https://www.scmp.com/rss/500190/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com “First impressions are key to enhancing a dining experience, and a good and trained service team is responsible for that.” Restaurant manager Ramon Gonzales understands this sentiment better than most. Gonzales stands at the helm of Chaat – Rosewood Hong Kong’s Indian fine dining restaurant – and is the recent recipient of 100 Top Tables’ Best Service award, which recognises the precision and preparedness that goes into ensuring smooth service and a memorable experience for guests. Our staff... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/article/3172128/best-restaurant-service-hong-kong-rosewoods-chaat-sets-standard?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/article/3172128/best-restaurant-service-hong-kong-rosewoods-chaat-sets-standard?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Mar 2022 23:15:23 +0000 Simon Rogan’s restaurants are a testament to the chef’s vision – celebrating the relationship between quality produce and fine dining. Rogan established his own produce farm in Cartmel, northwest England, to supply his first restaurant, the highly acclaimed L’Enclume, and the beginning of his sustainable dining empire. Combining a passion for sustainability with an innovative approach to British cuisine proved to be a winning formula for the chef, who opened Roganic in London in 2011 and, eight... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3172104/roganics-farm-fork-approach-how-british-fine-dining?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3172104/roganics-farm-fork-approach-how-british-fine-dining?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Mar 2022 23:00:13 +0000 French cuisine has long epitomised the ideal of fine dining, with Japanese food increasingly revered for the purity of its ingredients, technique and flavour. European, North American and Asian dishes in general are largely familiar to a global audience, and Latin American cuisines have won growing global acclaim. But African food? “It’s pretty much the last frontier. The other continents have been heavily explored at the gastronomic level for generations,” says Ghanaian chef Selassie Atadika,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3171521/will-african-cuisine-ever-reach-world-stage-more-michelin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3171521/will-african-cuisine-ever-reach-world-stage-more-michelin?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Mar 2022 07:36:42 +0000 The exponentially rising number of cases in this fifth wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong has made the end of the pandemic seem further off than ever. The strict social-distancing limits of only two guests per table and dining until 6pm until at least April 20 has made it difficult for restaurants to continue operating. Some have closed temporarily, others have found innovative ways to serve their customers, albeit in a takeaway format. Some of Hong Kong’s top hotels are offering mouth-watering... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3171215/enjoy-five-star-chinese-indian-and-singaporean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3171215/enjoy-five-star-chinese-indian-and-singaporean?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Mar 2022 03:15:10 +0000 As the fifth wave of the pandemic rages on in Hong Kong, brave restaurateurs are still wading into the waters with the belief that better times lay ahead for the city in months to come. While the government is encouraging everyone to stay safe, be smart and remain home right now, here are some exciting new ventures to make a mental note of, to come and try out when restaurant restrictions are a thing of the past. New openings 1. Mosu Undoubtedly one of the most exciting openings in town, Korean... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3168769/where-eat-hong-kong-march-mosu-m-brings-koreas-michelin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3168769/where-eat-hong-kong-march-mosu-m-brings-koreas-michelin?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Mar 2022 04:47:18 +0000 Luxury dining can be many things, but primal is usually not one of them. There is, however, a growing number of top chefs around the world embracing the raw unpredictability of nature by swapping the scientific precision of a standard professional kitchen for a wood-fired live flame. While often retaining the starched tablecloths of fine dining, and losing none of the obsessive attention to detail of their gas-fired colleagues, these chefs are responding to a yearning for days past, of time... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3168364/why-worlds-top-chefs-are-returning-wood-fired-fine-dining?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3168364/why-worlds-top-chefs-are-returning-wood-fired-fine-dining?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:11 +0000 French chef Olivier Elzer has so much to say about his new Hong Kong restaurant Clarence, at H Code in the Central business district, that he shows his first visitors every nook and cranny of the space that seats under 100 diners. On the 25th floor of the building in Pottinger Street, Clarence overlooks the Tai Kwun heritage and arts centre to the south, while if you look north you can see Kowloon in the distance. Everything about Clarence entails a lot of explanations. First, the name. The... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3168054/french-chef-hong-kong-takes-what-he-learned-joel-robuchon-open?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3168054/french-chef-hong-kong-takes-what-he-learned-joel-robuchon-open?