WELLNESS GASTRONOMY TAKES OFF

What are some common misconceptions about healthy eating and ‘wellness’ restaurants and how do you seek to challenge those?

That everything needs to be boiled or steamed and tastes bland. Healthy food can also be bold, colourful and flavourful, as we demonstrate with our menus.

Which items are going down well on the breakfast, lunch & dinner menus at the moment at Asaya Kitchen?

For breakfast, avocado on toast is always a winner, and there are great benefits to be had from the homemade sourdough. We add argan oil, which is good for hair, skin and nails, and black olive powder, which is packed with unsaturated fat for a great start to the day. Shakshuka is the most comforting and healthy breakfast food: roasted peppers, tomato, onion with poached egg, labneh (a soft cheese made from strained yogurt) cumin and coriander – it’s my all-time favourite.

For lunch, the tomato tartare is proving popular… it’s just dried tomato dices seasoned to give that meaty texture served with bulgur wheat seasoned with a citrus base dressing, fresh herbs, and diced celery and cucumber for some crunch. The pan fried black bream is very simple and very Mediterranean, and is served with crushed zucchini and raw marinated vegetables.

For dinner, there’s the Asaya garden salad, which features all we can find in season that’s local and prepared as many ways possible – pickled, raw, blanched, grilled, baked and shaved. The whole fish from our fisherman are always different, just stuffed with black rice, tofu, a fresh herb mix and bake. For dessert, there’s a pineapple carpaccio, a whole fruit roasted until caramelised and served with a guilt-free yogurt sorbet and lime zest. We use coriander honey to roast the pineapple, which helps digestion.

Asaya Kitchen claims to create a relationship with food that is cultivated from, “a sense of discovery and self awareness”. How do you do that?

We try to build dishes in a way that encourage diners to discover a new approach to nutrition. Healthy dishes can also be very tasty.

You work with partners in Provenance Distributions, such as the Shun King fisherman family in the Sai Kung peninsula. Will you be welcoming any more local suppliers on board soon?

We’re also working with several local organic farms to source our vegetables and use locally-made tofu for our dishes.

Cooking techniques have been employed to optimise gut health. Tell us about the techniques you employ and how they work.

We pickle, ferment and culture ingredients as much as we can.

We also lacto ferment, and make vinegars, kimchi, miso, koji rice and barley. We’ve been quite proactive to inform diners about all aspects of gut health.

You have a zero waste policy, where everything is used and reused in the kitchen. What are the challenges of implementing this policy?

We have a use as much as we can’ policy in the kitchen. We collect all scraps when we’re preparing food, and they are collected in our ‘big box of everything’. Every day, we go through and reuse waste for stocks, purees and powders. The biggest challenge is changing the mentality around using all that comes to us, as for a long time the industry has created a demand for only prime cuts and premium-quality vegetables. The mentality needs to change on both sides, customers and chefs alike.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a chef in Hong Kong?

I see mostly advantages… our young staff are motivated and hardworking and we have access to a tremendous amount of ingredients and a very diverse customer base here in the city.

How will the menu continue to develop at Asaya Kitchen?

The menu will evolve on the same basis, with plenty of dishes utilising raw, nutrient-rich ingredients. We’ll continue look for newcomers to the supply chain in Hong Kong.

What is the single biggest change we could all make in order to eat a healthier diet?

Reduce meat altogether and diversify your food intake as much as you possibly can. We need a bit of everything to live and lead a balanced life. rosewoodhotels.com