Four chefs, four different backgrounds, one location — Hideaki Sato, May Chow, James Cornwall and Xavier Boyer tell us how their city inspires them to create
Hideaki Sato of Ta Vie took us to the local markets
James Cornwall of Seafood Room travelled to Aberdeen Fish Market
May Chow of Little Bao took us into the belly of a traditional Chinese kitchen
We had milk tea and french toast with Xavier Boyer of Gaddi's
It has not been an easy year for Hong Kong. But amid all the political and social chaos, we find solace in the one act that brings all of us together—that of eating, the enjoyment of food. For this year's launch of Hong Kong Tatler Best Restaurants, we decided to pay tribute to the city that has given our chefs—both local and foreign—the opportunity to share their points of view by creating a a culinary challenge. We identified four chefs to tell the story of Hong Kong: Xavier Boyer, James Cornwall, May Chow and Hideaki Sato. Each have a different story and approach to cooking, but all share a common ground: Hong Kong is now their home.
We posed them several questions: what does the city mean to them, and what have they learned from their time here? Each chef then took that seed of inspiration to create a dish that pays tribute to an element of the city. In the short film below, we charted the journey each chef took to create their final edible tribute to their home. The final film was shown on November 17th at the 4th annual Hong Kong Tatler Best Restaurants awards night.
Videography by Tyrone Wu (Hong Kong Tatler)
Click the articles below to see the details of how each dish came together:
- Hideaki Sato on local Hong Kong markets
- May Chow on elevating a dim sum classic
- James Cornwall on recreating curry fishballs
- Xavier Boyer on the beauty of Hong Kong-style milk tea
Stay updated with all the updates from Best Restaurants Guide 2017 with the hashtag #HKTBRG2017 and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter .