XO sauce: why a Finnish chef in Hong Kong has his own recipe for the luxurious condiment
- Chef of two-Michelin-star Arbor in Hong Kong, Eric Räty started out washing dishes for a year at Helsinki’s Chez Dominique. ‘You learn or you go home,’ he says
- He didn’t understand XO sauce until he came to Hong Kong. Having researched it widely, Räty says ‘The Ritz-Carlton’s Tin Lung Heen has a very nice XO sauce’
What was your childhood like in Finland? “My family lived in a small town called Mäntsälä, in the forest. We ate simple food like potatoes in soup or boiled potatoes with meat and vegetables. For every meal we ate lingonberries. As kids, when you live in the forest, the city is more exciting. But now I think back, there were so many good things in nature.
“My maternal grandparents had a small dairy farm. The best thing I miss is, once a cow gives birth, the first milk they produce is really rich. You put it in a bowl and bake it and it’s like creme caramel, super-rich, smooth. And you put some berries on top.”
How did you get interested in cooking? “I baked with my grandparents. I remember baking a simple dough with cheese inside. I baked it again and again and sometimes I failed, and I thought, ‘What is the reason?’ I thought it was normal to think like that.
“In ninth grade in Finland, we have household lessons, where you learn how to do the laundry, use the washing machine, wash dishes, cook, manage a budget and buy food. For me it was easy and interesting. One assignment was to design our own menu and I was excited and went home to find magazines and cookbooks for ideas. I made white chocolate panna cotta with fruit. My teacher suggested I go to culinary school.”
How did you get a job at Chez Dominique, in Helsinki? “They were looking for a dishwasher. Just before I joined, they had published a book and it looked amazing. The stories from the kitchen, it just sounded like something I would like. They asked me to come in for a one-day trial to wash dishes, and I got the job. The first day was scary. I had only worked in a pizza place before while Chez Dominique [now closed] was the best in Finland and on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.I washed dishes for more than a year. When you are faster, they give you other jobs, like cleaning mushrooms and small onions. When you can do those fast and they are busy, you help put things on the plate. If you do your own job fast, you can start to cook. It was exciting and every day I was more interested.”