Where Chinese cuisine is concerned, it’s no holds barred. Turns out that Shandong cuisine specialises in breads and noodles (the colder, drier north favours wheat production). There was another time in Shandong where I asked for a bowl of rice in a restaurant only to be told by the service staff that they do not serve rice. Once I witnessed people using washing detergent to scrub the skin of the pig to remove the oils before roasting. One thing I’ve learnt is that where culinary techniques are concerned, there’s no such thing as embarrassing yourself. Most embarrassing moment in the kitchen during that trip? Once you understand the ideology behind what makes certain dishes so important, the interpretation becomes more relevant and impactful. ![]() It’s wild but if you take into account the work-life balance of the Szechuan people, the humidity in summer and what they drink throughout the night-it kind of makes more sense.Īt the end of the day, it’s not about collecting recipes, it’s about understanding how people interact with their cuisine. Take having a hotpot for example, you spend the whole night eating it. But when you’re in the province, there’s something very special about it. To be honest, it’s very easy to savour Szechuan cuisine, there are restaurants here in London. Prior to that, I’ve never been to Szechuan and was eager to learn about their cuisine. After a couple more meals at their place, they gradually agreed to let me into the kitchen. In Szechuan, there were a few chefs standing outside the restaurant and I asked if I could hang out. There wasn’t anything set in stone apart from the four major stops: Szechuan, Qingdao, Beijing and lastly, Hong Kong. Was there a lot of planning involved prior to the trip?Īndrew Wong: It happened very organically. ![]() High Net Worth: Tell us more about your culinary pilgrimage to China back in 2010. Outdoing himself again, we caught up with the chef to find out about his daily schedule in and out of the kitchen, the intricacies of Chinese cuisine and must-eats in London. Wong was awarded a Michelin star in 2017 followed by its second in the 2021 Guide. Well-travelled epicureans fell in line and his eponymous restaurant A. “China’s gastronomy is one of the oldest in the world and I wanted to find a menu to celebrate that,” says Wong. While they are not 100 per cent authentic, it is very much Wong’s personal interpretation of the country’s culinary diversity, which also recognises cultural and regional differences. After his travels, Wong parlayed his findings into compelling dishes. Eventually, h is hovering curiosity about the cultural profile of Chinese food led him on a year-long gastronomic pilgrimage through the People’s Republic of China in 2010. Serendipitously, a turn of events pulled him back to his family’s restaurant in Pimlico. In his youth, he was strongly encouraged by his second-generation immigrant parents to pursue a more academic route. None of this was on the cards for Wong, though. “Between service, I will go home and tell the kids that I’m still alive, and that they still have a father,” says Wong, who contends between family life and his cause towards reinterpreting Chinese historical gastronomy. ![]() ![]() While British-born chef, anthropologist and cultural observer Andrew Wong is proud of that accomplishment, being a parent matters more. It’s another to be lionised as a Michelin-starred establishment-the first Chinese restaurant outside Asia to have that title. It’s one thing to cook Chinese food in London.
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