Creating the Saffron 59 magic: Irene Khin Wong

Irene Khin Wong cut her teeth in the professional world as an investment banker, but her real passion has always been for the culinary arts.

It is a passion that traces her deep-seated roots in Southeast Asia, where in the country of Burma (Myanmar) she was born. Years later, as she bade adieu to Wall Street, Irene found her muse as the chef-owner of Road to Mandalay, a highly-successful Soho restaurant in New York City.

She later embarked on a three-year sabbatical based in Ho Chi Minh City, refining her craft and sharing ideas with the city’s restaurant-hotels, before launching Saffron 59.

Irene returns often to her homeland as well as other Southeast Asian destinations from Singapore to Northern India, taking full advantage of the ample opportunities thereby to expand her recipes.

Pursuing excellence in cuisine is but one facet of Irene’s bond with her native land. For years she has been an involved benefactor of charitable organizations in Burma. These include ongoing projects like Women’s Development – whose efforts have housed 72 orphaned girls and recently opened a library in Yangon (Rangoon) with the involvement of mothers in New York – and initiatives to assist the many victims in the Irrawaddy Delta who have suffered through the recent Cyclone Nargis disaster.