Dim Sum Doctor

Michelin-starred chef Andrew Wong is taking regional cuisines from the heart of China to the East and the West

EText by Lubna Salim

Photos shot exclusively for HT Brunch by Shivamm Paathak

dgy. Academic. Affable. These three adjectives best describe Michelinstarred chef Andrew Wong, 38, says my preliminary research. I learn this is true when I meet the London-based chef in Delhi. As he gives the final touches to his signature greenhued edamame dumplings, which he wants to use for the HT Brunch shoot, he cracks a joke with his near-panicked team in the kitchen (it’s almost dinner time), and they burst into laughter. Clearly, this ain’t no Hell’s Kitchen.

Born to a family of restaurateurs in London, chef Wong was always academically inclined. After studying chemistry at Oxford University, he went on to do anthropology at the London School of Economics before returning home to help with his family’s four restaurants. It was there that he realised his calling, which led him to travel through China to research its regional cuisines and, in 2012, open A. Wong with his wife Nathalie. This became the first Chinese restaurant to have won two Michelin stars outside Asia.

GREEN REVELATIONS

Is the popular opinion in India about Chinese food being very non-vegetarian-centric a myth or a reality, I ask, and the father of two is taken by surprise.

“I didn’t know that!” he smiles. “Buddhism arrived in China from India in 1 AD, so there’s a lot of vegetarian food and even in non-vegetarian restaurants in China, there’s normally a very substantial amount of veg food. I can’t comment on Asian food, but on Chinese I can, and vegetarian Chinese is probably one of the most delicious cuisines because we use so many fermented and salted products, umamicarrying condiments. It’s very much about just finding the good restaurants.”

Chef Wong asserts that he doesn’t create vegetarian dishes any differently than the nonvegetarian ones. The thought process is much the same. “While the deliciousness, texture, spice, mouthfeel is all there, at the heart of it is a story we want to tell, whether it’s historically-based or about a particular part of China,” he explains. “That kind of ends up allowing a dish to blossom into what it might end up being.”

There are a lot of steamed and stir-fried vegetables, but tofu, says Wong, is a massive

part of the Chinese culinary infrastructure. “We have different types of tofu and it would probably be the core of what makes Chinese vegetarianism really interesting in comparison to other cuisines,” he says.

Are the sauces purely vegetarian too? Absolutely, says Wong. Broad bean paste, sweet bean paste, different fermented bean curds – those are the basis of the umamicarrying condiments and they are 100 per cent vegetarian.

Plus, Asian flavours work well with vegetarian food. “I think fermented bean curd goes really well with vegetables because it is very strong and very umami-heavy. It’s got a similar kind of hit that Parmesan has, but is a little bit more fermented. Then, yellow bean sauce is quite a natural sweet condiment and works wonderfully with vegetables. When talking about vegetables you must include a whole variety of preserved vegetables, on top of that there are nuts and pulses, and add grains so you are talking about an entire cuisine.”

{ ANDREW WONG } CHEF

“I think of a Michelin star as a loan that someone gives you and your job is to nurture it. If your standard drops, they will ask you not to look after it next year.”

“VEGETARIAN CHINESE IS ONE OF THE MOST DELICIOUS CUISINES…” —CHEF ANDREW WONG

INDO-CHINESE TIES

Wong has been visiting India three or four times a year since 2017, as mentor chef at The Oberoi hotel’s Baoshuan restaurant, which offers food from 14 regions of China. But he candidly says that he doesn’t know enough about Indian food to be able to compare it to Asian vegetarian food.

However, he is a fan of the food made by chefs Vineet Bhatia and Manish Mehrotra in London and he knows how to differentiate regional cuisine from what’s sold as “Indian food” in the UK.

Wong’s signature edamame dumplings