Opinion | How Hong Kong culinary icon Chua Lam inspired a generation to explore the world through food
From his food journalism to bawdy erotic tales, Lam was a larger-than-life figure in the culinary world, one whose legacy will long live on
As a child of the Asia-Australia diaspora, my first experience of Chua Lam was via television. My mother had rented one of his series on VHS tapes, and I remember sitting down to an episode of him visiting a vineyard in Australia.
While tasting the wine, the vineyard’s owner said: “This is a rare vintage, so we should drink it instead of spitting it into the spittoon.” Chua, however, looked straight at the camera and said to the audience, in Cantonese: “This wine isn’t that great, but we can drink it anyway.”
I was instantly captivated – not only because of Chua’s candour, but also because he said it with confidence. Through that confidence, you felt wisdom in his words.
