Celebrity Life

It’s official: The highly-anticipated French restaurant Louise is set to open its doors on 18 June. And if you didn’t already know, it involves a talent trifecta of Hong Kong’s JIA Group, the people behind popular dining spots such as Old Bailey and Duddell’s; French chef Julian Royer of two-Michelin-starred Odette, which took the top spot in this year’s Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants; and acclaimed architect and designer André Fu,who left his mark at The Upper House and, more recently, The St. Regis Hong Kong.

The new restaurant commandeers the former Aberdeen Street Social space at PMQ and will invite guests to dine in a colonial-style interior which houses a Tropical Greenhouse lounge and Ivory Boudoir dining room. Louise promises to offer a fresh take on traditional French cuisine, in which casual lunch and dinner menus include nostalgic Gallic recipes that Royer was brought up on.

So, as one of Asia’s top chefs gears up for his Hong Kong opening, we took the chance to chat with the man himself about being an award-winning chef and what he has in store for his new venture, which will begin taking email reservations on Saturday, 1 June.

Has winning the title of Asia’s Best Restaurant changed your daily life?

Not really. It has been humbling to be recognised alongside many chefs that I admire and respect. All the awards we receive, as a result of our efforts to deliver the simple, genuine pleasures of enjoying a meal, are deeply appreciated and an affirmation of our hard work. 

You also took your cuisine to the sky (with Air France) -- how was that?

It was a real honour collaborating with my home country’s national carrier. It was very enlightening and inspiring to challenge myself to create quality dishes despite the operational limitations of an airplane. But at the end of the day, we reverted to our core values of serving beautiful produce prepared with honest cooking techniques and I am so glad that the menu has been well-received so far.

And yes, it’s true that everything tastes different up in the air! We had to play with salt, sugar and acidity levels.

[caption id="attachment_145487" align="alignnone" width="2210"] Dishes such as grilled scallops, carrot mousseline and saffron nage is served on flights from Singapore to Paris | Image courtesy of Air France[/caption]

What’s the meaning behind the name Louise?  

It’s a seemingly simple French name that exudes regality and elegance, which perfectly encompasses our direction for the French bistronomy program in the space.

At Odette, your cuisine is described as “French in its DNA but influenced by the Singapore surroundings for produce and ingredients”. Will Louise be similar in that sense for Hong Kong?

We are always open to discovering and incorporating local produce. I’m very excited to see what Hong Kong has to offer. 

Any examples of dishes that we can look forward to at Louise? 

We will be serving traditional French cuisine, reimagined. For example, la truffade is a beautiful dish from my hometown, simply done with roasted potatoes, garlic and young Cantal cheese. And joue de bœuf braisée au vin rouge, or red wine braised beef cheek, with confit carrots and baby onions is another hearty dish.

Is there a particular dish you feel nostalgic about?

My mum’s yoghurt cake -- it will be on the menu [smiles].

Are there any foods you dislike?

I was not a huge fan of the stinky tofu in Taiwan when I tried it.

[caption id="attachment_145468" align="alignnone" width="3189"] The rosemary smoked organic egg with smoked potato syphon, chorizo iberico and buckwheat is served at Odette.[/caption]

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Bread and cheese are my go-to comfort foods. 

What are your thoughts on fine dining?

I feel like fine dining’s come a long way: It’s no longer an extremely exclusive and stuffy experience. More and more people are into fine dining today. It’s less about that traditional opulence, and more about the connections that you make -- with your server whom you can enjoy conversation with, with your chef through the food that he or she has prepared. It even extends to the producers behind the ingredients, or the artisans behind the plateware. People are looking for sincerity and authenticity in their fine dining experiences now.

When did your love for food and cooking start?

Watching my grandmother cook and seeing the amount of joy derived from family coming together over a home-cooked meal.

Can you recall the last good restaurant you went to?

I had a truly awesome meal at VEA [Restaurant & Lounge] in Hong Kong recently. What [Chef] Vicky is doing is truly unique and exceptional.

[caption id="attachment_145466" align="alignnone" width="960"] Chef Royer working with his team at Odette in Singapore.[/caption]

You’ve accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. Do you put any pressure on yourself to keep pushing?

