Off the Rails: How André Chiang and Simon Rogan mastered the art of cooking on the Eastern & Oriental Express

This time, the guest is British chef Simon Rogan, the culinary force behind L’Enclume in the UK and a global stable of outposts stretching from Hong Kong’s Roganic to Malta’s Ion Harbour. The collaboration brings together two masters of distinct approaches: Chiang, an architect of modern Asian cuisine, and Rogan, a pioneer of the farm-to-table and sustainable gastronomy movements.

The timing of the collaboration is particularly significant: with Rogan set to headline Belmond’s newest vessel, the Britannic Explorer in the UK, his time on the Eastern & Oriental serves as a cross-continental overture, allowing him to sharpen his rail-bound culinary language before taking to the British tracks.

Cooking on a train is, quite frankly, an exercise in controlled madness. The kitchen is roughly the size of a walk-in wardrobe, and it doesn’t stay still—it juts, bolts and sways with the topography. On his first time cooking aboard a sleeper train, Rogan quickly learnt that a sauce that works in a still kitchen turns treacherous on the rails. “There is always a new language to learn,” he observes, noting that he had to adjust his technique for the Malaysian tracks. “André told me to make the sauces thicker. A thin sauce slides right off the plate. Thicker sauces hold. It’s advice I’ve well and truly taken to heart for the rest of the trip.”

For Chiang, the challenge of the rails is less about the confined space and more about the synchronisation of the journey. He views the three-day trip as a narrative where the food must match the tempo of the landscape. “We think about what the guests will see when they wake up in the morning and what should then be presented on the plate. We create the menu according to the destination.”

Replenished at stations along the route, the larder turns the menu into a map of Malaysia, including coastal seafood from the north and tropical fruit from the heartland. The dining room never drifts from the geography passing by. This is where Rogan’s expertise as a naturalist makes him an ideal guest chef, as he reacts to a new environment in real-time. “The magic is that you see these ingredients out the window, and an hour later, they are in the pan,” he says.

Highlights include Chiang’s mapo tofu at dinner, which is reimagined as a crispy roll appetiser that shatters with a satisfying crunch and reveals a rich, savoury filling. Then there is a restorative black bone chicken broth spiked with Sichuan green pepper and pickled green chilli, poured over delicate capellini—clean, bright and assured—while Chinese braised pork belly titled Just Like at Home offers comfort, with succulent meat bathed in a star anise and light soy stew, served alongside a goose-oil-baked pilaf.

Meanwhile, Rogan makes good use of his proximity to the land and sea, serving Sabah lobster with fermented cermai (a type of gooseberry), black radish and a burnt guava purée. “I’m in love with it,” he admits. “It’s far more sophisticated than the apple purée we use back home.” Then there is the Butterworth duck, served with red beets, purple cabbage and a kick of Sarawak pepper. 

When they aren’t feeding us into a state of bliss, the Eastern & Oriental Express offers a different kind of nourishment. This Essence of Malaysia itinerary is a three-night crawl through the wonders of the country’s western states. In Perlis, I find myself attempting the delicate art of batik, an ancient wax-resist dyeing technique, and making roti jala, a web-like crepe known as “net bread”, and kaya, that sweet coconut jam infused with pandan leaves. On another day, we visit the cultural townscape of George Town in Penang, where we’re pedalled leisurely through historic streets on trishaws on a kaleidoscopic tour of street art and colonial architecture.

Back on board, the train is a world unto itself. There is the Dior Spa, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, which occupies its own dedicated carriage, wrapped in the house’s signature Toile de Jouy print. Stepping inside feels like a soft-focus shift; the frantic greens of the passing wilderness are suddenly filtered through neutral tones and the scent of rose de Granville. There is a hypnotic quality to a treatment here; as the therapist works, the gentle, predictable sway of the train becomes part of the pressure, a natural cadence that makes the rest of the world feel remarkably distant.

But the true soul of the train is found at the Piano Bar. Here, live jazz is complemented by the flow of cocktails and chatter, radiating a rare, unforced warmth. By the time the night reaches its peak, the formal barriers of luxury dissolve into a communal sing-along. It is the kind of environment where everyone joins in—I even found myself taking the mic for a moment, while a fellow passenger produced her violin to weave her own melody into the performance—and for a few hours, the distinction between staff and stranger vanishes.

It is this collective mood of surrender that lingers most. On a train, you are forced to let go of the itinerary and lean into beautiful disorientation. Chiang views this displacement as the ultimate luxury: a world where the plate doesn’t just reflect the view, but actively challenges it. “The magic is that you’re constantly asking yourself, ‘Where am I?’” he says. “The food should be just as transportive—one dish might have the technical precision of the French Alps, while the next captures the heat of the Southeast Asian jungle. The menu becomes its own landscape, moving you through different worlds without you ever having to leave your seat.”

There is a rare thrill in watching two chefs of this calibre navigate a kitchen that refuses to stand still; here, the pursuit of perfection is surrendered to a fleeting, shared electricity that exists only within the rhythm of these three nights.

Stepping off the train, it occurred to me that at a time when life demands we remain perpetually tuned to a high frequency, this unhurried tempo is a necessity. In a world that won’t stop shouting, the Eastern & Oriental Express is a very elegant way to turn down the volume.

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