The subject of dumplings around this time of year hits particularly close to home for former Top Chef Canada contestant Curtis Luk and restaurant owner Ray Loy.
The two men were born in Hong Kong, but grew up on opposite sides of Canada’s foodie scene. Luk was raised in Toronto while Loy is a Strathcona native who’s been living in the neighbourhood for four decades. After working in Kitsilano’s Fable, and the Parker vegetarian restaurant, Luk has stationed himself as head chef of Bambudda, Loy’s dream restaurant at 99 Powell Street.
“My family emigrated here from Hong Kong in 1972, and I still live on the same block to this day. I remember walking the streets of Gastown and Chinatown in the ‘70s and it was a lot different back then,” says Loy. “But one thing that never changed was for Chinese New Year, every Chinese New Year daytime we would always make dumplings as a family.”
In the days leading up to Chinese New Year, countries in Asia will experience the biggest holiday migration during the year when city dwellers rush back to their hometowns for the generational family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, which will be celebrated Feb. 18 this year. Dumplings are one of the most commonly eaten dishes during the celebrations. It symbolizes wealth for the New Year because its shape resembles silver and gold boat-shaped ingots.
“[We] would always roll dumplings as a family with grandmother, mother, brother, aunts, uncles on the day of Chinese New Year and would fry, steam, boil them over the course of a couple of days, which was the inspiration behind this year’s theme.”
Chef Luk will recreate some of their shared family memories in this year’s Dumpling Festival menu at the restaurant featuring four traditional cooking techniques and a non-traditional dessert dish featuring:
- Happiness: Pan-seared oyster and chicken lettuce dumplings in ginger soy
- Longevity: Steamed Szechuan scallop and black cod dumplings
- Prosperity: Boiled pork and truffle dumplings served on egg noodles
- Peace: Fried lamb cumin curry dumplings
- Love: Chocolate kumquat mochi dessert dumplings
Luk says the pairing embodies the restaurant’s philosophy of creating a different, non-traditional menu using familiar techniques and recipes rooted in Chinese and Cantonese cooking, such as using lettuce to envelope the filling instead of the standard flour wrapping. The result is a blend of east meets west the restaurant terms “nouveau Chinese.”
Since joining Bambudda in October, Luk has been creating an entirely different menu based on both his and Loy’s experiences growing up.
“Curtis, he’s a talented chef,” says Loy. “He fits the concept more so than any of our previous chefs just because he has that knowledge of Chinese cuisine, he grew up eating it, his knowledge of that coupled with Western or European techniques is really what we wanted to do.”
The Dumpling Festival menu will be available from Feb.18 – 22.
