Taste of Hong Kong festival takes top chefs out of comfort zone, but they’re up for the challenge
It’s one thing to make gourmet food in a restaurant kitchen, but cooking for thousands on Central Harbourfront without gas-fired stoves and grills will test chefs’ ingenuity. They’re determined to succeed, and have some fun too
The hungry hordes descending on this month’s Taste of Hong Kong will be a challenge for leading chefs far from their comfort zone and their well-equipped kitchens.
Visitors to the event last year quickly chewed through many of the dishes on offer, and this year organisers are expecting even longer lines for the signature plates from more than 20 restaurants setting up on the Central Harbourfront.
It’s a true tests for chefs and their teams – to get all the ingredients and equipment to an empty site and work without their familiar gas stoves, ovens and grills to prepare restaurant-quality dishes.
“I’ve been told by other people who did it last year that it was so busy,” he says. “They told me 17,000 people were there over the weekend, but I’m sceptical it was that many. It’s all kind of a guessing game.”
His small restaurant in Sai Ying Pun is not used to serving hundreds, let alone thousands, of people each day, but Levy has had experience catering for music festivals in Beijing.
“We’ll have a huge walk-in cooler, which is a huge help, but not having gas is an issue,” Levy says. “We have to choose items from the menu that we can serve to a large number of people with the equipment we have.”
“When you’re organised and have done the prep, it can be a lot of fun,” he says. “We thought about doing sushi, but we’re limited with what we can do. If you have 200 people lining up for sushi it can be daunting.”
At one music festival in Beijing, he served some 10,000 dishes but it was deli food such as bagels and sausages. He’s trying to keep things uncomplicated.
“I’ve had experiences where things break down, so it’s best not to have to reheat food on special equipment,” he says.
Levy is a little anxious because he can’t start prepping for the event until the week before, but he says working at this event is more about having fun.
For him, the best thing is having people from the industry together in one spot. His staff can meet stars including Richard Ekkebus of Amber, Matt Abergel of Yardbird and Ronin, and Tosca’s Pino Lavarra. Taste of Hong Kong’s unusual environment encourages chefs to interact with their customers for immediate feedback, Osborn says.
The rainy, cold weather at last year’s inaugural event was the most challenging aspect, he says – he even had to run into the IFC mall to buy a jacket.
“The most important thing is to keep it simple and achievable. You’re going to have 3,500 to 4,000 people coming in; they don’t mind queuing as long as the line is moving. They want to visit as many stalls as they can,” Osborn says.
Last year, Pino Lavarra of two-Michelin-star Tosca at The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong served one of the restaurant’s signature dishes: spaghetti alla chitarra of basil-flavoured pasta wrapped in a thin slice of swordfish and served with baby squid. They aimed to serve 50 portions each day, but ran out almost immediately.
“We’ll be bringing 20 to 30 portions extra of each, so hopefully we won’t run out so quickly,” Lavarra says. “For me, Taste of Hong Kong is fun. I’m already thinking about what to serve next year.”
Taste of Hong Kong, March 16-19, Central Harbourfront, HK$138 (Thurs, Fri), HK$168 (Sat, Sun); VIP passes HK$598 (Thurs, Fri), HK$648 (Sat, Sun). For more details, go to tasteofhongkong.com