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Feb 2022 10:15:19 +0000 The F&B industry in Hong Kong is going through a tough time at the moment, with restaurant restrictions impacting their bottom line, but that has not stopped progress. Many bars and restaurants have pivoted, creating exciting new menus to cater to the growing daytime crowd, while several concepts have expanded to new locations in anticipation of better times ahead. There are a lot of new and exciting dining and drinking options to check out once time allows – and we hope everyone stays safe in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3165397/where-eat-hong-kong-february-trippa-milanos-testina-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3165397/where-eat-hong-kong-february-trippa-milanos-testina-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Feb 2022 06:00:28 +0000 In the spring of 1998, Australian restaurateur Michelle Garnaut signed a lease for premises on the seventh floor of the 1920s Nissin Shipping Building on the Bund in Shanghai. She already had an award-winning restaurant in Hong Kong called M at the Fringe, which she’d opened in 1989, that managed to be committed to fine dining yet also fabulously blithe. Doubts were expressed that she could pull off the same feat on the Bund where (so locals warned) no one went except Chinese tourists from the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3162173/shanghai-restaurant-m-bund-closes-whats-next-woman-behind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3162173/shanghai-restaurant-m-bund-closes-whats-next-woman-behind?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Jan 2022 23:15:23 +0000 The shift to plant-based dining has been gathering strength over the last decade, but it took a pandemic for the world of fine dining to finally cross the Rubicon. With restaurants closed, chefs had time to take stock, and the enormity of the Covid-19 crisis pushed them to visualise a different future. The year 2021 will surely be remembered as a watershed. In June, one of the world’s most respected luxury dining establishments, Eleven Madison Park, turned almost entirely plant-based. Chef-owner... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3161667/why-fine-dining-restaurants-are-ditching-meat-plant-based?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3161667/why-fine-dining-restaurants-are-ditching-meat-plant-based?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jan 2022 01:00:20 +0000 Many fine-dining restaurants in Hong Kong have done very well in 2021, and a number of new ones have opened, making the city the envy of chefs in other culinary capitals such as Paris, London, Copenhagen and New York, where numerous lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus have forced them to close temporarily or put them out of business. However, it was a different story in Hong Kong when the coronavirus pandemic began in January 2020; back then it caused havoc for restaurants. The... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3160989/why-fine-dining-thriving-hong-kong-two-years-pandemic-chefs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3160989/why-fine-dining-thriving-hong-kong-two-years-pandemic-chefs?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Dec 2021 00:15:14 +0000 Cake-lovers now have one more name to add to their list of must-try shops with the launch of Royal Delights, a new premium pastry brand run by Royal Hotels Hong Kong that has just opened its first bricks-and-mortar shop on the first floor of Mikiki Mall in San Po Kong. First-time customers should not miss the signature Alice in the Wonderland-themed pastry series. Taking inspiration from the renowned children’s novel, the series represents the brand’s effort in brightening up the busy life of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/good-eating/article/3159457/good-eating-edit-royal-delights-new-pastry-brand-royal-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/good-eating/article/3159457/good-eating-edit-royal-delights-new-pastry-brand-royal-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Dec 2021 03:30:20 +0000 “Ha trovato! Brava!” (She found one! Well done!) rings out in the distance through the oak trees as we run towards the voice through sun-dappled leaves, damp soil underfoot in the early autumn morning. It’s only 10 minutes into our hunt for truffles in a forest deep in the hills of Chianti, in Italy’s Tuscany region, but the pair of adorable lagotto romagnolo dogs leading the way have already found their third black truffle of the day. A brother and sister, Iside and Rigel belong to Francesco... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3154943/how-black-and-white-truffle-hunting-tours-italy-give-real?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3154943/how-black-and-white-truffle-hunting-tours-italy-give-real?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Nov 2021 04:45:15 +0000 While travelling has become more of a possibility these days, the pandemic-era rules and restrictions involved are still preventing many of us from going on holiday. But chef Olivier Elzer, the culinary director of two-Michelin-starred French restaurant L’Envol at The St. Regis Hong Kong, has just the solution. “Each dish has a different flavour, different aroma – I use spices from the Middle East, some produce from Japan, with French cooking techniques,” he says. “These days, it’s not so easy... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3152176/lenvol?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3152176/lenvol?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:00:13 +0000 Michelin-starred restaurants are a high-pressure environment. Staff work the craziest hours to bring diners multi-course tasting menus with fresh-caught seafood and wines sourced from volcanic vineyards. Even the crisp linen tablecloths are measured with a ruler to make sure each guest’s dining experience is impeccable. But although the staff would never say it, not every customer is as dreamy as the feather-light soufflé they’re served for dessert. So how can you make sure you’re not memorable... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3150006/6-things-you-should-never-do-fine-dining-restaurant?