LITERARY TASTES
A chef from Chengdu has turned a dozen dishes from Cao Xueqin’s epic novel The Dream of the Red Chamber into a selection of daring new desserts. Li Yingxue reports.
In chapter 35 of The Dream of the Red Chamber, when protagonist Jia Baoyu is asked what he would like to eat after being beaten by his father, he asks for lotus leaf soup.
It’s one of the many dishes described in Cao Xueqin’s epic novel, but it’s unlikely anyone has ever tried to re-create these delicacies from scratch, let alone reinterpret them.
Not until now, that is. Luo Dan, a dessert chef from Chengdu, Sichuan province, has set herself to the task of re-creating 12 dishes from the famous novel and turning them into a range of daring modern desserts through an online course she developed called A Bite of The Dream of the Red Chamber.
“Each dessert has been designed according to the novel, and all the recipes will be easy for anyone to follow and require no complex skills,” says Luo.
For Jia’s lotus soup, Luo uses honeydew melon, lotus leaf, sago and rice, and employs a simple molecular gastronomy trick to make it work perfectly.
The rice porridge is cooked with lotus leaves before being rolled into balls, laid out on a bed of honeydew melon puree, and topped with marsh pennywort — an aquatic herb that resembles tiny lotus leaves. The porridge balls explode in the mouth to leave a fresh taste of summer.
Luo believes that beautiful things have souls.
“Good food not only awakens our taste buds, it also reminds us of fond memories,” the 36-year-old says.
“People in ancient times regarded food more as an art form. So when I designed the soup dessert, I asked myself ‘How can I be creative and make this special?’.”
In chapter 54 of the book, Jia’s grandmother orders almond tea after a family dinner. While Chinese desserts are usually made out of white almonds, Luo has created a new version which uses tortoise-herb jelly as a base. To this she adds almond cream and two spoons of black rice, before topping it off with crispy black sesame sugar.
“All the ingredients are good for the lungs, which fits with the character of Chinese-style desserts that are designed not only look pretty, but to also follow the natural rules,” says Luo, adding she is determined to elevate Chinese desserts into an item of cultural heritage.
“Many countries have their signature dessert, such as Japan’s wagashi, Germany’s black forest cake, and France’s macaroon,” says Luo. “But what about China? I hope that one day my desserts will answer that question, and show the beauty of desserts seen through Chinese eyes.”
Luo says Chinese desserts follow the seasons and also change with the times. “There is more about Chinese desserts to dig up, and I want to make them more delicate.”
A Bite of The Dream of the Red Chamber may be Luo’s latest venture, but she is no stranger to success, having already wowed the world with her desserts at the 2014 AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hangzhou.
Luo was chosen to make Chinese cookies for all the first ladies at an APEC dinner, which were later presented as gifts in a specially made wooden box.
Luo painstakingly decorated her handmade cookies with flowers from all four seasons, with each one taking her four to five hours to make. The flowers were very lifelike.
“The petals were made of icing sugar, which I shaped first of all. I then added color to them before pasting each one onto the cookies. They were very small and thin and very fragile, so I needed to be very careful,” says Luo.
Luo learned traditional Chinese painting when she was a child and kept up the hobby until college. After studying graphic design at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute from 2001 to 2005, Luo became a designer.
Her passion for desserts started during college, when she began experimenting with baking cakes at home. A year into her design job, she decided to quit and pursue her dreams.
Luo gave birth to a boy two years after getting married in 2007, and now her life is divided into two distinct roles — raising her son and creating desserts.
Luo has witnessed how desserts have grown in popularity in China over the past decade.
“When we first started in 2008, we would communicate via an online food forum, where we would discuss new dishes. One homemade cake I made wowed everyone,” Luo says.
“Now many families have their own ovens. They can easily make cookies or bread at home. And it’s easy to find a dessert shop down the street, which was rare 10 years ago.”
Creating a new dessert is like making an art piece for Luo. “I enjoy each cooking process — from designing the dish, to preparing the ingredients, to making the dessert — even though each step takes a long time.”
Besides launching her culinary career, Luo developed an interest in flower arranging, tea culture and designing furniture. But after the APEC summit, she chose to shun the limelight and focus her efforts on making Chinese desserts.
“The ingredients used in making Chinese desserts are healthy, such as grain, fruit and vegetables, which don’t add too much burden to your body. And sweet foods also make people happy,” says Luo, explaining why she continues to run the online course to teach dessert making.
For Luo, creating new Western-style desserts is an easier undertaking because there are more reference points available, whereas she often has to develop new Chinese desserts from scratch. There are no certainties in the process. Sometimes she worries that her creations are too Western, and at other times she finds her wondering if the traditional recipes are actually better.
“Making desserts is like life. You need to find the beauty, and add your own understanding and inspiration, so the beauty will be relevant to you.”