A Curated Feast with UBS and Four of Hong Kong’s Most Talented Young Chefs

Who? Joyce Tam, Andrew and Lumen Kinoshita, Arthur de Villepin

Where? Tatler Dining Kitchen at Haus

Here’s what you missed: In celebration of UBS’s commitment to championing contemporary art, Tatler Dining enlisted four of Hong Kong’s rising star chefs to curate an eight-course menu inspired by the city’s eminent artists. On the roster were Ashley Salmon of Roganic, Stephanie Wong of Roots, Graf Kwok of Tate Dining Room, and Felix Cheung, previously of The Ledbury in London. A special wine pairing was prepared by Ambrose Chiang, featuring Ruinart Blanc de Blancs to start and a unique marriage of “old” and “new” wines from different decades.

The four chefs worked together to create a creative dinner that paid homage to iconic works by the likes of Frog King, Anothermountainman (Stanley Wong), Mark Ying Tung 2, Chow Chun Fai and Wong Ping. The works of these five artists, each known for their verve and striking visual signatures, were parlayed into unexpected dishes that delighted and surprised the art-loving guests.

The meal opened with Stephanie Wong’s striking starter inspired by digital artist Wong Ping’s “Vampire Cat Keyboard”, a psychedelic combination of century egg, cauliflower, asparagus, radish, yellow and red bell peppers, balsamic and hazelnut gel. This was followed up by Felix Cheung’s cold appetiser of smoked local white eel with “Anothermountainman” pickles—circles of red beet, white apple and blue dyed daikon—to mimic the iconic colour combination of the artist’s  “Everywhere Redwhiteblue” series.

For Ashley Salmon of Roganic, both his plates took visual cues from the expressive paintings of Frog King, where lashings of black, brown, white and red dominate the canvas; appropriately, Salmon’s dishes of salt-baked celeriac with mussel, mushroom XO and black garlic and 7-day hay-aged local pigeon with spiced cake, cherry and whipped liver truly represented life imitating art.

Graf Kwok, the creative force behind many of Tate’s new desserts and cakes, gravitated towards the bright conceptual art of Mak Ying Tung 2, transforming pieces such as “Home Sweet Home: Feng Shui Painting, Earth 2, 2021”—a painting featuring womanly figures surrounding a pile of gold bars—into a delicious Hong Kong-style lemon tea dessert with edible gold decorating the plate.

Instead of a traditional menu, each dish was accompanied by a keepsake postcard showcasing the artwork as well as the dish name inspired by the piece—a truly collectible souvenir that each guest was able to take home with them at the end of the night.