Celebrity Life

2020 may not have served us the finest days of our lives, but let’s admit it, food helped us find happiness in this pandemic-struck year. And now that we have officially said goodbye to it, we suggest you celebrate it with a grand feast cooked by some of the world's most famous chefs.

From Japan to India and Italy to America, it’s the love for distinct flavours that keeps us akin. But the art of cooking is intricate – it’s all about coming up with something that soothes the taste buds and soul alike – something a few chefs around the world have nailed.

To feed the unique and endless appetite of foodies, we have rounded up 10 of the world’s most famous chefs and their lip-smacking signature dishes that are worth a shot in 2021.

Masaharu Morimoto

Mastering a cuisine is an ambitious task, but when you dare to combine it with another form, it takes more than just skill to be a winner. Masaharu Morimoto – also known as the Iron Chef - wins with the flavours and presentation of his Japanese fusion food.

Morimoto, who earned a Michelin star in 2008, bridged the gap between America and native Japan with his creations that combine two palates to in an impressively balanced form. While the 65-year-old’s résumé has big portions of baseball, sushi, ramen and wasabi on it, the signature dish spot is reserved for Buri Bop.

Inspired by a traditional Korean dish – Bibimbop – Buri Bop gets the sushi chef’s raw fish spin with yellowtail. This Japanese kick is supported by an egg yolk, rice, marinated spinach and fennel head ferns, some pickled daikon and carrots, yuzu pepper, garlic-soy jus and shredded nori. In a steaming hot pot, Morimoto puts them all together to create the Asian delight, which is considered his finest creation so far.

Sabrina Ghayour

A household name in the Middle East, Sabrina Ghayour is a British-Iranian chef and author who penned an array of food books, the most popular one being Persiana. The self-taught culinary artist has created recipes inspired by the Middle Eastern flavours and used their distinct ingredients to create something authentic.

One of Ghayour’s most impressive dishes so far is Lamb and sour cherry meatballs. In this Iranian wonder, sweetened sour cherries meet a dense tomato sauce and act as a base for smooth lamb meatballs.

Massimo Bottura

Pizza, pasta, lasagne and a delicate dance of herbs on a platter – that’s Italian food for the world. However, when Massimo Bottura – one of the most celebrated culinary personalities of the world – donned his chef’s white, he created something intricate for the taste buds.

A patron of three-Michelin-star establishment Osteria Francescana, Bottura’s love for cooking developed when he watched his mother and grandmother in the kitchen. Starting from there to listing his eatery among The World's 50 Best Restaurants, the 58-year-old has come a long way.
Bottura’s creations are a combination of both vision and creativity, and his signature dish has it in abundance. The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna and Mediterranean Sole – although two different items – come together as one at Fancescana.

This ensemble includes the traditional lasagna in a smoked and slightly burnt form, topped with Bolognese sauce, a touch of Bechamel and some nutmeg powder. It’s nothing short of a tsunami of flavours for anyone who tries it.

Gaggan Anand

Kolkata bred yet Punjabi by nature, Gaggan Anand is a progressive Indian cuisine expert who has been ruling the restaurant charts in Bangkok for a decade now. While a fallout with his partners forced him to walk away from his Michelin starred establishment Gaggan earlier this year, he soon bounced back with another diner named Gaggan Anand.

Anand’s emblematic preparation, Lick It Up, allows guests to feel the food by licking up the plate, quite literally. This one is a platter of chutneys, purees and jams including a mango yuzu gel, green pea puree, onion jam and chilli chutney. Designed to be enjoyed without cutlery, Lick It Up brings sweet, sour and spicy flavours together.

Anand was also profiled on Netflix’s Chef’s Table in 2019.

Ken Hom

Chinese-American chef Ken Hom, also known as the master of Asian cuisine, made his mark in the culinary world with his ‘wok’. Specialising in Chinese cuisine, Ken was appointed the honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to the culinary arts in 2009. Six years later, his restaurant MEE earned a Michelin star a little over one year after its inauguration.

While most famous chefs across the globe have one signature dish, Ken has scores to boast, thanks to the freshness and simplicity of Chinese food that he continued to swear by for years.

Of his countless signature recipes, we list the Beijing (Peking) Braised Lamb as the most distinct ensemble. This Chinese indulgence includes lamb cooked in dry and wet heat which is served with sticky rice and vegetables.

Anne-Sophie Pic

Famed for her French food, Anne-Sophie Pic has a long series of accolades in her name. From regaining three Michelin stars for her family restaurant Maison Pic to earning the Best Female Chef award by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2011, she has established herself as the queen of French cuisine and one of the most famous chefs anywhere in the world.

Pic took inspiration from her father and grandfather to join the culinary arts. With no formal training in the field, she took over Maison Pic after her father’s passing and brought back its three lost Michelin stars in 2007.

