GIVEN that Francis Wong uses his mother's cooking as a benchmark for quality when he goes out to eat, you know that the managing director of Capitol Optical is one pampered foodie.

Add to that the fact that his brother Anthony is a restaurateur whose company Creative Eateries has some 20 outlets serving everything from Thai to modern European cuisine, and it's quite clear that his world revolves around eating.

'Growing up as a child at home, it was all about food,' he confirms. 'With my mother's amazing cooking, meal times were always something that we all looked forward to. As a Cantonese woman married to a Shanghainese man, she was able to cook Cantonese food flawlessly, but it is the authentic Shanghai dishes she produces that serve as my benchmarks against the Shanghainese restaurants which I go to. Her speciality is nian gao (glutinous rice cake), which I order everywhere I go, and have yet to find one that is better.'

It's no surprise then that 'I have a Chinese stomach and that would certainly be my first choice of cuisine, followed by Japanese, which I like for the fresh clean taste and the fact that I can indulge myself and still feel quite good about it'. In addition, 'good French fine dining appeals to me too, with the accompaniment of a good bottle of red wine'.

If there's one thing he doesn't care too much for, it's spicy food, 'as I always feel that the strong spices overwhelm the original freshness of the ingredients'.

Mr Wong literally does most of his business over a meal. 'As someone who doesn't golf, drink (much) or sing (karaoke), business lunches are an important way for me to do business, and my best discussions are generally done over lunch.' Indeed, taking pains to choose the right restaurant that is conducive for an honest work discussion has been a long-held business strategy for him. 'I am a great believer of the notion that if you make the effort to be sincere about taking your guests out, 99 per cent of any business deal can be closed over a good meal.'

Like most foodies, Mr Wong has a favourite city for dining. 'As Paris is to fashion, Shanghai to me is all about food. That city is so fascinating and the food options that are appearing all the time are amazing - from authentic Shanghainese cuisine to modern fusion Chinese. As a Chinese food lover, my taste buds never get bored when I go to Shanghai.'

Meanwhile, his hospitality towards his business associates is reciprocated when he visits them in their home countries. 'They always make it a point to take me to try the best cuisine. One that comes to mind is Bukhara in New Delhi, which is recognised to be the best frontier restaurant in the world. Also, I am always amazed by Yung Kee in Hong Kong, where the buzz never seems to stop and where the hour-long wait, even when you have reservations, is always worth it when you taste the goose!'

Even so, 'one of the things that I have learnt about food from my travels is to not expect the best food from the country of its origin, as in the case of China for Peking duck and India for tandoori chicken', he says. 'Of course, one obvious example is the fact that the best Hainanese chicken rice is not from Hainan but Singapore!'

For him, his most amazing meal wasn't so much the food but the view. 'This was a dinner I had recently in Bangkok at Sirocco. Going up what seemed like a perfectly ordinary office building, I was unprepared for the view and surreal sensation of dining al fresco on top of a skyscraper with the whole of Bangkok below me. It was stunning, and the view so captivating that I must admit the food was secondary.'

His worst meal, though, reflects the experiences of those who have studied in England. 'I was studying at Imperial College, when a classmate invited me home for a good old-fashioned English meal of steak and kidney pie. For a young man whose taste buds were still unexposed to food that was not Chinese, the strong gamey taste of kidneys was a real shock to the system.' And while he has since learnt to be more adventurous with food, 'I would still not rank that dish as my preferred choice of British fare'.

Like most Singaporeans, 'I admit loving sinful hawker food, which is where I gravitate after tennis on Saturday. I would go anywhere to get the best. This includes char kuay teow at Fook Hai Building, Katong laksa on East Coast Road and bak chor mee at Crawford Lane.'

Not for him the so-called joys of Michelin star dining, as he has a simpler, down-to-earth approach to food.

'To me, a good meal is something that you enjoy so much that you would not mind having it again the next day. It is ultimately the taste that satisfies me, and not the glamour.'