It is just as well chef Emmanuel Stroobant's other half, Edina Hong, is a tyrant, as she bluntly describes herself.

Stroobant - that famous Singapore-based Belgian with the ultra blond hair and a flair for fine French fare - is no fiery Gordon Ramsay. He is known as a charming, easy-to-talk-to guy in an industry famous for its prima donna chefs.

Straight-talking Hong provides the perfect complement. In fact, she is Stroobant's secret ingredient that has helped make him a household name.

The 36-year-old is the poster girl for opposites attract. She and Stroobant make a great combo: He's the good cop, she's the bad cop. He cooks, she manages; he creates the menu, she creates the overall dining experience.

She says of Hollywood-handsome Stroobant, 40: 'He is just too nice. I put out negative vibes, and in some ways, it's good because it puts the staff on the defensive and they perform better.

'Some days, you need to lay off and some days, when there is a big function, you need them to have that defensive edge. I am not worried that I will be seen as a tyrant.'

She cannot be that bad - the couple have loyal restaurant staff who have been with them for several years.

Still, it must be tough for any husband-and-wife team to make a go of a business together, particularly in the intense restaurant world, where a kitchen flare-up could continue simmering away later at home.

However, they have proven to be a successful pairing on the competitive Singapore food scene.

They came to Singapore in 1999 when Stroobant became general manager and executive chef at the now-defunct Fig Leaf, with Hong accompanying him as restaurant manager. They now co-own, along with participating investors, four restaurants including the award-winning St Pierre at Central Mall, which offers French fine dining with a dash of the molecular.

The others are San Marco at The Fullerton, featuring a modern take on Italian food; Brussel Sprouts at Robertson Quay, a Belgian-style mussels-and-beer pub; and family-friendly brasserie Picotin at the old Turf Club, which opened last year.

Behind the scenes, there is Hong, a self-described 'jack of all trades' at St Pierre.

'Anything that needs to be done, I step in,' she says. At St Pierre, she and general manager Erica Chan, 34, handle it all: PR, marketing, HR, finance. For the other outlets, they handle mostly the PR and marketing, and some HR matters.

'If the catering arm at St Pierre forgets to take salmon to a function, I drive there with it,' says Hong. 'I do delivery driving when there aren't enough drivers. If there is a VIP coming and we need to service the private room, I step in.'

She jokes that she already has four demanding children in the form of the four outlets and, for the moment, does not need any real ones.

But she prefers to stay in the office and take care of planning and paperwork.

No wonder, given her business background. The only child of a secretary and a bank manager - both now retired - Hong went to a convent school in Seremban town in Malaysia, later attending Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, where she gained a bachelor of commerce in public relations and marketing.

She went on to head the PR and marketing department at a Malaysian hotel chain and was working there when she met Stroobant in 1998 (see other story).

The couple married in 1999 and moved to Singapore the same year. Stroobant has a 13-year-old son, Tom, from a previous marriage. The teenager lives in his home town of Liege, Belgium.

The couple now live in Millpoint condominium in Zion Close, a five-minute drive from St Pierre.

On why Hong has chosen to keep her maiden name, she replies that she has been a Hong all her life.

'When I have been married longer than I have been single, I will take his name,' she says.

One key part of her role of wife and restaurant operator is to ensure Stroobant can focus on his cooking creativity.

She says: 'When I'm talking to him about travel plans or marketing the specials for Christmas, he is not interested. He is interested in creating dishes.'

So, what is it like working next to your spouse? On most days, she gets to the office at 8.30am but he normally does not arrive until about 10am. Communication is sporadic.

'We do a lot of things by e-mail even when we are sitting next to each other because it's easier to track. When you are just chatting, things can easily get forgotten,' she says.

With different schedules, compromises are necessary. 'We both have different sleeping times. He's like the typical (TV chef) Anthony Bourdain type - he finishes the shift around 10 and goes out bonding with his 'boys'. When I'm stressed, sometimes I will join in, but I need to be home by 1am. He can go on for much longer.'

With one usually in bed while the other is coming in or rising, there is much tip-toeing and more than a little sleepy grumbling, she admits.

On weekends, they relax by watching action films or TV shows on DVD box sets. Current favourites include forensic thrillers CSI and NCIS. 'On Sundays, I try not to get out of bed,' she says.

One exception to the rule is going to a spa for a facial and a massage or a body scrub and wrap. It is a weekly treat she has enjoyed for six years. Sometimes, hubby joins her for the massage.

Childhood friend Monique Kwok, 40, now a managing partner at Brussel Sprouts, says Hong, a shrewd businesswoman, and Stroobant, the temperamental artist, have each made the most of the other's strengths.

'Put them together and that is why they are where they are,' she says.

Stroobant calls it 'professional evolution': They have grown to depend on each other.

