Chef behind kung fu soup on why his Guangdong-style Cantonese dishes strike a chord
Scott Xu, the executive sous chef of the Grand Hyatt Shenzhen, recalls the first meal he cooked, aged eight, and tells us why he believes in sticking to traditional recipes
Is cooking in your genes? “My paternal grandfather was a chef at a restaurant in Guangzhou, but he passed away when I was young. My parents moved to Guangzhou for business and my grandmother looked after us kids. She and other family members told me my grandfather cooked Shun Tak dishes and customers thought they were very good.”
Did you always want to be a chef? “No, but I knew what tasted good and what didn’t. When I graduated from high school, I wanted to be a policeman, but they weren’t taking applications that year. My father was a land developer. He said maybe I should learn cooking so that I can go abroad and present Cantonese food to other countries.”
What was the first meal you cooked? “I was around eight years old. My grandma did needlework for extra money and one time the needle she was using broke and she stepped on it and needed to go to the hospital. My parents weren’t there because they were working. When I came home from school and saw that my grandma wasn’t home, there was nothing for me and my two younger sisters to eat so I made dinner. I steamed pork with miso paste seasoned with some coarse salt and pork lard, and made rice to go with it. I had watched my grandma make dinner before, so I knew what to do. She came home around 8.30pm and asked if we were hungry but I said I already made dinner.
“In the countryside, it’s normal for kids at a young age to know how to cook. People are always working in the fields, so the older children have to look after the younger ones.”