位於永利澳門的京花軒，是品嚐中國名菜譚家菜的最佳選擇。
幾近失傳的清代宮廷美饌在永利澳門的京花軒重獲新生，當今世上只有極少數廚師能夠掌握這個菜系。A nearly-lost cuisine of China’s Qing era is kept alive at Wynn Macau’s Golden Flower by one of the few men in the world qualified to serve it.
Golden Flower at Wynn Macau is a Five-star destination for China’s Tan cuisine.
京花軒位於璀璨瑰麗的永利澳門，以朱紅色牆體配合由意大利Fortuny品牌打造的琺瑯製馬賽克地板，裝潢設計如同一個華美的珠寶盒。然而京花軒的設計還不算是它最奢侈之處，這裡的主廚劉國柱大師才是。沉穩又謙遜的劉師傅，在京花軒明亮潔淨的廚房裡專注地烹飪他的拿手菜式。準備的過程極為繁複嚴謹，要把一隻農場放養走地雞與金華火腿、老鴨一同慢燉8小時，做出極鮮美的高湯。只有通過長時間的燉煮，才能讓湯的味道在鮮甜和鹹味之間取得微妙的平衡。然後再把魚肚和蟹鉗加入這個鮮美無比的湯底裡，菜式才算大功告成。這種 GOLDEN FLOWER RESTAURANT SITS IN A JEWEL-BOX-LIKE ROOM INSIDE THE SUMPTUOUSLY DECORATED WYNN MACAU, with its rich red walls and cloisonné mosaic floor softly lit by Fortuny fixtures. The most luxurious detail, though, isn’t the décor; Golden Flower’s true treasure is its chef, Liu Guo Zhu. Quiet and unassuming, he works diligently in the gleaming kitchens on one of his signature dishes. It’s a painstaking process, involving eight hours of slow-cooking a free-range hen, Jinhua ham, and aged duck together to create the ultimate broth, a soup that needs this kind of time to develop its nuanced balance of sweet and salt. This then forms the perfect base for fish maw and crab claw. Such a meticulous process is a hallmark of the cooking for which chef Liu has earned worldwide accolades—not to mention two Michelin stars: Tan cuisine. “It is very balanced and protects the flavors of its ingredients,” he explains. “But it is also very exclusive and hard to truly understand because of the labor-intensive cooking methods involved.” Given the origins of Tan cuisine, its rarefied reputation today is unsurprising. Its namesake, Guangdong-born Tan Zongjun, moved to Beijing in the late 19th century as a high-ranking official in the Qing dynasty. Tan quickly earned plaudits for more than just his professional standing. “He brought his fami-
細緻到近乎苛刻的烹飪過程，是「譚家菜」的標誌性特色，劉師傅正是憑著一身譚家菜的烹飪功夫蜚聲國際，更摘下米芝蓮二星殊榮。「譚家菜非常講究味道的平衡和對食材原味的保留，」劉師傅說，「但由於譚家菜需要花費大量功夫製作，是一門非常講究傳承、不容易掌握的菜系。」譚家菜在當今享有珍稀聲譽的原因，要從它的起源講起。19世紀晚期的清代，譚家菜的創始人，廣東一位名為譚宗浚的朝廷高官赴往北京上任，在短短時間內就成為城中紅人熱話。「他帶著家族烹飪技藝赴京上任，又是個愛吃的美食家，非常喜歡大排筵席招待賓客。」曾經憑《天堂之下：中國35道菜式》一書獲得餐飲業大獎James Beard提名的作者Carolyn Phillips解釋說，這位官員美食家帶領他的家廚一起琢磨出近300個菜譜，在中菜烹飪史的基石上永遠刻下了他的名字。譚家菜裡常用的經典食材包括魚翅、鮑魚、海參和燕窩，經過細緻清洗後加入高湯，用文火長時間慢煨，令食材的味道和質感完美地融和在一起。這種嚴苛的堅持在早年的一道熊掌料理菜譜裡可見一斑（菜譜近年已不再使用） ：只准使用熊的左前掌做原料，因為熊只用那隻掌吃蜂蜜。Phillips將譚家菜這門中菜烹飪教科書與最高級的法國美食料理作比較，發現了某些共同點：「兩者都同樣強調慢煮、燉、蒸、灼這些需要花功夫處理的過程。」Phillips說，「通過烹煮，食材的天然味道慢慢地盛放，在甜與咸、海與陸、雞肉 ly’s food with him, and he was very much an epicure—he absolutely loved to host parties,” explains Carolyn Phillips, author of the James Beard-nominated cookbook All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China. Together with his house cook, Phillips says, this government gourmand developed the 300 or so recipes that now form the basis of the school of cooking forever connected to his name. Typical ingredients of Tan cuisine include shark’s fin, abalone, and sea cucumber—as well as swallow’s nest, painstakingly cleaned then gently cooked in broth to create the perfect fusion of texture and taste. The repertoire even stretches to a recipe (never used these days) on preparing bear’s paw; the instructions insist that only the left front paw is acceptable, since that alone is used to lick honey. Phillips draws parallels between this culinary school in China and the finest French haute cuisine. “There’s an emphasis on slow cooking, braising, steaming, poaching—anything that takes a long time,” she says. “It’s cooked so the natural flavors blossom, a perfect balance among sweet and savory, land and sea, chicken and seafood, dried and fresh, the north and the south. It’s the yin and yang of Chinese cooking.” Eventually, in the unstable final era of the Qing dynasty, Tan’s resourceful son Zhuangqing began operating an invitation-only restaurant for other élite Beijingers from the family home, serving the recipes his father had developed.
