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Publications Topics Archive Topics Archive 2007 Vol.37- No.1 Where do the Chefs Like to Eat?
Publications Topics Archive Topics Archive 2007 Vol.37- No.1 Where do the Chefs Like to Eat? | Where do the Chefs Like to Eat? |
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When foreign chefs take a job in Taiwan, it's an opportunity for them to explore some new gastronomic territory during their off hours. Here's what some leading culinary professionals have to say about the experience. Jean-Christophe Fieschi Executive Chef, Grand Hyatt Taipei A native of France, Fieschi worked at a number of Michelin three-star restaurants there before joining Hyatt International in 1989. After serving at Hyatt Regency hotels in Hong Kong, Dubai, and Osak, he came to the Grand Hyatt Taipei in September 2004. I like simple ways of cooking - casual food such as a cheese plate and a bottle of red wine when I am with friends, and fast food, or comfort food such as burgers, when I am with my children. I enjoy most kinds of Asian food owing to the many years of living in different countries in Asia. Among Chinese food, I like Cantonese cuisine the most because of my Hong Kong experience. But there are certain [Asian] spices and aromas that I don't care for, such as stinky tofu and kimchi (Korean fermented vegetables). In Taiwan, I sometimes adjust my cooking style, inspired by the local food. For instance, Western cooking uses a lot of cream, butter, and cheese, and that gets a bit heavy. I sometimes cut down the use of heavy ingredients, and cook by steaming or shallow frying for a lighter taste. However, I think it is very important to keep the authenticity of the food. I don't make accommodations to cater to local taste. Chefs have to educate the people. If you don't give your customers the real thing, they don't know what the real things are. As one Western saying goes, "if you don't do it properly, don't do it at all." DingTaiFung is the restaurant I like to go when foreign chefs come to town. The restaurant is casual, and the food - especially the soup dumplings (小籠湯包) and chicken broth - is excellent. But what impresses me the most is the simplicity of the cooking technique and the consistency of food quality. No matter how many times you go, you always find the same quality of service and food. It is an interesting place for chefs to see the concept, and how they do things right. Another restaurant I like is Joyce East, in the newly developed Xin Yi District. They serve Western food based on the Italian concept, the restaurant is elegant, and the dress is smart casual. DingTaiFung 194 XinYi Rd., Section 2, Taipei Tel: 2321-8928 Joyce East 1F, 128 XinYi Rd., Section 5, Taipei Tel: 8789-6128 Giorgio Trevisan Executive Chef, Capone's A native of Verona, Italy, Trevisan came to Taipei seven years ago. Born to a family devoted to the art of food, he learned his cooking techniques from his mother, and worked for a long time at the family-owned restaurant near Verona. He has been with various Italian restaurants in Taipei, and joined Capone's last autumn. I enjoy Japanese and Chinese food. Japanese cuisine is something new for me. In the past, I couldn't imagine myself eating raw fish, as there was no Japanese restaurant in Verona when I left. Now I really enjoy the taste. I also like noodles, both Japanese oolong noodles and Chinese hand-chopped noodles for the chewy texture, al dente as they call it in Italian. Soup is another thing I like, especially during the winter time. Shabu shabu is fun, where you can make your own soup with the ingredients chosen by yourself. Dumplings and soup dumplings are also tasty. Italians in general don't like spicy food. Most Taiwanese like the so-called "mandarin duck" hotpot (鴛鴦鍋), where you can have two kinds of soup - spicy and non-spicy - cooked in one pot. I only like the food boiled in the non-spicy soup. Besides, I can't bear the smell of stinky tofu, or that of coriander. Whereas most foreigners don't like animal innards such as tripe, as well as chicken liver, stomach, and heart, they are typical foods for people in Verona. But they have to be thoroughly washed before being cooked, otherwise they smell. I usually only like them when I do the preparation myself. Also, it is common in Italy to have cockscomb cooked in soup. Like many foreigners, I like DingTaifung. They serve great soup dumplings and chicken broth. I especially like a bowl of chicken soup with noodles, which makes me feel at home right away. In Verona we have a dish very similar to this one, where we put Italian noodles, celeries, carrots, and onions in the chicken soup. It is a popular dish for Sunday brunch. The dishes in DingTaiFung are very close to my cooking style - they are clean and follow a set of strict rules so the restaurant maintains the same quality of food and service at all times. On Sunday evenings I like to go to Papa Giovanni nestled in an alley off ZhongXiao East Rd. I am a friend of the owner, Morris de Giacimo. It is a nice meeting