A five-star journey around the world that led to Harrogate

"We knew the type of hotel business we wanted to buy," says Mr Chan. "Mae found the Studley Hotel advertised for sale in a magazine. It sounded just what we were looking for."

That was 10 years ago and since then the Chans have made a number of changes at the Studley, including introducing Pacific Rim dishes to Yorkshire in their acclaimed Orchid restaurant, and more are round the corner.

Mr Chan, whose mother is Malaysian and father from Hong Kong, was born in Cheshire. He studied hotel management at Portsmouth University where he set himself the target of being the general manager of a top hotel by the age of 30.

He really got the hotel bug though while working in some of London's top hotels in the holidays and harboured a desire to work at the Dorchester. He took a job there as commis waiter, seen by many as the lowest position. "I wanted to get my foot in the door of that hotel and if I had to work from the bottom up, so be it."

It was during this time that the Dorchester's Oriental restaurant became the first oriental restaurant to receive a Michelin star.

After two and half years Mr Chan was becoming restless and when he was offered the chance to take a position at the Sheraton Hotel in Kuwait he jumped at the chance.

"It was my first real experience of restaurant management. They wanted to set up a high-class Chinese restaurant."

It was here that he met Mae and within a year they both moved to Sun City in South Africa, to establish another top quality Asian restaurant, called the Orchid, in the Sun International hotel.

It was here that the Pacific Rim concept he has introduced at his Harrogate restaurant was developed taking the best dishes from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Japan and Singapore.

Visitors included Michael Douglas and Jackie Chan, which signalled that Mr Chan was getting near his dream – he was just 27.

But when he was approached to go to a five-star hotel in Egypt, Mae put her foot down. "Our son was a baby and Mae said that it was time to go home and put down some roots."

Back in London, they got the idea of running their own business and Mae found the Studley Hotel in a trade magazine.

"I wasn't general manager

of a five star hotel, but I was owner and manager of a three-star hotel in Harrogate. It was a good hotel with a pretty successful French restaurant, but people didn't expect a French restaurant to be run by someone who looks like me. It just didn't seem to work."

So they set about creating the Orchid Restaurant serving authentic Pacific Rim creations and offering five- star service. Mr Chan set about recruiting former colleagues, including his current chef, Kenneth Poon, from the Dorchester.

To mark his 10th anniversary in Harrogate Mr Chan has just opened a new exclusive bar giving diners and residents somewhere opulent to enjoy a drink before or after dinner. Two of the hotel's bedrooms have been converted to create the bar, sitting area, reception and private dining room.