The 51-year-old has a legacy of winning over guests with her creations, however, her Berlingots continue to be on the signature spot till date. The delectable pasta parcels are loaded with wild garlic, seasonal wild mushrooms, a hint of Voatsiperifery pepper and lightly-smoked Brillat Savarin cheese.

Virgilio Martínez

Chef Virgilio Martínez added the wow factor to traditional Peruvian food by reinventing it with modern cooking techniques and using contemporary ingredients. Collectively, his offbeat approach to gastronomy contributed to the current stature. His modern Peruvian-style restaurant Lima in London won a Michelin star in 2014.

While Martínez has not listed a particular dish as his signature item, his Waters of Nanay is one of the most popular creations till date. The platter of this delicacy includes a piranha fish served inside piranha heads with its sharp teeth placed on top. The crispy fish skin delicacy is supported by cocona and achiote flavours.

Martínez was profiled on the Netflix series Chef’s Table.

Gordon Ramsay

Hell’s Kitchen, Hotel Hell, Masterchef and Kitchen Nightmares introduced us to an outspoken, strict, and short-tempered Gordon Ramsay who settles for nothing less than excellence on a platter. However, Ramsey did not become one of the most famous chefs on the planet for his charisma alone, he also is a multi-Michelin starred chef who owns thirty-five restaurants across the globe – the most celebrated one being Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London.

The dish that Ramsay is highly famed for is Beef Wellington. This one is a package of filet mignon covered in whole-grain mustard and layers of prosciutto, pulverized mushrooms, an herbed crepe, and puff pastry. This calzone of flavours is then baked until meat reaches perfection.

Forbes quoted Ramsay’s 2020 earnings at $70 million and named him the 19th high-earning celebrity in the world.

Alain Ducasse

French born Alain Ducasse is a Monégasque chef who holds the highest number of Michelin stars in the world. Of the 20 stars he holds, three belong to Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester – the highest ranking on the prestigious guide.

Over a three-decade period, Ducasse rose from chef to head chef and, at present, owns about 30 restaurants around the world and his considered one of the most famous chefs who modernised and elevated French cuisine. In 2013, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

While Ducasse’s culinary expertise has won him a fortune of awards throughout his career, the Cookpot continues to be his signature delicacy. The ‘glocal’ trend as he calls it, is like an ode from the 64-year-old to the various cultures of the world. In a slow cooker designed by Ducasse himself, he stews seven seasonal vegetables until they release every inborn flavour.

The famous ‘Cookpot’ is now an essential tool found in most kitchens across the world.

Clare Smyth

A former Chef Patron at Gordon Ramsay Restaurant, Northern Irish chef Clare Smyth’s is famed for her sophisticated cooking techniques with British ingredients. With several accolades in her name – first female chef to hold three Michelin stars, Chef of The Year in 2013, World’s Best Chef and so on – Smyth established herself as a winner in the otherwise male-dominated industry.

Core, Smyth’s restaurant in London, earned two Michelin stars within just two years of its induction. She also turned caterer at former Duke and Duchess of Sussex – Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding ‘after-party’.
The 42-year-old is known for creating incredible delicacies with simple ingredients and her signature dish Potato and Roe is an example. It is a tribute to the chef’s homeland.

On a platter, freshly cooked potatoes are accompanied by potato crisps on top with a touch of dulse beurre blanc sauce, herring, herbs, and trout roe.

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A mixology favourite.

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Journey into the most quintessential spirit.

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In his waders, Stefan Astner checks on the albino sturgeon: Almost two decades after they hatched, they're ready to be gutted for their white caviar to be shipped out for New Year's celebrations.

"The fish have already been through the ultrasound so we saw that they are full (of roe) and they will go into production soon," Astner says, dipping his net into a small pond teeming with the rare, white sturgeon.

Deemed the most expensive food in the world, demand for caviar -essentially, salted roe - has driven most sturgeon species to the brink of extinction in the wild.

But fish farms like the one where Astner works in the village of Groedig, near the Austrian city of Salzburg, offer a more sustainable alternative. Owner Walter Gruell is one of about 2,500 sturgeon farmers worldwide that produce a combined 415 tonnes of white caviar a year, according to the World Sturgeon Conservation Society's most recent figures dating from 2018.

But patience is imperative for producers. The required investment is high and doesn't pay off for years until the sturgeon begin carrying roe -- that's if they aren't stolen by gangs hoping to skip the arduous breeding process.

The albino female that Gruell slices with surgical precision is 16 years old. Slowly, he removes, rinses, and weighs the cream-coloured roe, which, like the fish, lacks pigmentation.

There are no more than 40 sturgeon breeders specialising in albinos worldwide, according to Thomas Friedrich, an expert on sturgeon at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna.

Though there's no research suggesting that lack of pigmentation affects white caviar's taste, Gruell is convinced of its superiority, asserting that "it's even sweeter, even smoother than the traditionally black one."