We’re incredibly grateful for all the success that the restaurant has enjoyed, and I couldn’t have done it without my team. While the awards and accolades are definitely encouraging, I still believe that at the end of the day, the success of the restaurant is judged by the indelible memories that we’ve created for our guests -- through sincere hospitality and honest cooking. That is what we continue to strive to achieve, each and every day.

How about family time? Are you able to balance it well with work?

I believe everyone who works in hospitality struggles with work-life balance because of the long hours, but I believe in spending quality time with my loved ones whenever I have the opportunity.

Do you cook at home?

Rarely as I’m not often home. But a good roast chicken with my wife and friends is always a good idea.

So Hong Kong is next, but is there anywhere else you have your eyes on yet?

We’re taking things one day at a time and being incredibly intentional with our expansion plans, so it’s too early to tell. 

Louise, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong; +852 2866 0300

The post Celebrated Chef Julien Royer on New Restaurant Louise, Airplane Food and Stinky Tofu appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The many faces of Chinese cuisine -- be it traditional, regional, Westernised or fusion -- have evolved gradually over the centuries, and they continue to do so today with a recent wave of new-generation chefs that take it to the next level. At Chinese fine-dining restaurant Yi, which sits impressively on the 21st floor of Morpheus in Macau, Executive Chef Wilson Fam and Chef de Cuisine Angelo Wong are doing exactly that. Offering guests an elevated dining experience, Yi has a daily-changing chef’s menu that blends traditional and regional Chinese cuisines with modern techniques and creative flair. We caught up with the dynamic chef duo to discuss their ever-changing dishes, the future of Chinese cuisine and how they got there in the first place.

[caption id="attachment_145177" align="alignnone" width="1112"] Executive Chef Wilson Fam and Chef de Cuisine Angelo Wong of Yi.[/caption]

What’s behind the name Yi?

Wilson Fam (WF): Yi is named after the book Yi Jing [otherwise known as the Book of Changes, which is considered one of the most important ancient Chinese books ever written and a source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy]. It considers many things, including the balance of well-being, so we try to bring that into our food and cooking too. It also translates to other aspects in the restaurant. For example, when you dine in, there are tea and wine pairings; it’s a balance of all flavours.

What do you think is happening with Chinese cuisine today?

WF: There are a lot of chefs out there doing different contemporary versions of Chinese cuisine. They’ll include Western, French or even Japanese elements, to Chinese food. But this can become too fusion -- or as I say -- confusion.

Angelo Wong (AW): We focus on the traditional, but present it in a modern way. We might be inspired by other cuisines, and use French cooking methods like the sous vide machine. But this is because technology is better now and we can produce our food in different ways.

Do you think it’s important to keep these traditions?

WF: In Chinese cuisine there are a lot of [cooking] methods that cannot be replaced. For example, the wok. You cannot replace this technique with anything else. It takes a long time to perfect -- to handle and understand the wok. In a traditional Chinese kitchen you’ll have the ‘end wok’ and the ‘head wok’. The end wok needs at least 5 years experience to master it at a basic level, while the head work needs almost 20 years. That’s almost a lifetime of experience. It requires time, technique, speed and strength. So we can’t lose these traditions. Nowadays, in my personal opinion, the new generation of chefs aren’t willing to spend the time to learn that.

What are the challenges with producing the daily-changing chef menus?

WF: It’s probably the continuous picking of high-quality ingredients -- it has to be the best. But also the mixing and matching of ingredients. Because we’re trying to think outside the box, it can’t simply be fried chicken [for example]. It needs to be more.

[gallery ids="144723,144749"]

Are there any advantages of daily tasting menus?

AW: It gives us flexibility. If one day we don’t have the best ingredients for this particular dish, then we can change it and still produce something good. If you’re set on one dish, but the ingredients aren’t good that day, then what you produce isn’t going to be good either.

How do you develop your dishes?

WF: We go to the market in the morning to source ingredients. We search for different ones because sometimes you can’t find all the best produce, so we need to go to a few. When we find it, we have to think about what we’re going to do with it on the spot -- how we’re going to cook it, what it will look like on the plate -- before we buy it. Then we go back to the kitchen and start to plan and write the menus; we design the dish and consider all the flavours, then train the chefs and brief the team on these dishes and the sequence. Finally, we do our service. We start all over again the next day.

