Soju: the secret to drinking South Korea’s favourite tipple, not to be...
Soju is South Korea’s most popular tipple. It is also widely drunk in Japan and China.The origins of soju go back to the Chinese pinyin rendering of shaojiu, or burned spirit/liqueur. In the 13th...
View ArticleHow to make a vegan bean curd salad that will leave your taste buds tingling
This dish is a variation of a salad I make, where I stir-fry onion with mustard seeds, curry leaf and chillies, and serve the mixture over a platter of ripe, sweet, raw tomatoes of various sizes and...
View ArticleThe accidental chef: how Singaporean Nicholas Chew designed a restaurant,...
What was your childhood like? “I grew up in Singapore with my father’s side of the family, as my parents split up when I was very young. We ate traditional Peranakan food and celebrated Christmas and...
View ArticleHow to make quails with Chinese sausage stuffing, not your average game dish
This is a great dinner party dish that will surprise your guests. They will think they are being served regular roasted quails, but when they cut the birds in half, they will realise that most of the...
View ArticleHow Wolfgang Puck became Hollywood’s chef to the stars – the secrets to his...
Whipping boy: I grew up poor in the Austrian countryside in a community of just two farmers and two or three houses. We had meat once a week, on Sundays for lunch. We had a vegetable garden and ate a...
View ArticleHow to pair wines with spicy food – from fiery Sichuan cuisine to South...
Choosing a wine to pair with spicy food can be challenging.In Asia, Sichuan cuisine, with its tongue-numbing, fiery bite, is probably the most challenging to pair with wine, as there are so many...
View ArticleHow to make ‘Mom’s chicken wings’ fried in soy sauce – an easy recipe
My brothers and I call these “Mom’s chicken wings” because we loved them when we were growing up. Because the wings are fried, my mother didn’t cook them often, so they were considered a treat. She...
View ArticleWhat is Filipino food? Cookbook attempts to define the cuisine of ‘cultural...
The authors of The Food of the Philippines (2005) start the book with a great question: what is Filipino food?In an introductory essay, the late food writer and historian Doreen G. Fernandez attempts...
View ArticleItalian chef behind ‘best roast chicken ever’ almost became a computer engineer
Tell us about your childhood. “I learned the importance of the quality of food when I was very young. My family has a farm [in Telese Terme, in southwestern Italy’s Campania region] and we made...
View ArticleMichelin-star chef in Macau on minimalist cuisine and why ginger is more...
You went to business school before deciding to become a chef. What made you change your mind? “I was good at school, so all my teachers pushed me to go to university and my family wanted it as well. I...
View ArticleQuick breakfast recipe: Chinese macaroni soup noodles, with a twist
I love Chinese breakfasts of macaroni soup noodles, served at inexpensive restaurants. The dish comes with various toppings, including a thin slice of ham (or a thicker slice of pan-fried canned...
View ArticleHow to make a vegetarian version of Korean chigae soup with a kick of...
Although Korean cuisine is usually associated with meaty barbecue, that is an occasional treat in South Korea, not something that is consumed every day. Korean food is in fact healthy because it...
View ArticleItalian chef Igles Corelli, the master of crispy lasagne, on his creative roots
What are your childhood memories of your parents’ trattoria in Argenta, Italy? “I remember my mum rolling dough for tagliatelle and making baked pasta. I also remember the smell of roasted potatoes....
View ArticleHow to make fried wontons with sweet-and-sour sauce – a guaranteed crowd pleaser
In the lead-up to the holiday season, friends and family are hosting everything from casual barbecues and BYOB parties to extravagant catered dinners. These fried wontons with sweet-and-sour dipping...
View ArticleHong Kong seafood’s quality ‘the same as in a Japanese fish market’,...
How did you get interested in cooking? “After World War II, my grandparents divorced and my grandmother married again. My step-grandfather knew how to cook Western food and in the 1940s he opened two...
View ArticleJapanese home cooking can be as simple as any other cuisine – Sonoko Sakai...
For many of us, cooking Japanese food at home seems far beyond our capability. That’s ridiculous, of course – home cooks in Japan aren’t meticulously carving daikon into paper-thin ribbons, cutting...
View ArticleTwo quick and easy recipes to get you through the holiday season – no turkey...
In the lead up to the holidays, many of us are busy shopping for gifts, tidying up our homes for visiting friends and family andwrapping things up at work so we can enjoy the break. What that means,...
View ArticleHow the ‘hellish cityscape of Beijing’ inspired a cookbook by Taiwanese-Canadian
Taiwanese-Canadian Mandy Lee’s first attempt at cooking was not a success. In one of the chapters of The Art of Escapism Cooking (2019), she writes that when she was 16 and growing up in Vancouver, her...
View ArticleLatin America’s top chef on cooking in the now –‘I like to cook the way I...
How was it growing up in a bicultural environment? “My father was Japanese but I was born in Peru. I went to Japan to gain experience working as a chef. At first it was tough. The Japanese expect you...
View ArticleDear dairy: why is cheese in Hong Kong so expensive, especially when prices...
One aspect of Hong Kong life newcomers immediately remark upon is the inflated price of certain perishable foods, even taking into account the sometimes vast distances between the point of production...
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