This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s Guide to Hong Kong
Ask Michelle Garnaut, the Australian chef and restorer, as the dining scene has evolved in Hong Kong – in 1989. You can expect a very smart, very expressive, very expressive snoring. “At that time, cooking was not even seen as a proper job,” she says. “Almost no woman was involved. I had a young talented chef – a local – who left to become a manager at KFC because her parents thought every managerial role was more respectful than being a chef. “
It took more than 20 years for such attitudes to change, Garnaut estimates. At that time a generative shift occurred, given the impulse from the rise of social media. Successful chefs – mostly men but a growing number of women – became increasingly visible. Then, in 2013, Vicky Lau was given her first Michelin star in Tate Dining Room. A second star followed in 2021. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of Lau example for female chefs aspiring not only in Hong Kong but throughout Asia. Take your eye on the Hong Kong restaurant scene today and many of her most exciting and talented chefs are women. Tap three of the best.
Can chow
“Sexy. Fun. Deeply Chinese but also international. With a sense of humor. ” May Chow is describing, among bites of a pork belly intertwined Bao, Vibe of Little Bao, its instant -based Bao -based restaurant, which opened in 2013 and has gone to gangbusters, in some repetitions and Location, since then.
There are two ways to make it like a chef in Hong Kong, Chow says, “You can be the best in class or first in the market.” It was a bit of both, combining skills and innovation by raising and elaborating humble bao – a steam bun served with a fish or fish filling – in a first way before. She nude Bao in the territory of Burger, Burger in the territory of Bao, showing everyone’s joys in the extraordinary achievement of Sino-American diplomacy. Bao himself remained known – pillow and still giving structured and fiery, Bao of every hongkonger’s childhood. Fillings. . . Well, sometimes, as with the pork belly intertwined, they were also known; Sometimes not so much, as with the chestnut ice cream Tiramisu.
Chow of Canadian origin is open to its support for diversity and LBGTQ+rights. “The great thing to be a cook who is also an entrepreneur is that you can create your own culture,” she says. “Women thrive in the right culture. And there is more than one way to be successful. Of course, you can be competitive, strong, crucial. But you don’t have to be terrible. “This philosophy – Tao of Little Bao, as it was – re -resonates very beyond the restaurant scene. “The important thing is to admit that we all have a choice,” she continues. “We can choose better. I hope through my example that I can help to pass that message. “ Little Bao, 1–3 Shin Hing Street, Central; Little Bao Diner, 9 Kingston Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Website; Direction
Archaran Chan
For Anglophone’s ears, the name Ho Lee Fook sounds like a colloqual call of amazement. Translated approximately, it means “good luck for your mouth”. When it comes to the restaurant of this name, both genuine and figurative associations are visible. Everything about this beloved institution Elgin Street, who celebrates his 10th birthday this year (a mature old age for a Hong Kong restaurant), is unclear and enjoying, from cheerful decor ( Famous Cat Wall of Luck Golden) and Soundtrack Singalong (Nostalgic Graph hits) on the executed sublime menu (“Serious Cantonese food in a living environment”, as executive chef Archaran Chan).
Although she easily puts on her seriousness, don’t go wrong – here is a chef with extraordinary abilities and ambitions, committed to honoring the dishes she grew up still enough to connect with them in ways that Dihardi’s purists also They are forced, however, willingly, to accept alone. . Works consider it to take over the fried King, one of those classics of Hong Kong of all time with which freedoms have not been taken, as a rule. Chan openly replaces the traditional squid with abalone and conventional cashews cashews in favor of peanut cabbage. One presents a strange new layer of lush, rich textured, the other an element of the moment’s surprise, for raising the eyebrows rapidly followed by a “Why no one thought it before?” the feeling of inevitability. The result is nothing less than a peaceful revolution between the two chopsticks. Ho Lee Fook really.
Chan’s arrival at Ho Lee Fook in 2021 was a return home after more than a decade in Australia and Singapore. The cosmopoliticism of her experience is reflected in the composition of her Brigade at Ho Lee Fook. English is Lingua France. The design of the restaurant is such that they and their blazing woks are the first things you see when you arrive – the wobble cats come next – and good collective vibrations are as thick in the air as the smoke of Wok. This impression of friendship certainly begins at the top. Chan talks about its four principles of respect, care, justice and honesty: “Next to a strong job. A little empathy makes everything much easier. “A touch of genius does not hurt either. Ho Lee Fook, 3-5 Elgin Street, Central. Website; Direction
Theign phan
“We like to categorize things. This is human nature. But many of us are too fast to categorize Sichuan cuisine. There is more than Spiciness, ”says Theign Phan, Executive Chef at Grand Majestic Sichuan, a great, jewel, Gucci wall in one of China’s most beloved cuisines.
Although proud to be among the growing number of female chefs working at the highest level in Hong Kong, it is just as careful about gender -based generalizations for the profession, as it is lazy stereotypes of Sichuan cuisine. “When I grew up, I learned to believe that you can do whatever you want, as long as you do well,” she says. “It depends on us to change the narrative.”
While a Malaysia raised in Singapore, Phan sees himself, as the head of a Sichuan cuisine at a Hong Kong restaurant, not as much as a stranger, but as a translator. Something something from the explorer to her – an explorer excited by the things she has been discovered and eager to distribute her findings with others. “Because there is a lot to share,” she says. “Do you know that there is no less than 24 distinct flavors in Sichuan kitchen?” Bang sauce bang chicken, for example, that endlessly more sichuan of shredded chicken and clumsy cucumber, belongs, for miracles, in the “strange aroma” category, which includes spicy smells, numbs, sweet , sweet, steep and sesame.
Phan admits that he has a ability to order well at a Sichuan restaurant, but insists that it is not difficult to get. It is all about managing the fragrance and structure contrasts. Therefore, you can start with a cold snack such as soft cucumber (Garlicky, Viskus, Crunchy, Water Diluted), followed by If Pao Pawns with nuts cheese (an impossible but undoubtedly harmonious marriage of lychee aroma with allusions of sichuan pepper pepper and chillies), and then by MAP Tofu with beef (slippery texture and tofu jelly offset by burnt paste by zingy-but-ground). The steamed rice is, of course, a constant throughout – the essential thread in the tapestry. And for the pudding, perhaps the silver mushrooms with the chrysanthemum resin and the rocky sugar soup (sweet, floral, pale herbaceous and in any respect as intriguing as its name can lead you to wait).
Complex? Certainly difficult? Not at all. Phan and the entire great team of the magnificent are on a willingness to advise. She sees it as their shared responsibility to make a taste for sichuan cuisine easy and pleasant – as well as potentially illuminating. “Without pressure, all the pleasure.” Grand Maestic Sichuan, Alexandra house, shop 301, third floor, 18 Chater Road, Central. Website; Direction
Have you dinner at a restaurant in Hong Kong poisoned by a female chef? Tell us about this in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @Ftglobetrotter
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