In North America there are entire television networks devoted to the cult of the celebrity chef.
It’s hard to imagine Mok Kit Keung and Lau Yiu Fai being asked to host one of the shows. It’s not that they don’t have the chops — Keung is executive chef at the two-Michelin star Shang Palace at the Kowloon Shangri-La and Fai is executive chef at the one-Michelin star Yan Toh Heen at the Hong Kong InterContinental.
The problem is they don’t like to talk about why their cuisine has impressed everyone from multi-billionaires to heads of state to travellers who simply want to experience a once-in-a-lifetime meal.
“They see being good at what they do as their job so they’re not ‘shiny, shiny’,” says Debbie Cheung, acting as their translator during an interview at the Four Seasons in Vancouver.
Keung and Fai are two of the master chefs who have been asked to prepare a dish for the Chinese Restaurant Awards’ Gold Medal Dinner at the downtown hotel on April 23.
Ask them what makes them excited about their cuisine, or what engages their creativity as chefs, and they both respond that their satisfaction comes from pleasing their guests. Food is the gift they offer to the universe. They devote their lives to doing it well and ask for nothing more than an empty plate and a thank you.
“Cooking is about making people happy,” says Fai.
While you can’t expect them boast that the universe has responded by queuing up at their restaurants, it’s a sense of celebration that prompted the Vancouver edition of the Chinese Restaurant Awards to invite them to the black-tie dinner.
It’s all part of the CRA’s “global vision.” Vancouver is becoming a mecca for people who love authentic Chinese cuisine, and the awards honour the local chefs who live up to those expectations.
“We want to provide a stage for local chefs but also for master Chinese chefs to exchange ideas and collaborate,” says Rae Kung, the CRA’s project and public affairs director.
“In North America,” says Cheung, who is the awards’ media relations manager, “there are conventional perceptions of what Chinese food is. We want to bring in the rock stars.”
Fai is opening the dinner with chilled Nova Scotia lobster with BC salmon caviar while Keung is expressing his delight with the flavours of Alberta beef with his pan-fried beef short ribs with a lily bulb, red date and beef sauce, accompanied by stewed ox tongue in his secret marinade.
Joining them in creating the eight-course dinner are Ming Yeung, executive chef at Richmond’s Bamboo Grove, Wu Wenbin, executive chef at ye shanghai, Tony Luk, executive chef at Richmond’s Jade Seafood Restaurant, Anthony Leung, executive host Chinese chef at the Four Seasons and executive chef at the Grand Dynasty Seafood Restaurant in Burnaby, Joseph Tse, executive chef at Above & Beyond at the Hotel ICON in Hong Kong, Andy Lau, executive chef at Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant in Richmond, and Bruno Feldeisen, the Four Seasons’ pastry chef. The Four Seasons’ executive chef, Ned Bell, is creating the canapés: Alberta beef tenderloin with black truffle, honey and Okanagan apple compote and Alberta pork belly with BC cranberry and maple jam.
“The techniques are traditional but we add new elements to make it contemporary,” says Fai. “I don’t like to complicate them — simple but elegant.”
For Keung, the wok is the source of Chinese cuisine’s harmony and energy. He was invited as the guest chef at the Shangri-la in Paris, where he discovered that many diners expected traditional dishes such as Peking Duck. But even though he is devoted to Chinese traditions — he challenged himself to recreate centuries-old dishes — he wants to introduce people to the vast scope of Chinese cuisine. He spends his days off visiting markets to find the freshest, most imaginative ingredients.
As part of the Gold Medal Dinner on April 23, the winners of the CRA’s Critics’ Choice and Dinners’ Choice awards will be announced. Details at ChineseRestaurantAwards.com.