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3150006/6-things-you-should-never-do-fine-dining-restaurant?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Sep 2021 20:00:10 +0000 As a child, Sicilian chef Angelo Aglianó used to look out at the Mediterranean Sea every morning as his fisherman father set off to work. Today, as the director of one-Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Tosca di Angelo at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, he can still be found gazing out over the water from the 102nd floor at the hotel where the restaurant sits. “The ocean is everything to me,” Aglianó says. “It gives me a sense of freedom; it is my source of inspiration.” When Aglianó turned eight... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3149405/tosca-di-angelo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3149405/tosca-di-angelo?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Sep 2021 00:30:14 +0000 Having 40 years of cooking experience means that executive chef Jackie Ho Hong-sing of Cantonese restaurant Lai Heen at The Ritz-Carlton, Macau, started working on his craft when he was only 12 years old. His first job at that age was as a kitchen apprentice at a Chinese restaurant. Some industry veterans with that much experience might tend to get stuck in their ways, but that’s certainly not the case for Ho. The chef still maintains a playful element to his mastery, always daring to shake up... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3147820/lai-heen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3147820/lai-heen?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:30:16 +0000 Chef Hung Chi-kwong says many of Cantonese cuisine’s traditional flavours are slowly waning. Hung has observed this personally over his 32-year culinary career, which he started by working as a kitchen assistant at a Cantonese restaurant in Causeway Bay at age 15. “Produce and ingredients have changed over time, so of course some of those flavors are now lost,” says Hung, who today helms one-Michelin-starred Rùn at The St. Regis Hong Kong. “They are difficult to replicate.” But Hung is... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3146313/run?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/food-drink/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3146313/run?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:30:22 +0000 It used to be that food lovers who avoided alcohol for whatever reason only had the choice of drinking plain water or pairing dishes with sugary mocktails. But forward-thinking restaurants, such as Popinjays at the Murray Hong Kong and Cultivate, in Central, Hong Kong are pairing their dishes with non-alcoholic drinks, selected with the same care that they would put into choosing a wine pairing. One restaurant that opened recently is Glassbelly, which presents Chinese teas paired with food, not... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3144820/tasting-notes-flavour-profiles-pairing-non-alcoholic-drinks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3144820/tasting-notes-flavour-profiles-pairing-non-alcoholic-drinks?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Aug 2021 23:15:12 +0000 Growing up, executive Chinese chef Jayson Tang of Man Ho Chinese Restaurant at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong used to lend a hand at his parents’ dai pai dong, or street food stall, selling milk tea, sandwiches and other traditional Hong Kong breakfast delights. Tang vividly remembers how his father took great care to look sharp, dressing in a long-sleeved shirt and trousers even on hot days, and how extremely particular he was with the produce delivered to the stall daily. “If the materials... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3144636/man-ho?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3144636/man-ho?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Aug 2021 00:30:12 +0000 Many years ago, well before Paul Lau became known as the famously strict chef helming Michelin-starred restaurant Tin Lung Heen at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, he was a kitchen apprentice keenly watching culinary masters at work. “No one taught me how to cook. I learned it from my own observations,” says Lau, who moved to Hong Kong from Guangzhou with his family at age 14. “At night, after all the chefs left the kitchen, I would practise cooking secretly. I would turn on the stove and fry the... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3142968/tin-lung-heen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/fuelling-culinary-fire/article/3142968/tin-lung-heen?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jul 2021 06:09:46 +0000 What was your childhood like? “I was born in Cambodia, the third of five children. My maternal grandmother had a small eatery and she would cook family-style dishes like Hakka deep-fried beef for us. I was very attached to her, and she doted on me because she made good food and I was always hungry.” When did you start cooking? “By the time I was 11 years old I knew how to fry rice. After school I came home hungry and found leftover rice, added an egg and some vegetables, and stir-fried them... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3138118/singapore-chilli-crab-chef-young-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3138118/singapore-chilli-crab-chef-young-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jun 2021 04:15:00 +0000 At Meta, a one-Michelin-starred modern Korean-inflected eatery in Singapore, our main course arrives – strip loin resting on a bed of rice cooked with burdock, seasoned with cold-pressed sesame oil and topped with wisps of a never-before-seen seaweed. “We use many Korean ingredients in this dish – the rice, burdock, cold-pressed sesame oil and gamtae, a seaweed found in the southern and western coasts of South Korea,” explains chef-owner Sun Kim. Would you eat durian? 