“A lot of the ingredients on the menu there were foraged from the local area,” says Downs. “It was normal for Barry and me to be out in the swamp, in the middle of the day, covered in mud and looking for something like wild reed mace.”

“Remember the time the Land Rover got stuck?” Quek says. “We were out looking for wild vegetables, and the road was really muddy from the rain the day before, and our wheel got stuck in a ditch.”

“Oh yeah!” says Downs. “We had to walk for hours to the next town to get help. There were more cows than people there.”

Both have come a long way since then. In 2022, Quek was awarded a Michelin star for his contemporary Singaporean restaurant in Central, as was Downs for his modern European venture in Taipei.

Their time searching for wild vegetables must have given both an appreciation for ingredients: Quek is famous for using pangium fruit in his bread, and Downs brought over shansu (nest fern), a leafy vegetable common in Taiwan.

Guillaume Galliot, of three-Michelin-star restaurant Caprice, invited Christophe Hay of two-Michelin-star Fleur de Loire to work with him on a menu for four-hands meals on March 3 and 4.

Hay’s restaurant is in the Loire valley in central France, which is also where Galliot comes from; before their Hong Kong collaboration, Galliot also did a stint at Fleur de Loire.

“His restaurant is 40 minutes away from my house,” Galliot says. “We’ve met each other at events throughout the years, but last year we were connected by a common friend and we just clicked. We’re both sauciers. We found we like the same chefs and ingredients.”

Hay may have only been in Hong Kong for less than a week, but Galliot kept him busy showing him around the city.

“I ate a lot of food with this crazy guy,” says Hay. “We went to The Chairman, bought ingredients at Wan Chai’s wet market, then went to visit chef Vicky Cheng at Wing.”

“I even bought him some artisanal noodles to try when he gets home,” says Galliot.

Apart from chef collaborations, Hong Kong has seen a number of restaurant pop-ups – a little different, as the incoming restaurant more or less takes over a space and menu for a limited time. The UK’s famously fun concept Burger & Lobster, for example, has taken over Ozone at The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong until April 2.

The brand has already been operating for years in Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and most recently opened an outlet in Doha, Qatar, right before the 2022 World Cup.

The partnership was on the cards before the pandemic, and when travel and social restrictions finally ended, it was time to pick up the conversation again.

“Hong Kong is definitely in the plan,” says Raja Karunanethi, the head chef of Burger & Lobster in Singapore. “Let’s see how the pop-up goes – so far it’s been very well received.”

A native of Singapore, Karunanethi is fluent in Mandarin, which came in very handy when he worked with Jerry Tsui, Ozone’s sous chef, on creating typhoon shelter lobster, a dish only available in Hong Kong for the duration of the pop-up.

“Chef Raja is a very nice guy and always willing to help. He’s a great chef to work with,” says Tsui.

Sometimes, the collaborations are brief but the experience ongoing. On March 6, Peter Chua, the co-founder and bartender of funky new Singaporean bar Night Hawk, took over the bar at Quinary for one night, although his special cocktail menu will be available until March 31.

At the Sheraton Tung Chung, Martín Carrasco of Sunset Grill will also be collaborating with visiting chef Min Jung-sik of The Margaux Grill in JW Marriott Hotel Seoul for a one-night-only dinner on March 26; their limited à la carte menu will be available until April 20.