'I lack the business acumen, the drive. She has it. But I bring the creativity,' he says.

What's it like having a chef in the house? Hong says it is not much different from many other Singaporean households - unless they are entertaining at home, the maid cooks.

She has taught their Indonesian maid some family recipes. So for breakfast, she has her assam laksa (noodles in tamarind and fish broth) and another hometown speciality, kerabu bee hoon, a hot- and-sour cold rice vermicelli dish flavoured with belacan (fermented dried shrimp). Stroobant makes his own breakfast: fruit, cereal and fried eggs, no oil, sunny-side up on a non-stick pan.

Today, things are different from when they first set up the restaurant in 2000.

Stroobant had the experience; she was the novice. Then, as now, he dealt with the kitchen suppliers and the wine list while she handled the paperwork. But soon it was time for her to learn about French cuisine.

She recalls: 'I had zero knowledge of fine dining. It was a steep learning curve, having to learn about the food and the business at the same time.'

The duo also thought Singaporeans would take to the idea of open kitchens and chef's tables, where diners watch the cooking as a spectacle. But the tables nearest the kitchens turned out to be unpopular because of the noise and frantic activity. Some might say they were ahead of the times as such tables are now popular in other restaurants.

To learn about fine service, they went to France, eating at Michelin-starred restaurants. She learnt that in order to deliver good service, the owners themselves had to be the toughest customer. If you can please the boss, the real customers will be easy to please - that is the principle she abides by today, she says.

But it has not been all smooth-sailing for the Stroobant-Hong team. Their Archangel deli, opened in mid-2006 in Great World City, closed late last year because it was difficult to find enough qualified people to run it properly, she says.

Hong and Stroobant's different personalities can also be seen outside the restaurant: He is the action-oriented jock and she, the laid-back geek, she says.

She admits that women do come on to her hunky husband, but says with a what-can-you-do shrug: 'What's not yours wasn't meant to be yours.'

For Stroobant, it is all about adrenaline: Diving and motorcycles are his passions. The scuba diving is a relatively new activity, he says, but true to his go-for-it nature, he is now diving with enriched gases that allow more dives per day.

His current motorcycle is a Harley Davidson Street Rod.

Does she ride pillion? 'Hell, no,' is her immediate answer, though she adds: 'I ride every one of his bikes once.'

As for Hong's hobbies, she is an expert in the online game World Of Warcraft, where she controls a Druid character belonging to the utility class. A utility-class character, she explains, is one that supports other more daring and prominent characters. The similarities between her real and virtual roles have not escaped her.

'I didn't want it, but I took it in the end, maybe subconsciously,' she says. Laughing, she adds: 'So sad, right?'

In the food for love

Stroobant and Hong first met in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. No suprises, food played a part.

It was during a work-related event, when he was a chef-manager at Carmen's Seafood and Wine, and she was head of PR and marketing at the Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel.

Hong recalls: 'At the time, my friend was going out with the restaurant manager where Emmanuel worked. They were both ang mohs (Westerners), and she asked me to help them get food-tasting events going, so I said I would help. We first met at the event I helped organise, and things developed from there.'

Stroobant recalls meeting a tall girl (she is 1.77m, he is slightly shorter at 1.76m). 'She was cute,' he says, 'and funny, an entertaining talker.'

The Belgian, with his trademark short, white-blond hair, angular face and muscular body shown off in tight-fitting black tees, is now one telegenic chef. But it was not always so.

Hong says he did not care much about clothes or his looks when they were dating, and it was she who helped him develop his signature style.

She recalls arranging to meet a girl pal of hers while they were dating, and 'I almost died because he walked in with an orange-checked shirt and blue jeans. And I was like, 'Oh my God'. I introduced him to my friend, and when we got home, I said, 'You are never going to wear that shirt again'.'

They went shopping together, and he learnt that his date was happy when he wore gear that showed off his trim physique. She also suggested that he stick to wearing all black. Her own personal style includes lots of fitting, rock-singer black clothes.

'And this was three months into dating. Was I telling him what to wear? Hell, yes. I believe you have to train your men from a very early stage in a relationship or else it'll all go wrong,' she says with a chuckle.

Here's another shock: Stroobant is not naturally platinum blond. That colour was Hong's bright idea, too.

She says: 'I was fascinated with blonds when I was younger. I prefer blonds like Brad Pitt and I told Emmanuel once during a date.

'So he had his hair bleached. It was more as a joke than anything else.'

Once she got over her shock, she noticed how it improved his looks. 'His mother has red hair, and so if you look at his features, he's got very light eyebrows. Dark hair and light eyebrows. And that just looks very strange. When he has a goatee, it's strawberry blond.'

They both decided that blond was the way to go.

'So what turned out to be a joke turned out quite well.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Sep 1, 2008.

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