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Makoto Ono is nervous. In just a few months, Winnipeg's 29-year-old prodigal chef will open a 12,000-square-foot luxury Japanese restaurant in Beijing, right as the world begins to focus on the booming Olympics host.

As if that's not enough pressure, the restaurant will bear the name of its young chef - Makoto - and Mr. Ono's bosses aren't afraid to compare him to celebrity restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa.

"I still get butterflies cooking macaroni and cheese," he says at a Starbucks in Beijing's central business district, not far from where he'll set up shop this spring.

Mr. Ono, unpretentious and underdressed for the Beijing cold in a sweatshirt, scarf and jeans, is in town on a layover between Hong Kong and Dalian, a Chinese coastal city where he will source shellfish and visit a Kobe beef farm.

"And with this restaurant ... it's exciting, but at the same time it's keeping me up at night. I never thought it would happen this fast."

Fast, indeed. A year ago, Mr. Ono was a relatively unknown executive chef at Gluttons, a 12-table restaurant on Winnipeg's Corydon Avenue. Then came the Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championship in Whistler, B.C., where he surprised everyone by earning the crown of Canada's top chef, beating out better-known names such as Ottawa's Michael Blackie and Toronto's Mark McEwan, host of Food TV's The Heat.

Mr. Ono won over the judges with his light, uncluttered dishes and clarity of flavours. In the final round, the gala tasting, competitors were tasked to create their finest dish using any ingredients they wished. Mr. Ono worked with tuna presented three ways: olive-oil poached; ahi tuna tea-smoked, air-dried to crunchiness and served over a pannacotta; and as a tartare with will red beets and ginger.

"It was like a dream," Mr. Ono says of winning last February.

Mr. Ono cut his culinary teeth at his parents' Winnipeg sushi bar, Edohei, as a teenager. After a stint as a university arts student, he trained in French cuisine in the Dubrulle Culinary Arts program in Vancouver and later worked in the city's West and Koji restaurants.

In 2000, Mr. Ono travelled to London, England, where he trained under culinary icons Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Marco Pierre White at their respective restaurants, Vong and Mirabelle.

In 2001, he returned to Winnipeg to work at the family restaurant and three years later helped open Gluttons, where he developed a prix fixe menu featuring modern French cuisine with Asian touches.

After he won Gold Medal Plates, job offers began to pour in. Mr. Ono handed in his resignation at Gluttons and mulled offers to open restaurants in Philadelphia and Toronto.

But it was a chance meeting last August at a private dinner at the Toronto home of food-and-wine writer James Chatto that eventually brought Mr. Ono to Beijing. Mr. Ono was catering the meal and was approached by Annie Kwok, the now-retired director of catering at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, who said her son was looking for chefs to work events in Hong Kong.

In December, Privé Group, a Hong Kong-based entertainment company, flew Mr. Ono overseas to cater a few VIP dinners in the city. Gerald Li, Ms. Kwok's son and Privé's executive vice-president, says the company was so impressed with Mr. Ono's skills in the kitchen that it offered him the executive chef job at the Japanese restaurant opening this spring in Beijing.

"We just thought he'd be a good fit," Mr. Li says. "When he's in the kitchen you get a sense that he's very dedicated and devoted to what he's doing. He's a perfectionist."

The Beijing project, a 360-seat restaurant and lounge with 14 private rooms and an open kitchen, designed by Japanese design studio Hashimoto Yukio, will target the city's increasingly sophisticated dining crowd.

Privé chose the name Makoto in part to develop a brand the company can build from as it expands throughout Asia. "Like Nobu," Mr. Li says.

The restaurant's menu will feature traditional and modern Japanese cuisine, but with a French twist. Mr. Ono says he'll combine Japanese staples such as soy sauce, miso, fresh wasabi and bonito flakes with French cooking techniques and ingredients such as truffles, caviar, fine herbs and wine.

"I don't use the term 'fusion,' " Mr. Ono says, "but the food will be influenced from my Japanese culture, my travels and my upbringing in Canada."

Makoto's unique fare might set it apart from other Beijing establishments, but the restaurant will face stiff and growing competition.

In recent years, a number of high-end restaurants and bars have opened in the city hoping to cash in on rapid economic growth and a pre-Olympics boom.

Most notable is Lan Club, an extravagant 64,000-square-foot restaurant and lounge designed by Philippe Starck.

Mr. Ono will also have to compete with a glut of Japanese restaurants in the city, including popular spots such as Hatsune and Haiku.

Mr. Ono might be nervous, but he says he's up for the challenge.

"Those challenges, I think, will help me grow as a chef," he says. "There's so much happening in Beijing. It's growing so quickly, and to be a part of that is really exciting."