與海鮮、乾貨海味與海鮮、南與北之間取得完美的平衡。這正是中菜烹飪裡的陰陽哲學之道。」清代末期局勢動盪，譚宗浚的兒子譚莊清心生一計，在家開了一家僅限邀請的私房菜，繼續發揚由父親發明的各種菜譜，座上客都是北京城中的名門望族。私房菜的生意一直火爆，即使到1911年辛亥革命推翻清朝政府，時勢不穩的情況下仍是客似雲來。直到20世紀30年代，這裡都是名人聚集的熱門地，名流們挖空心思爭取機會參加宴席，一嚐這種把南方味道與北京食材精妙地融於一體的烹飪藝術。後來譚氏家族關閉了私房菜館，北京飯店的廚房成為了譚家菜的烹飪訓練基地。劉師傅當年就在那裡開始學徒生涯，並在近60年後，無可爭議地登上譚家菜大師的地位。「烹飪譚家菜的關鍵，是掌握平衡的藝術，比如平衡食材和湯之間的比例，還有控制火候的功夫等等，」劉師傅說，「有機會學習這種中式烹飪藝術並把它傳承下去，是我的榮幸。」20世紀70年代中國開始向西方世界打開大門，劉師傅的名聲逐漸遠播海外。2009年他擔任永利澳門中菜部行政總廚，聲譽更勝往時。如今他主要掌管京花軒，繼續不懈地努力傳承和推廣中菜烹飪的珍貴精華。Phillips在書中提到，京花軒典雅奢華的裝潢與譚家菜的氣質一脈相承：「譚家菜的精髓不僅僅在於食物，還在於整個用餐體驗—這種源自朝廷命官家中的菜式，用餐的環境也應該是非常傳統經典和精緻的。就像開在加州的French Laundry高級法式餐廳，以精美的純銀餐具、無暇的餐盤和對細節品質的狂熱堅持，為顧客帶來視覺上的獨特享受。如果你點了一道魚料理，那條魚絕對在方方面面的質素都是最好的。這也正是譚家菜大師們的目標。」這個原則，無論對於譚師傅還是劉師傅來說，都是最值得堅持的。 It continued to thrive even after the Qing dynasty was replaced by a Republican government in 1911; indeed, by the 1930s, it was a celebrity magnet, as stars scrambled to be seen there, sampling cooking that so artfully combined the southern flavors of Tan’s home province with local ingredients from in and around Beijing. Eventually, the family shuttered its restaurant and the Beijing Hotel’s kitchens became the base of training in Tan cooking. It was there that chef Liu apprenticed; almost six decades later, he is Tan cuisine’s undisputed master. “The ‘art of balance’ is key to Tan cuisine—we need to balance the ingredients and soup, for example, as well as the skills of controlling heat and time,” he says. “It’s an honor for me to have had the chance to learn and keep passing on this Chinese art.” Liu’s reputation spread beyond China when the country opened up to the West in the 1970s; it was further enhanced when Wynn brought him to Macau in 2009 as the head of all Chinese culinary operations. He now works there at Golden Flower, a new outpost to preserve and promote this precious part of China’s culinary history. Its elegant setting is an integral counterpart to the cooking, notes cookbook author Phillips. “It’s not just the food, it’s the whole experience—this came out of an official’s home, so you should be eating somewhere that looks very traditional. It’s just like the French Laundry in California, where they’re giving you something for the eyes, too: the perfect silverware, an immaculate plate…and there’s a fanatical attention to detail. If you’re having fish, it will be the absolute best fish to the nth degree. That’s what they’re aiming for.” It’s a credo both chef Liu and Tan would endorse.