Jockey Club master chefs in the winner's circle with cookbook

It's a little known fact that just as many Jockey Club members go to the Happy Valley clubhouse for the food as the races. Last Thursday, the club finally gave its eateries some of their due by releasing a cookbook featuring more than 60 Chinese and continental recipes from the club's two signature venues, the western Derby Restaurant & Bar and the Cantonese culinary outlet The Fortune Room.

The stars of the tome, called Food Art, are its chefs. The recipes all come from either Derby's chef de cuisine, Donovan Cooke (pictured left), or former Jockey Club executive Chinese chef Bobby Lo (right, shown with head of hospitality services Kurt Schwartz), who has since moved to Beijing's Hong Kong Jockey Club clubhouse.

'These two world-class master chefs have helped us realise our desire to publish a cookbook to showcase the club's fine culinary art and total dining experience,' said Schwartz. Actually, Jockey Club members will know the book has been ready since last year when it was available only to members. Now they are finally releasing it to bookstores like Page One so everyone else can check out the tasty dishes and gorgeous pictures by Jorg Sundermann.

In fact, Food Art is already a winner. The book won the best innovative cookbook - best cookbook photography prize at the 2007 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Singapore.