From left, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon, chef Luu Meng, Madam Lim Chhiv Ho and the French ambassador to Cambodia Christian Connan. Photograph: supplied

Madam Lim Chhiv Ho, of the Attwood Group, and chef Luu Meng, owner of the Almond Hotel and several restaurants in Phnom Penh, were honoured by the French government on Friday with the Ordre National du Mérite Agricole (National Order of Agricultural Merit), an honour established in 1883 to reward services to agriculture.

In a ceremony at the French embassy led by ambassador Christian Connan, Luu Meng and Madam Lim were presented with the decorations.

According to the French embassy, the OMA is presented to people in the food-processing industry and the catering trade or authors of specialised works on related topics.

The French embassy cited Luu Meng’s work for 16 years in the catering industry, collaborating with the local branch of the French Accor Group, known as Thalias, as well as his work at the former Sofitel hotel, (now the Cambodiana) from 2004 to 2006 and his service as counsellor for the Paris-based Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an international gastronomic society, beginning in 2010.

Madam Lim was recognised for her service as distributor for the global French Moët Hennessy group of products, which include Hennessy cognac, Moët & Chandon champagne and Veuve Cliquot, since 1994.

The embassy noted Madam Lim had been granted exclusive distribution rights in 2009 for the Moët Hennessy portfolio.

The embassy recognised Madam Lim’s other achievements in business with her LCH group, including the management of the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone, as well as her social work and many fund-raising events, noting that Sea Sophal, chief executive officer of the Thai Huot Group, and Dominique Boivin, the owner of Le Terroir delicatessen, would also soon be rewarded with their own OMA decorations for training butchers and for their promotion of French savoir faire.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Alan Becker at [email protected]