Ta Pantry Moves, a New Steak House Opens on Lamma and One Planet Kitchen Comes to Hong Kong

Watch Out For…

Chef Esther Sham of private kitchen Ta Pantry has moved her digs from Wan Chai to North Point in a collaboration project with wine retailer and storage experts Hip Cellar.  The new Ta Pantry (5/F, Block C, Sea View Estate, 2-8 Watson Rd., North Point, 2979-0108) has been put together by interior designer Steve Leung and consists of three differently themed private dining areas, each with a table that seats up to 14. On the dining side, Esther— a.k.a. chef Tata—will whip up any of five tasting menus (from American- to Japanese-themed) at around $680 per head. On the wine side, connoisseurs can sign up for private memberships at Hip Cellar (for all practical purposes, Hip Cellar and Ta Pantry ARE the same space) and book wine tastings to their hearts’ content.

New steak restaurant on Lamma! Prime Bar & Grill Restaurant (47 Main St., Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island, 2982-1688) is a relatively spacious restaurant with a lovely outdoor terrace overlooking the sea, that will seat up to 50 peeps. PBGR serves meat of all kinds, in all formats. Salads, grills, steaks, pies, burgers, all with beef, chicken, lamb, fish or ribs—but veggie options are available for those who shun meat (although what sort of vegetarian would want to frequent a steak restaurant?). I haven’t been to the island in ages, but maybe now’s the time to explore once more.

 

Talk of the Town

Who’s Who

What better way to find an executive chef for your five-star hotel’s Italian kitchen than to go straight to the kitchen of an Italian five-star hotel? The Ritz-Carlton has done exactly that at Tosca (102/F, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Rd. West, West Kowloon, 2263-2270), by plucking superstar chef Pino Lavarra from the Michelin-starred Rossellinis, at the Palazzo Sasso hotel on Southern Italy’s Amalfi Coast. And now they’ve planted him on the kitchen floor of the highest hotel in the world. Chef Lavarra’s got an impressive resume, having globetrotted from Germany to Malaysia and even across his native Italy before landing this post in Hong Kong. As Tosca’s new head, chef Lavarra will be giving classic Italian dishes a “modern” spin. (Post-millenial chefs love to use this word.) And we’re not talking angel hair instead of spaghetti here; we’re talking dishes that look like how all modern dishes look these days: exquisitely beautiful, like edible origami on a plate. While contempo cuisine itself isn’t all that new anymore, contempo Italian admittedly is (at least in Hong Kong), so I really think chef Lavarra’s onto something. He’s one to watch in the coming months.
 

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