place among Italians, where we can speak our own language and enjoy delicious food from home. Capone's 312 ZhongXiao East Rd., Section 4 Tel: 2773-3782 Papa Giovanni ZhongXiao East Rd., Section 4, Lane 170, Alley 6, No. 22 Tel: 2711-8720 Ola Kronkvist Chef, Flavor Brought up in a family of professional cooks, Kronkvist learned his culinary skills from his mother and grandmother. After graduating from the Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland specializing in hotel management, he went back to Sweden and worked at Svanholms Castle - a castle-turned restaurant in southern Sweden - where he won a "best restaurant" honor for the restaurant. He opened Flavor to introduce authentic Scandinavian cuisine to Taipei. My wife is Taiwanese, so my taste is strongly influenced by her. I like home-made dishes such as wanton soup, cold noodles with sesame sauce, soup dumplings, rice porridge, tomato with fried eggs, and three-cups (that is, flavors) chicken (三杯雞). I also like food from night markets, such as night market-style deep-fried chicken nuggets (鹽酥雞). Eating on the street is a lot of fun, very different from Europe. But it took me a while to appreciate some Taiwanese flavors. Europeans don't like spicy food. When I first came here, I didn't understand why garlic and pepper are so commonly used in Taiwanese cuisine, but now I've learned to like it. Now chili paste has become a must when I eat dumplings. But there are things that I still don't like, such as stinky tofu, animal innards, chicken feet, and chicken ass. I think it's a very cultural thing; maybe someday I'll grow to like them, but not now. I much prefer to go to smaller eateries like the locals. Most foreigners are afraid of trying out these places, so they miss the chance to know the real food culture in Taiwan. If foreigners mean to get the most out from Taiwan, they should leave the touristy spots and follow the locals. My favorite place is called Hang Zhou Soup Dumplings (杭州小籠湯包), near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It's a very simple eatery, but serves the best soup dumpling I've ever had. And it's very cheap. We made the decision very early to serve only authentic Swedish food at our restaurant. Some of the recipes were created by my grandmother back in the late nineteenth century. I don't find the food in many Western restaurants in Taipei to be like the original, partly because the chef is not native and partly because they don't use the right ingredients. At our restaurant we insist on using real Swedish ingredients such as cloudberry and lingonberry jam [to go with the meat balls]. I have my mother ship these from Sweden. Flavor SanMin Rd., Lane 107, No. 8-3 Tel: 2769-1971 Hang Zhou Soup Dumpling 53 HangZhou South Rd., Section 2 Tel: 2393-5875 Kumaran Ganesan Indian Chef de Cuisine, American Club A native of Chennai in Southern India, Ganesan has worked for the American Club for two and half years. Following three years of training at a catering college in India, he has been a chef for 10 years. Indians like spices. I prefer spicy food such as gongbao chicken （宮寶雞丁 ）and mapo beancurd (麻婆豆腐). They have a similar taste compared with Indian cuisine. Although most Indians don't eat beef for religious reasons, I do in Taiwan because I have to taste a wide variety of food for my profession. I like beef noodle soup. Beef gets more taste and flavor when cooked in soup. I also like Cantonese food such as steamed dumplings, fried rice, and all sorts of dimsum. It is fun to have dimsum with friends. A place I often go for dimsum is Luckstar (吉星港式飲茶) in central Taipei. It's so popular that there is always a waiting line on Sundays. Tofu is great, but I don't like stinky tofu for its strong smell. I don't like animal innards, either. I tried duck liver once, but found it too greasy. And I don't care for the food sold at night markets because most of it is pre-made and not up to hygienic standards. Another restaurant I like to go to is Chuan Fu Hot Pot (川府麻辣鍋). I like veggies boiled in water and dipped in spicy barbecue sauce. If I miss Indian food, I usually go to Tandoor, where they serve tasty chicken tikka [made by baking small pieces of chicken that have been marinated in spices and yogurt], nan bread, and buttermilk - a kind of yogurt drink. I prefer buttermilk to lassi because it is much lighter and not so creamy. At the American Club we serve authentic Northern Indian cuisine. The only adjustment we may make is to moderate the spicy taste at the request of an individual customer. Some Taiwanese don't like the food too spicy. But in India, I've tried to combine the concepts of Chinese and Indian foods. I once won a cooking price for making pan-fried noodles served with mogul-style chicken curry. The combination goes very well. Chuan Fu Hot Pot 547 ZhongShan North Rd., Section 5 Tel: 2883-0628 Luckstar 2F, 92 NanJing East Rd., Section 1. Tel: 2568-3378 Tandoor HeJiang St., Lane 73, No. 10. Tel: 2509-9853 Michael Deutsch Chef de Cuisine, Paris 1930, Landis Taipei A native of Vancouver, Canada, Deutsch has