Consumers are willing to pay for the difference. The female that Gruell just cut yields 600 grams (21 ounces), worth 8,000 euros ($9,750) -- more than three times the price that black caviar fetches.

Sturgeon rustlers

The coronavirus pandemic has curbed demand as upscale restaurants, like all eateries in Austria, have been closed, but retail is booming, partly because people still want to treat themselves, Gruell believes.

"People want to savour the present moment," he says, between the many phone calls ahead of the end-of-year celebrations, when he makes close to 40 percent of his annual turnover.

While AFP visited his farm, Gruell spoke to a luxury automaker, and shortly before had been in contact with an airline hoping to serve first-class travellers caviar "Made in Austria".

Demand for white caviar remains high, and not just from paying customers, but sturgeon rustlers, too.

A year ago, 400 kilos of sturgeon were stolen from a farm less than two hours away from Groedig. The eviscerated fish were later found in a reservoir. A year before that, 400 individual sturgeon worth 50,000 euros were stolen from another farm.

At Gruell's farm, the fish, which include sturgeon native to the Danube, are protected by surveillance cameras and high fences with heavy padlocks.

Outliving dinosaurs

Though sturgeon breeding in countries like China, Italy and France started as a purely financial venture, it is now also seen as a sustainable alternative to wild sturgeon.

Having survived the demise of the dinosaurs, some sturgeon species have recently gone extinct, while others are on the brink.

In Russia and Iran, production of wild caviar collapsed in the 1980s due to overfishing as well as pollution in the Caspian Sea.

Most countries along the Danube now protect the local sturgeon species, though experts worry that conservation might have come too late.

Official government data in Romania, where the Danube empties into the Black Sea, show that catches of Russian sturgeon plummeted from 3,725 kilos (8,214 pounds) in 2002 to just 37 kilos (82 pounds) in 2005, indicating that overfishing had gravely diminished their numbers.

Though the country issued a moratorium in 2006, impoverished fishermen continue to try and catch the fish, as the dozens of kilos of roe that one sturgeon can carry are worth as much as a fisherman's annual income.

Some fans of the delicacy still believe that the taste of wild caviar eclipses that extracted from farmed sturgeon - though Gruell says his albinos are in a taste category of their own.

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While 2020 has been a very tough year for restaurants and bars all over the world, Hong Kong's resilient dining scene has graced us with some remarkable new concepts. From French comfort food to elevated Indian cuisine, here's our selection of Hong Kong's best new restaurants that opened their doors throughout the past year.

CHAAT

One of the latest additions to the Rosewood Hong Kong's vibrant culinary offering, CHAAT celebrates the bold and authentic flavours of India’s street food, accompanied by cocktails influenced by spice traders. Celebrated Chef Manav Tuli's elevated family-style feast includes a wide selection of snacks, curries, biryanis and tandooris, served in a chic and trendy environment.

CHAAT, Rosewood Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui; +852 3891 8732

Andō

Helmed by Argentian Chef-Founder Agustin Balbi, Andō’s name and menu are a tribute to Balbi's culinary heritage and experience. In Spanish, the word acts as the present participle – the act of doing, while in Japanese the word alludes to a sense of comfort. The dual meaning reflects the concept behind the restaurant, in which the chef masterfully fuses Japanese inspiration with his ancestral roots. Dishes like the Hamachi with leche de tigre, baby paprika and coriander perfectly represent Andō's unique soul.

Andō, 1F, Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington St, Central; +852 9161 8697

Cobo House

This year, Cobo House reopened as a fine dining establishment helmed by seasoned chefs Ray Choi & Chef Devon Hou at K11 Musea. The concept blends art and gastronomy through seasonal thematic tasting menus. The word Cobo is emblematic of Bohemian lifestyle, and reinforces an unconventional experience where edible art is served and art pieces are showcased for guests to experience and appreciate. Dishes like the a reinvented and elevated version of the classic Peranakan dish Laksa, part of the Spices and Aromas tasting menu, are an examples of the eatery's vibrant and international influences.

Cobo House, 6/F, K11 Musea, 18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui; +852 2656 3088

22 Ships

Newly-refreshed Spanish restaurant 22 Ships, helmed by veteran of modern Iberian cuisine Antonio Oviedo, serves rustic and refined recipes that don't compromise on authenticity. From the traditions of the Basque Country to Andalusia, the hearty selection of tapas and main dishes fuses the the homey and bold flavours of a Spanish taverna and the refined plating and service of a cosmopolitan eatery.

22 Ships, 22 Ship St, Wan Chai; +852 2555 0722

jean may

Helmed by chef Tiffany Lo, jean may explores and elevates casual dining à la Français to new heights, finally gracing Hong Kong with a trendy and memorable bistro. At jean may, cosy and insta-worthy interiors are combined with fragrant dishes like the razor clams with parsley and garlic, which showcases its team technique and experience.

jean may, Shop A, 14 Gresson St, Wan Chai; +852 3590 6033

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