Why there is more to Israeli cuisine than falafal, hummus and shakshuka
Anyone who has not had the chance to visit Israel might be forgiven for thinking its food would be limited and bland. Before my first trip, I thought I would be eating endless combinations of hummus,...
View ArticleHong Kong chef Menex Cheung almost gave it all up to become an insurance...
How did you get interested in cooking? “Watching someone cook on TV was like seeing a lab experiment, mixing things together. I thought it was really cool, especially because it involved fire. My...
View ArticleMoonkok, a bar from Hong Kong craft brewery Moonzen, draws inspiration from a...
The brief“Our inspiration was taken from a charming traditional teahouse crossed with a Chinese temple exterior. We wanted to transport Moonkok visitors to another time and place, and pay homage to...
View ArticleHow to make Vietnamese-style stuffed squid with minced pork
Making stuffed squid is a little fussy, but the work isn’t difficult. For this Vietnamese dish, the squid bodies are cleaned, stuffed with a flavourful mixture of minced pork and mung bean noodles with...
View ArticleChef Smita Grosse on why she had to adjust a recipe 20 times to cater to a...
How did you get interested in cooking? “I was born and raised in Mauritius. My mum and dad separated when I was young and dad cooked for me and my older brother. My father was very creative. He made...
View ArticleAfrican cooking classes in Hong Kong – think fufu, fried plantain and a lot...
Cooking to music is nothing unusual, but mixing ingredients while footage of a funeral is projected onto a big screen might sound macabre. Not at the Africa Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui. On screen, women...
View ArticleBar snack recipes: chicken wings with peanut butter and Thai green curry and...
Bar snacks have a bad reputation. The small dishes served in pubs and bars to accompany drinks are usually far too greasy and salty because they are designed to make you thirsty, encouraging you to buy...
View ArticleThe Chinese Gourmet: urbanisation has caused Chinese cuisine to evolve, not...
Oversized cookbook The Chinese Gourmet (1994) might look like a coffee-table book but that would do a disservice to its excellent content. The pictures of the food are appetising – a surprise, as many...
View ArticleXO sauce: why a Finnish chef in Hong Kong has his own recipe for the...
What was your childhood like in Finland? “My family lived in a small town called Mäntsälä, in the forest. We ate simple food like potatoes in soup or boiled potatoes with meat and vegetables. For every...
View ArticleA three-layer chocolate cake recipe for people you love – or need to impress
My desserts tend to be tarts and simple cakes that are quick to make and need little decoration. Sometimes, though, an impressive, labour-intensive creation is needed.Chocolate layer cake with salted...
View ArticleChanging America’s idea of Chinese food: ‘it’s not all lo mein and General...
When did your food journey begin? “I cooked a lot at home when I was a kid. When I was 16, I opened a pop-up restaurant in an abandoned newspaper factory in Chai Wan. A friend of a friend had a space...
View ArticleSláinte! The finest whiskies from the Scottish Highlands
Whisky has been part of Scottish culture for centuries. According to online retailer The Whisky Exchange, the Highland region, Scotland’s largest, produces 23 per cent of the country’s whiskies...
View ArticleCountry kitchen cookbook for the self-sufficient will see you through...
Although Notes from a Country Kitchen was published in 1979, it takes us back to an era when people were self-sufficient as a matter of course. They didn’t bake their own bread or preserve fruits and...
View ArticlePomelo and shrimp salad recipe – let the fruit be the star of the dish
A pomelo looks like a large, slightly misshapen grapefruit, only it’s much more delicious, at least if you get a good one. The pomelo, which is one of the parent fruits of the crossbred grapefruit (the...
View ArticleWhy chef Marco Pierre White’s cookbook, White Heat 25, makes poignant reading
Ask any foodie with a long memory what they know of chef Marco Pierre White and chances are they will remember stories of his fierce temper (he once made a 20-year-old Gordon Ramsay cry), his marriages...
View ArticlePastry chef Holger Deh on baking a cake for the king of Malaysia
Did you like baking as a child? “I grew up in Balingen, a village 70km south of Stuttgart, Germany. There was a bakery opposite our house, and every morning I could smell the bread. My grandmother...
View ArticleThree of the best wines from California’s Donum estate
A decade ago, China-based entrepreneur Allan Warburg was offered an opportunity to acquire a Californian winery in financial difficulties. By 2011, he and his wife, Mei, were the owners of Donum wine...
View ArticleThere is more to American whiskey than bourbon – historic rye is growing in...
Whisky is the barrel-aged distilled spirit made of grains produced in Scotland; in Ireland and the United States, they add an “e” to produce “whiskey”.Spirits connoisseurs may be familiar with American...
View ArticleHow to make Vietnamese rice noodles with lemongrass chicken, a true taste of...
I thought I was familiar with Vietnamese food before taking my first trip to the country many years ago. I had enjoyed numerous meals with my Vietnamese friends, both at Vietnamese restaurants in...
View ArticleMasterChef UK finalist, Macau-born Sandy Tang, on pork buns and the terror of...
Looking back on MasterChef UK, what was the most difficult challenge for you? “It was definitely the three-ingredients challenge – the ‘mystery box’ when you don’t know what you’ll cook. When I opened...
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