At Shenzhen’s The Bay by Chef Fei, a dish of fish simmered with bamboo shoots in plum juice and pickled vegetables is plated individually and served to diners one by one. At Chiu Tang in Hong Kong, diners sit at round tables, share stories, sip oolong tea and reach for morsels from communal dishes.
As Chaoshan cuisine, traditionally rooted in coastal neighbourhoods and late-night street food stalls, moves into luxury restaurants and is reimagined through French-style tasting menus and fine-dining plating, a dialogue unfolds between international innovation and preserving the soul of the streets. Talk to the people doing the cooking, and one question keeps surfacing: does the soul of Chaoshan food live at the table or in the flavour – and who gets to call it authentic?
When chefs talk about the soul of Chaoshan cuisine, also called Chiu Chow cuisine, they usually mean three things: the freshness of the ingredients, the heat of the wok, and the informality of the table.
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