American chef Thomas Keller’s bistro dishes are treated with the same care as...
Thomas Keller became famous for The French Laundry, his fine-dining restaurant in Yountville, California. The American chef also has a second fine-dining restaurant, Per Se, in New York, but it is his...
View ArticleHow to make delicious congee shop side dishes of poached beef and offal
Many congee specialist shops have a short menu of snacks, in case customers want something more substantial than rice soup. The snacks include fried wonton, fried fish balls with salted clam sauce,...
View ArticleFood science: should we believe anything we read about nutrition?
One morning about a year ago I spotted a headline that made my heart sink. It claimed eggs can give you a heart attack.It wasn’t that I was about to eat eggs for breakfast. Rather, it was because, as a...
View ArticleLe Chocolatier Ivoirien: chocolate bars from Africa, handcrafted by an ex-banker
What did you do before becoming a chocolatier? “In university I studied international public law and I have a master’s in taxation. My parents wanted me to work in a bank, so I did. But I found it...
View ArticleThe Hong Kong chef reinventing Chinese classics at Macau’s...
How did you become a chef? “I fell in love with cooking at a young age and started my F&B [food and beverage] career at 15. I did not like academics and had no intention of furthering my studies in...
View ArticleHow to cook Thai-style grilled pork neck in the oven, best served with nam...
One of the most popular dishes at Thai restaurants is grilled pork neck. It tastes best when grilled over coals for a smoky flavour, but it is delicious even when cooked in the oven, using the grill or...
View ArticleVintage cookbook collects recipes from 1970s China, tells you how to judge a...
How can you not love a book that has a section called “How to Choose a Cook”? In Five Treasures of Chinese Cuisine (1977), authors Flora Chang, from Fuzhou, Fujian province, and her friend Gaynell...
View ArticleHow to make cold noodles with Sichuan shallot and garlic chilli sauce, a...
It may be cool in other parts of the world, but Hong Kong’s weather is warming up fast, and soon it will be uncomfortably hot and humid (think 32 degrees Celsius and 90 per cent humidity).The Chinese...
View ArticleWhite wine with red meat? Sure, says sommelier whose pairings work on a...
When it comes to wine and food pairing most of us adhere to the basic principle of white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat. Pairing expert Francois Chartier challenges this precept. He...
View ArticleHow Western tastes for Chinese food were shaped by Hong Kong restaurants
As numerous period memoirs from the mid-19th century onwards attest, European residents could live for decades in Hong Kong, or elsewhere in treaty port-era China, without ever being invited into a...
View ArticlePablo Lagrange, the Argentinian chef who ‘went away to go home’
What was it like growing up in Argentina? “I’m from southern Argentina, in Patagonia, near the mountains. I’m from a small village where we grow fruits and vegetables. We didn’t have games like...
View ArticleVermouth makes more than just martinis – introducing the aromatic, fortified...
Vermouth has come a long way in recent years from being known as the “other” ingredient in a classic martini, a distant second to gin. Essentially wine flavoured with aromatics and fortified with...
View ArticleKimchi fried rice and kimchi noodles, two easy ways to use up leftovers
Like many people right now, I’m trying to make the most of the ingredients in my pantry, fridge and freezer. A pandemic is not the time to waste food, or deal with expensive imported ingredients.These...
View ArticleHow Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen and Singapore’s national service helped...
How would you describe your relationship with food growing up? “As a child I ate a lot, so I was really fat. When I was 14 years old, my first job was at McDonald’s. I was behind the counter taking...
View ArticleHow to make Singapore-style ‘pork bone tea’, or bak kut teh, using a multicooker
I’m late to the game, but I’ve finally acquired a smart multicooker, which many people call an Instant Pot even if the device is not by that particular manufacturer (it is not available in Hong Kong)....
View ArticleBaking bread is the perfect pandemic pastime – the Tartine Bread cookbook...
Is there anyone who is not making bread right now? Or, to be more precise, is there anyone who is not making bread and posting pictures of it on social media? My Instagram feed is filled with picture...
View ArticleHong Kong chef Ray Choi uses his fine dining experience to experiment with...
How did you start cooking? “When I was 12 years old, my mother wanted me, my older brother and my sister to help around the home – wash the dishes, clean up or cook. We started by washing vegetables...
View ArticleHow to make two Thai chilli sauces, nam prik num and nam prik ong – delicious...
At many restaurants in Thailand, part of the menu will be devoted to nam prik chilli sauces. These can be wildly different, ranging from mild to fiery, subtle to pungent, and made with a huge variety...
View ArticleHow to mix a quarantini, and other cocktails to drink during digital happy hour
We are living in unusual times, which will be long remembered for what we couldn’t get (masks, toilet rolls, hand sanitiser) and what we couldn’t do (work, travel, party). Among the things I have...
View ArticleChinese diners’ taste for spice is blurring regional cuisines, says Macau chef
How has growing up in Shanghai influenced your interpretation of Cantonese cuisine? “Shanghainese are open-minded and their culture has received influences from all over the world. As a kid, I tried...
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