In a Chai Wan industrial building in late February, food designer Alison Tan Jia-qi was instructing a room of 20 Hong Kong diners on how to eat rice with a pat of Échiré, an artisanal French butter.
“She perched a sliver of butter on top of the rice. From one of the sachets of soy sauce that came with the convenience store bento boxes … [she] squeezed a single drop.”






