UNLEASH THE BEAST
Chef EDWARD VOON of Le Pan is set to release an ambitious new menu with an Asian twist, writes andrew dembina
He’s been compiling recipes and experimenting with ingredients for his new menu for nine months now, but he’s still not satisfied. Almost two years after taking the helm at Le Pan restaurant in Kowloon Bay – where an appreciative following has been enjoying his take on top-tier contemporary French cuisine – Chef Edward Voon is aiming to engage diners with a 33-course menu that moves away from Gallic listings. The native Singaporean is presenting two evenings of 33 dishes that tap into more regional cuisines, which the restaurant is calling Asia Unleashed 33. When we meet in the middle of last month, he’s honing aspects of these courses, which are tasting-size and typical of his cuisine: intense layered flavours, appealing textural contrasts and striking presentation. During the meeting I try five prototype dishes that will almost certainly be continually tweaked, Voon confesses, until the very last moment. The first, a laksa, is a showstopper: a layer of aerated spicy soup, light as air while big on flavour, topped with crisp dried shrimp that contrasts with the creamy eggs royale at the base. The egg is a substitute for the bean curd that’s usually used, and it’s all served in a small bulbous glass bowl through which the layering of colours is all part of the enjoyment. Such presentation and techniques are standard for Voon, with his years of experience in top European-style kitchens. But 33 courses in one sitting? Is he feeling the heat a bit for his self-set late-October challenge? “It’s just another day in the kitchen for me,” he says, philosophically. “It’s [really about] how we prepare – how we put things together, synchronise with the service crew.” So where did the ambitious idea spring from? “Regular diners over our 18 months have become my friends,” Voon says. “They inspire me when they say things like, ‘We can see that every dish is really different,’ and, ‘You really cook from your heart.’ So the idea came from me thinking what else I could do for them at Le Pan. “People in Hong Kong love Singaporean food, they love the fragrances of Asia. So I thought, why not offer them something different – the type of cuisine, different construction, cooking from my roots? It’s definitely not fusion – I understand the taste, I respect the cuisine of my upbringing and want to take it to a gastronomic level. The techniques are still French, and we want to give people a ‘wow’ with the taste – but there’s a lot of playing with what goes with what … if you mix cream with chilli oil, then there’s a reaction.” Besides Voon’s Singaporean culinary reinterpretations, which naturally dominate the assemblage, other Asian-inspired dishes in the listing are from places he’s visited since his teenage years – a few Thai reinterpretations are included, along with one based on Peking duck pancakes. “It’s about sharing my favourite flavours,” he says. “Some of the most inspiring dishes I’ve had are from hawkers on the street, with their limited ingredients means.” Alongside the banquet of reimagined Asian dishes are a few of Voon’s modern seafood-forward courses. “In one course we have Alba white truffles, caviar, oyster, foie gras and a nicely marinated ginger sauce. So that’s European style but with a splash of Asian ingredients: it changes everything,” he says. The chef will also include a Hainan chicken-rice course, served as sushi. “I dare to say this is the best Hainan chicken rice in Hong Kong,” he comments, “and I make satay blinis – with sour cream – which I will also say is the best satay in Hong Kong. Nobody can challenge me on this.” Another dish I try during this interview – possibly to be re-tweaked before the day – is Voon’s XO Martini: potato mousseline drizzled with chilli oil atop a creamy and crunchy layer laden with oysters and XO sauce, served in a Martini glass. Flavours combine well, yet separate enough to be
enjoyed without being masked by other components. One of the chef’s favourites is a cold noodle dish – rooted in the Vietnamese and Japanese renditions of cold noodles with cured beef. “But I’m using a noodle made with tomato juice,” he explains, “served with aged wagyu coppa – to make a humble dish quite ‘fine dining’.” The piquancy of this dish from the vinaigrette, richness of the sliced beef and intensity of the tomato results in big impact, once again. These, along with the other prototype Asia Unleashed 33 dishes I try, are very much in Voon’s characteristic modernFrench approach of playing with flavours and other sensations – but they use ingredients or conceptual elements from Asian cuisine. He always conceptualises new dishes with colourful illustration-style drawings before trialling them – “but taste always comes before the way a dish looks,” he stresses. Voon’s understanding of French cuisine dates back to decades before Le Pan opened its doors early in 2017. Prior to this, from 2010 he was executive chef of the original Le Pan at Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club, on the outskirts of the industrial northern Chinese city, built by Pan Sutong, chairman of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Goldin Financial Holdings. He was also Pan’s personal chef. His first foray into professional kitchens was at age 15, in a Western-style restaurant, where he apprenticed, and by 17 he’d worked in the kitchens of the Mandarin Oriental, Singapore, then at Tower Club Singapore as sous chef, where he first fell for contemporary French cuisine. In 2006, he headed the kitchen at Aurum, under the technical direction of Paco Roncero, benefitting from the Spanish chef’s molecular gastronomy pedigree. Voon has also cooked under Spanish Michelin-starred chef David Muñoz and, after undertaking several international guest-chef stints, was nominated in 2007 as one of the top 10 most innovative chefs by the UK’s Restaurant magazine. In younger professional days, the chef represented his country in global culinary competitions and he recalls that he and his team wanted to bring a taste of their roots into the competitive arena. “Ginger, tamarind, curry: we took these flavours to Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg and we did pretty well,” he recalls, having picked up four significant foodindustry awards in the process. “And from all of those years ago, I guess it’s now time to feed those ideas into this restaurant.”
“I respect the cuisine of my upbringing and want to take it to a gastronomic level.We want to give people a ‘wow’ with the taste”
So has anything from this nine months of culinary experimentation with Asian culinary elements fed back into his repertoire for Le Pan proper? “Yes, sure,” he says, enthused. “For example, the croquette of black pepper crab with black olives – I could do it with a Mediterranean crab and it would definitely work. And the tomato noodles with coppa beef I’d be happy to use for an amuse bouche.” Voon still oversees the Tianjin restaurant, but the focus is on Le Pan Hong Kong, and he promises that the Asian menu is the first of a series of regular culinary adventures for his restaurant. “Early next year, I hope to present a Japanese menu – together with a Japanese chef,” he says. “And I’m also planning to serve my twist on dim sum, but as a dinner menu.” If the taste of the Asian menu prototypes, still fresh on my palate, are anything to go by, these prospects sound like menus to watch out for.
Asia Unleashed 33 is served on the nights of October 26 and 27 at Le Pan restaurant (lepan.com.hk)