Nothing brings people together quite like a shared love of food. Just ask singers Edmond Leung Hon-man and Ronald Cheng Chung-kei, the hosts of TVB's top-rated Beautiful Cooking, who will team up with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPO) for a live concert series next month.
Leung and Cheng have become firm friends since the show first aired on TVB Jade in 2006. The pair, along with Alex Fong Lik-sun, invite celebrity guests to prepare different dishes to test their cooking skills. The hosts taste the results and choose a winner.
'I knew Ronald before hosting the show, but we weren't close friends. After the show we got to know each other well and we can almost guess what the other is thinking,' Leung says.
'I've learned a lot from Ronald while hosting the show. He's so good at making wisecracks. He seems to be full of hilarious ideas all the time.'
The show has brought many opportunities for the pair. First, they were invited to open a concert in Malaysia and last summer they were hired to voice the Cantonese version of the Oscar-nominated Ratatouille.
Orchestral music has a reputation for being serious and slightly stuffy, but Leung hopes their sense of humour will lighten the atmosphere and stimulate more interaction with the audience.
Both Leung (above left) and Cheng (right) are music enthusiasts. Leung's first taste of show business was as the winner of the 8th annual New Talent Singing Awards in 1989. He has released more than 20 albums since then.