Wan Hao's New Chef's Prepares Dazzling Creations for the Lunar New Year

There is a new executive Chinese chef on board at Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel, and he’s invigorating the restaurant’s treats for the Lunar New Year with his award-winning style. Chef Brian Wong Shiuh Yean has taken the gold at numerous culinary competitions including the Taiwan World Culinary Competition 2014 and has had stints at restaurants in Singapore, Malaysia and Italy.  

The 32-year-old’s take on Cantonese cuisine at Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant is illustrated through signature dishes such as cordycep flower double-boiled soup and pork ribs with mandarin orange. His focus: Creating memorable dishes that stand out and stimulate different palates, and showcase “the flavour of each ingredient and let it shine through”. 

Alongside a new menu for the restaurant, chef Wong also introduces his ideas for a Lunar New Year feast with a range of Prosperity set menus, a la carte dishes and takeaway goodies. How does yu sheng heaped with salmon, scallops, caviar, tuna and lobster sound for starters? Or roasted duck marinated with ginseng sauce? Or a whole barbecued boneless suckling pig? Classics such as the Wan Hao signature roast chicken with shredded fillet aren’t left out, and neither are seafood dishes such as the braised three-head whole abalone with baby white cabbage and brown sauce.  

The set menus vary for four persons to a group of 10, and are available from January 18 to February 22. A larger-scale lo hei session and celebration with friends and extended family on Lunar New Year’s Eve can be done at the hotel’s Grand Ballroom, if you require 10 tables or more.    

If home is where the heart is, a takeaway menu (available throughout the same period as the aforementioned set menus) features festive mainstays such as yu sheng with abalone and bonito flakes, the restaurant’s signature roast duck and Koi-shaped nian gao among others. There’s also a pair of pen cai to pick from; Wan Hao’s deluxe version of the festive dish brims with 14 nutritious ingredients such as pig trotter, three-head Australian abalone, prawn and Japanese large conpoy. On the other hand, wholesome goodness comes in the form of the meatless, premium vegetarian pen cai, which is loaded with fruits, greens and fungi, from black truffle to morel mushrooms to pumpkin. 

Finally, Lunar New Year isn’t complete without those bite-sized goodies—a forecourt stall situated by the entrance of the hotel presents a sweet and savoury collection that goes from bak kwa-infused cornflake cookies to red velvet cheese cookies and an Eight Treasures Cake. Have them packed into a hamper, if you’d like, to make a sumptuous corporate gift.