when he was a young boy, so she invited him into her kitchen to help. Today, one of his favourite dishes is still the first he learned - grilled spicy chicken with chili and ginger. "Every time I cook it, I remember the first time I did it," says Tengker, now executive chef of Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta.

Tengker loves spicy food, so it's no surprise to find his style of cooking is Asian fusion, combining local ingredients and spices and then serving them with impeccable presentation. One of his signature dishes in Jakarta is rack of lamb marinated with tamarind and coconut sauce and then grilled to order. "We serve it with a mashed roast pumpkin and garnish it with crispy eggplant," he says. One of his everyday challenges is to offer guests the experience of an authentic Indonesian dish whether they like spices or not: "You have to be able to make sure, if you take all the spices out, it still tastes good."

A grander, more lavish challenge was the private 55th birthday party of a British billionaire in the Maldives, where Tengker was flown in to create a gala Balinese dinner for 200 of the guest's friends. "I had to prepare the food and teach the chefs," he says. And although he saw the party from the kitchen, it was, he says, "amazing" to see the whole Maldivian island made to look like Bali through decoration, food and dancers.

Back home, Tengker likes to relax by spending time with his wife and two children. Although his grandmother came from an age when it was women who did all the cooking, his father is very proud of Chef Tengker's achievements. And Tengker's son is already creating his own recipes in the kitchen. "I don't know if he means it," says Tengker, "but he says he wants to be a chef." Talent in the kitchen clearly runs in the family.

Vindex has reaped years of experience at Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan; Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills; Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay; Restaurant Nusa Dua, Mallorca, Spain; Dynasty Hotel (a Shangri-La hotel), Tuban, Bali; Amandari resort,Ubud, Bali.