AW: We base all our dishes on the traditional methods that we know. Because at the end of the day, when a dish needs wok hei [the smoky and charred aroma only achieved by using a wok], we will cook with wok hei. If something needs to be scorched, then we will scorch it. We will keep using these techniques to cook. But we are always experimenting and fine tuning to achieve the best possible result.

How about the regional specialties?

AW: It’s usually based on our own experiences. We haven’t been everywhere, but we’ve tried a lot of different foods. So we choose things that have been memorable for us. It’s hard to find a dish that is memorable these days.

WF: The team is mixed. We have a Sichuan chef, Shanghainese chef, Hunan chef . . . There’s an expert for every cuisine. So we can try different techniques and styles. It’s also a good mix of Western and Chinese skills. We’re a young team of like-minded people. So it works.

Do you have any favourite dishes?

WF: The lemongrass pigeon. It’s based on my home [food]. I’m Malaysian and our cuisine has a lot of spices and herbs, and this inspired me. So when we were preparing for the opening, I was thinking that every Chinese restaurant has pigeon but we need to make ours different. I think we experimented more than 100 times; even on the day we opened, we still didn’t confirm the recipe.

AW: Hot and sour soup. That’s my creation. It’s a little bit different, as we use lemon for sourness. Hot and sour soup seems like a very simple dish, but the taste isn’t simple. It’s complex and it can really excite the tastebuds. I’m trying to create memories. At other Chinese restaurants, they’ll have a number of different soups to try, but the guests will remember the hot and sour soup.

[gallery ids="144726,144752,144756"]

Why and how did you get into cooking?

WF: I never thought I would become a chef. I actually wanted to become a graphic designer, but the school fees were too high. I looked up a few colleges, but we couldn’t afford it. Then, I looked opposite the road and saw a culinary school. I was 14 years old back then, so I was just playing around and my first certificate was a D [grade]. The only reason I got serious was when I realised how stupid I was. I opened the books and didn’t understand the words -- I didn’t even know what an onion was [laughs]. So I learnt English with one of those digital dictionaries -- you can type a word in and it will sound it out. That’s how I learnt to speak English. From a D, I finally got an A when I graduated.

I also tried to get experience during college. I’d go to Michelin-starred restaurants after school, and even hot pot restaurants and hawker centres. I went in to learn, because my mum taught me that everything you learn is a treasure. It might not help you right now, but it might help you in the future. I owe a lot to my mum.

AW: My family and my mum influenced me when I was younger. I also watched cartoons, seriously, about cooking which had some influence too! Growing up, every Chinese New Year, we would all cook together to feed about 30 plus people -- so that definitely influenced me.

As new-generation Chinese chefs, what is the biggest challenge that you face? 

WF: The biggest challenge is getting people to accept you. The people who have eaten at our restaurant, most of them do [accept us and our food]. But those who haven’t -- probably not. A lot of our guests are from an older generation -- real traditionalists -- and when they first come in, they wonder what kind of dish this is. But once they’ve tasted it, they’re like “aah”, and they get it. It’s interesting for them and they change their minds.

Any future goals?

AW: What Chinese chefs were doing 20 or 30 years ago has become traditional for us, that’s what’s familiar. What we’re hoping to do is create a cuisine that, 20 years from now, will become the traditional Chinese food of the future.

WF: Other than that, we’re obviously pushing for more accolades -- Michelin stars, Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. This will help us spread the word, I think. It will allow people, especially ones who seek out good food, to understand us and our cuisine.

Yi, Level 21, Morpheus, Estrada do Istmo, Cotai, Macau; +853 8868 3446

The post Chefs Wilson Fam and Angelo Wong of Yi on the Traditions and Future of Chinese Cuisine appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Steaming bowls of pho, the fragrant Vietnamese rice noodle soup, and crunchy sandwiches called banh mi slathered with rich pâté, pickled vegetables and chilli -- both are delicious and readily available in Hong Kong. And yet, surely there's more to Vietnamese cuisine than these crowd-pleasing (and overly familiar) dishes, right?