4 smelly Asian foods that... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/well-being/article/3136097/are-k-pop-and-k-dramas-spurring-popularity-native?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/well-being/article/3136097/are-k-pop-and-k-dramas-spurring-popularity-native?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jun 2021 01:00:19 +0000 You left Hong Kong when you were nine years old. Do you have any food memories? “My dad had a cha chaan teng and he’d make French toast for me. Another is cheung fun from the street stalls. I remember the snap snap snap of the scissors cutting the tender rice rolls. I ate a lot of seafood – the hot oil poured on top of steamed fish with soy sauce and thinly sliced scallions, and Cantonese-style garlic chilli prawns. Just eating the garlic fried with rice is so delicious.” How did you come to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3133728/chef-deaille-tam-being-voted-asias-best-female?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3133728/chef-deaille-tam-being-voted-asias-best-female?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 May 2021 04:15:19 +0000 The coronavirus pandemic has hit the Hong Kong restaurant industry hard, with restrictions on in-person dining in force for much of 2020. In February this year, Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades estimated 3,000 food and drink establishments were on the brink of closing down. Among the latest to announce they will close are burger joint Beef & Liberty in Lan Kwai Fong and favourite greasy spoon diner The Flying Pan in Wan Chai. Both will... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3128899/pandemic-gave-me-push-hungry-pal-opens-central-baby-three?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3128899/pandemic-gave-me-push-hungry-pal-opens-central-baby-three?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Apr 2021 07:15:17 +0000 How do you envision improving Chinese cuisine? “Chinese cuisine doesn’t have a proper training system. We in the industry should have ideas of how to prepare young people. In Chinese kitchens it’s a master chef and apprentice relationship, so it’s limited in training many people. We aren’t creative either: a Chinese chef is like a musician who can play music, but can’t compose. “People know dishes like Peking duck and sweet and sour pork, but we should have others, too. [The late French chef]... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3127891/chinese-chefs-are-musicians-who-cant-compose?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3127891/chinese-chefs-are-musicians-who-cant-compose?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Apr 2021 06:45:06 +0000 Analiese Gregory is a chef who knows where her ingredients come from. Living on the wild and biodiverse Australian island of Tasmania, Gregory might be diving for abalone one day and hunting deer the next. “To be able to just go into the ocean and get a sea urchin out and eat it, it’s like, why would we even try to do anything else here? It’s just what makes sense,” she says. Gregory shares a view of rugged life at the bottom of the world with How Wild Things Are, a cookbook loaded with striking... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3125751/fishing-foraging-and-fine-dining-kiwi-chef-analiese-gregory?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3125751/fishing-foraging-and-fine-dining-kiwi-chef-analiese-gregory?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Mar 2021 18:30:17 +0000 In October 2020, 31-year-old Singaporean Kenneth Foong became head chef at Noma, Copenhagen, a restaurant that has been ranked number one on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list four times between 2010 and 2014.  “Landing an internship at Noma was not difficult,” says Foong, who was otherwise considering pursuing a major in jazz performance at the Berklee College of Music. “I was going into it with a fairly loaded resume.”  Which classic Hong Kong hotel just added three new bars? Before leaving... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3125499/singapore-next-big-dining-destination-new-crop-chefs-are?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3125499/singapore-next-big-dining-destination-new-crop-chefs-are?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Mar 2021 09:05:17 +0000 As families prepare to celebrate Lunar New Year, fish maw – the dried swim bladders of large fish such as sturgeon – will be on the menu for many.  Netflix show Bling Empire may have brought the delicacy to the world’s attention when Kevin Kreider and Kane Lim gaped over the expensive displays in an LA apothecary with Jessey Lee, but fish maw has been prized in China for centuries. It has a mild flavour and unique, gently chewy texture. This luxurious ingredient is also touted for being rich in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3121301/bling-empire-made-fish-maw-famous-again-traditional?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3121301/bling-empire-made-fish-maw-famous-again-traditional?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Feb 2021 10:00:11 +0000 Valentine’s Day falls squarely on the Lunar New Year holiday in Hong Kong this year – and on a Sunday, no less. Although social distancing restrictions are likely to continue, meaning that a romantic candlelit dinner will be off the cards, a romantic brunch for two still sounds pretty good, too. And for those who would rather dine at home, there are plenty of extra special delivery options as well.  Two-Michelin-starred Amber is offering a four- or eight-course lunch while Porterhouse in Lan... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3121089/8-valentines-day-brunches-and-takeaways-hong-kong-two?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3121089/8-valentines-day-brunches-and-takeaways-hong-kong-two?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Feb 2021 04:20:32 +0000