been with the Landis Taipei for one and a half years. He has been a chef in fine-dining establishments for 14 years. What I like is casual and simple food like pizza, dumplings, and noodles. I like to go to small diners near the hotel, where they serve a whole steamed fish. It's nice to have beer to go with it. Of the various styles of Chinese food, I like Cantonese the best because I experienced it a lot in Vancouver as I was growing up. I like steamed fish and steamed chicken with ginger sauce, and sampling all kinds of dim sum, which is a great choice when family and friends gather. Whereas most foreigners dislike stinky tofu, I love it. There is a smell, but I don't mind it. It's just like blue cheese. They both have a similar fermented smell. Foie gras (goose liver) is a delicacy in French cuisine, but intestines are not my thing. Also I find it strange for people here to eat bull's penis and drink snake blood. Pig blood and chicken blood are common ingredients for Taiwanese cuisine, but I don't eat that. I usually go for Chinese or Japanese food when I have a chance to dine out. Lian Po Ye (蓮波葉) in Tianmu across from the Takashimaya department store is my favorite Japanese restaurant in Taipei. It's a bit pricy, but everything they serve is nice with a traditional Japanese taste. Dian Shui Lou, across from my hotel, has fabulous soup dumplings, fried rice, and great tea. Maintaining the authenticity of French cuisine is essential when I cook, but I sometimes like to do a bit of fusion - a combination of different kinds of food - for a change. I change the menu at the hotel very often, and the ideas just pop out of my head. Maybe because I came to be familiar with many different kinds of Asian cuisine in Vancouver, I sometimes add a bit of Asian flavor to my French dishes. For example, there is a dish of steamed black cod, which I serve with Peking duck consommé on the side. Another example is an appetizer where I put toro (fatty tuna) in salad. There is Japanese influence in it. When you do fusion, you have to be careful to make sure the ingredients both taste good and achieve an interesting balance. Dian Shui Lou 61 NanJing East Rd., Section 4, Tel: 8712-6689 30 MingQuan East Rd., Section 2, Tel: 2542-6060 Lian Po Ye ZhongCheng Rd., Sec 2, Lane 98, Alley 6, No. 2 Tel: 2873-7081 Patrick (Paco) Sturbois Owner, Olala Sturbois is French but grew up in Spain. He went to culinary school in Montreal, Canada and has run several restaurants in Taipei since coming here 13 years ago. Besides Olala, he recently opened a pasta factory in Taoyuan County, whose products can be found in major supermarkets in Taipei under the brand name "Mr. Paco Pasta." Since I've been here for such a long time, what I like to eat is very local things like spicy wantons (紅油抄手), sanbaofan (三寶飯,Cantonese-style rice with three kinds of meat), Hakka food, rice with stewed pork (魯肉飯), rouyuan (肉圓, a kind of meat dumpling). In a way, the eating habits of the French are very similar to that of Taiwanese - we eat every part of the animal, there is no taboo whatsoever. The only thing I don't like here is the dessert. Red beans are used widely in most kinds of Taiwanese desserts, and I don't much like red beans. When I have a day off, I most enjoy driving to the seaside to have seafood. There is a good selection of seafood in Taiwan. I like to go to Fuji Fish Harbor (富基漁港), where you can buy live seafood and have the restaurants nearby cook it for you right away. The environment is a little rough, but it doesn't matter. What I care about is what I eat. Or I go to Bali, across from Danshuei, where there is one simple place serving great mussels. Some people may choose a restaurant because of its décor or service, but chefs only care about the food, and good food means fresh food. I only go to places where they serve fresh food with reasonable prices. Because we are in this business, we know the value. In Taiwan you get the best Chinese food in the world, and if I want to eat Western food, I'll just cook it myself. My taste buds have changed as I've been living in Asia for so long. I'm used to stronger flavors, so I tend to cook with a stronger taste by adding more spices or condiments. The French cuisine I cook here may have a local flavor to it because you have to work with what's available on the market. There is top-quality pork, farm chicken, fresh fish, and seafood in Taiwan. I like to use Taiwanese veggies such as bamboo shoots and sweet potatoes in our dishes, because it is local and fresh. Even in France, there are regional differences among cuisines, with every region having its own specialty. There's no problem in using local ingredients to make the foreign food authentic. I go to Cosi o Cosi often, even more so now that there is a new Spanish chef. They serve the most authentic tapas in town. I like to sit at the bar and have a dozen tapa dishes and a glass of wine. Even better, I can speak Spanish with the chef there. Cosi o Cosi 155 DunHua South Rd., Section 1 Tel: 2771-5883 Olala 371 RenAi Rd., Section 4. Tel: 2773-9577 |