To answer that question, we met up with chef Que Vinh Dang, whom you may remember from private kitchen TBLS and Quest by Que, at his latest venture: a Vietnamese restaurant called Nhau. We spoke to the chef to find out what else Vietnamese food has to offer, how he created his cuisine and what’s beyond the kitchen for him.

[caption id="attachment_142771" align="alignnone" width="1795"] Chef Que Vinh Dang at his new Vietnamese restaurant Nhau.[/caption]

What does nhau mean? How should we pronounce it?

The proper way to pronounce it is "nyau" but most people say "now" -- which is close enough! Nhau means together. In Vietnam you would say nhau nhau, which means “Let’s eat and drink together”.

Describe your cuisine for us.

It’s a contemporary take on traditional Vietnamese flavours -- without being fusion. We use the essence of a traditional dish, but use fine-dining techniques to take it to the next level. The flavours are 100% Vietnamese, but it will be something you don’t expect.

For example, we serve bo la lot, which is a popular Vietnamese dish with minced meat and a touch of curry, wrapped in betel leaf and grilled. Our version is a cold [dish] format with Australian wagyu beef tartare mixed with curry mayonnaise, betel leaf purée and homemade beef flakes. It’s then served with crispy beef tendon crackers which have been dehydrated and deep fried. 

What are you doing that is different to other Vietnamese restaurants?

All of our ideas are conceptualised from beginning to end, which allows us to build [more] layers of flavour and texture into the dishes. There’s so much more to Vietnamese cuisine, so why focus on the same handful of items [pho or banh mi] that are available all over Hong Kong?

[gallery ids="142768,142765,142766,142773"]

How do you develop your dishes? 

Most of the dishes are in my head first. I try to work out the flavours and textures I want before we order the ingredients. I like to approach my style of cooking by keeping certain flavours that I feel my diners can connect with right away and build around that.

Do you have a signature or favourite dish on the menu?

I don’t like the idea of a signature dish. The idea of having an item follow me throughout my career seems a bit lazy. I currently like all of the dishes on the menu, but [at the same time] would happily change all of it, too.

You have a background in French cuisine, so why choose Vietnamese food for the new restaurant?

I’ve been cooking French and various other Western cuisines for the past two decades, and it dawned on me that most of what I was cooking didn’t fully represent who I was. I've noticed that every time I cook Vietnamese [food], I feel at ease and happy. It became an issue of what I was trained to do versus what I wanted to do. I’ve chosen the latter and because of that, I feel like it’s the right time for me to explore it, and not just to fill a dining void in Hong Kong’s food scene. 

[gallery ids="142770,142769"]

How did you get into cooking?

I realised I enjoyed cooking at a young age. It’s probably because I grew up being spoiled by my mom’s cooking. [But] the real reason why I got into cooking is because it’s a very easy conversation topic to talk about with the ladies! [Laughs.]

Why did you come to Hong Kong?

I was dating this amazing girl who moved to Hong Kong for work, so I decided to join her on this journey not knowing what would happen. We’re married now with three awesome kids.

What are you up to when you’re not in the kitchen? 

Aside from family and cooking, my other love is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I think I’m drawn to it because they have certain similarities that are needed in becoming a good chef. For example: solid fundamentals, creativity, humbleness. The faster chefs realise that it’s not a contest, the more creative their cooking becomes, and most importantly, [it’s about] enjoying the moment and trying to be happy.

Do you like the Vietnamese food in Hong Kong? If so, where do you go?

I don’t particularly go for Vietnamese in Hong Kong, but there’s one place I like in Sai Ying Pun. I think it’s called Vietnamese Restaurant, near HKU Station. It’s a no fuss, hole-in-the-wall [kind of place], but food is good there.

What do you have planned for Nhau? No pun intended!

Not sure, I’m still trying to figure it all out. Hopefully I can get one or two diners that can appreciate Vietnamese food for what it can be, and not what most people think it should be.

Nhau, 12 Circular Pathway, Central, Hong Kong; +852 3612 4568

The post Chef Que Vinh Dang of Nhau Goes Back to His Roots and Tells Us to Forget About Pho appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.