Great chefs can make themselves comfortable in any kitchen. As well as being a workplace, the environment becomes a direct expression of their creativity. Four of Hong Kong's prominent culinary experts - two of whom are at home in the professional furnace and two of whom have made their kitchens the central feature of their lifestyle - share their culinary art
Stuffed with tradition
Patrick Heuberger, Executive chef
When Cafe Des Artistes moved up one storey in Lan Kwai Fong's California Tower, Patrick Heuberger took over from popular chef Jean-Pierre Bagnato and radically changed the restaurant's style. Where chef Bagnato's cuisine had stressed innovation and surprise, the new chef took the kitchen back to traditional dishes prepared to the highest possible standards.
Swiss-born Heuberger has worked in Australia, Holland, Singapore, Britain and France, including a stint at the famed three-Michelin-star Hotel Restaurant Troisgros in Roanne. He says a love of fresh produce is the backbone of his style, and its easy availability in Hong Kong was the appeal that led him to the Cafe Des Artistes job.
'I'm very straight French. Traditional French food, with fresh produce. I roast things on the bone and poultry is always cooked on the bone. It's a very demanding kind of cooking.
When all the fresh ducks and the fresh fish come in you have to clean everything and portion it the right way. It takes a long time. I like to stuff things. Just this week I was doing some beef oxtail so I have to de-bone it, stuff it, tie it up, and braise it.