Chef Simon Rogan
Chef SIMON ROGAN is bringing his brand of simple, ingredient-led cuisine from England’s Lake District to Victoria Harbour, writes andrew dembina
Last month marked the opening in Hong Kong of the first of two restaurants bearing menus by British chef Simon Rogan, who helms Michelinstarred restaurants in England’s Lake District and in London. The chef is opening his Hong Kong spaces just 10 months after presenting a five-day pop-up of tasting menus at the site of what was then a Japanese restaurant in Sino Centre, Causeway Bay. Asked about the reaction from the city’s diners last March, and from his partners in this venture, Rogan is characteristically modest: “Well, I think they liked the balance in what we do,” he explains during a three-week visit to oversee the first phase of his launches last month. “It’s quite a healthy style of cuisine and simplistic in its approach – almost Japanese-like.” Rogan has received invitations to cook in Asia for a few years now – in Singapore and Manila as well as here. However, it was just two weeks after last year’s pop-up in Hong Kong that he got the call to ask how he’d feel about setting up overseas versions of his UK restaurant formats Aulis and Roganic. Rogan, originally from the port city of Southampton on England’s south coast, opened his first operation, L’Enclume, with his partner Penny, in 2002, in the village of Cartmel in rural Cumbria, a place known more for afternoon-tea rooms than cutting-edge dining rooms; he then established a farm, from which he could carefully control his selection of local organic ingredients. Within the two Michelin-starred L’Enclume – a destination restaurant that also offers seven guestrooms – he opened Aulis (named after a late colleague) in 2016 as a self-contained chef ’s table and experimental development area and, encouraged by the response, opened the stand-alone Aulis London last year. Rogan describes his menus as “ingredient-led”. “Over the years the style has changed,” he explains. “It’s become simpler because we want to put the emphasis more on the ingredients – I try to keep to a ‘less is
“I was so surprised to see the produce in the farms in Hong Kong. The cauli ower, cabbages and carrots are all amazing quality”
more’ scenario, but of course there’s a lot involved in keeping the balance.” When pushed to name a dish that exemplifies his culinary style, Rogan says, “There are loads but it’s probably the grilled salad: we grill brassicas over hot embers to different degrees of texture, of smokiness – so you get a lot of amazing flavours going on. It’s with a truffle custard – the truffles are not from here, of course, but all the ingredients for the salad are from an organic farm in the New Territories. As soon as I arrived on this trip, very early in the morning, I went straight to a farm to look at produce – we were already working with one organic farm, now we’re using this other one too. The salad is dressed with roasted cabbage oil and elderflower vinegar dressing to give some acidity and we layer it with more flavour using a cheese sauce with Wescombe Cheddar, which is full flavour. So it’s a multitude of flavours and textures, it’s got umami, acidity, it’s organic – it’s got everything we look for in a dish.” When we meet, Rogan – along with two chefs from his UK team – are getting accustomed to the new open kitchen in Aulis, a 12-seat counter-top restaurant around open preparation and cooking areas. That’s next to a bar that separates Aulis from the larger Roganic, which has tables for 40 and four private rooms, and is due to open at the end of this month. Both restaurants offer seasonally led tasting menus, though dinnertime-only Aulis – like its namesakes in the UK – will function as a testing zone by day for future dishes in both restaurants once the launch period has settled. The chef says that he won’t deviate too much from the components his restaurants serve in the UK. “We’ve tried to keep it as pure as we can,” he admits. “Obviously there are different tastes in different places; the Asian palate isn’t as much into salt as we are in Europe, so we have to take that into account. But we won’t change too much. I was so surprised to see the produce in the farms in Hong Kong – it could be in Cumbria. The cauliflower, cabbages and carrots I have seen here are all amazing quality – and the growing conditions seem to be the same, though I know in the
summer it may be too hot for some of the vegetables we would usually get. “We may look to bring in a little more spice than we would at home, to bring some Asian influence into it – but, like I say, we don’t want to go too far. We’ll embrace where we are but we’re here for what we do.” The two restaurants may in time receive shipments of meat and some vegetables from Rogan’s own farm and a neighbouring one in Cumbria. “But I don’t really see the need at the moment,” the chef says. “We can get everything we need here; we may take proteins but we’ll see.” What does Rogan hope the diner at his new restaurants in the SAR will experience? “Flavour is everything to us. There’s also balance, making sure that everything works together, and also that there’s the right amount of food in a tasting menu and it all fits together harmoniously,” he says. “It’s about a journey – all of the dishes are in a sequence for a reason. We look at every element of that, to make sure it’s not too rich. “That’s why, when people ask me, ‘What’s your favourite dish?’ or, ‘What’s your speciality?’ I say, ‘Our menu is our speciality.’ That’s what we’ve spent years on – getting the right components in the right place. That’s what I hope people will get out of it most. “Obviously, the interior surroundings are important. We’re very relaxed – chefs come out and serve and they know everything about the dish, so who better to serve it? When I go out, I don’t like airs and graces, I like to lay back and enjoy the ride – and that’s definitely what we like to promote.” Inspirational chefs for Rogan himself are “the big boys in France” as he calls the likes of Marc Veyrat, “who really blew my mind – using Alpine herbs and wild flowers in a really avant-garde way”; Pierre Gagnaire; Michel Bras “for his natural cuisine”; Alain Passard “with all his vegetables”. Rogan’s nirvana restaurant experience, he recalls, was visiting Veyrat’s in the French Alps for the first time: “La Ferme de Mon Père – which isn’t around any more – wasn’t perfect food by any means, but the whole experience just blew me away. It was the best meal experience I have ever had and probably ever will. It was also a real journey. I went from Cartmel to Manchester, to Geneva, then into France, to Megève in the snow, had a meal and then went home – it was in, eat, out in 36 hours. And the meal itself was one I’ll remember till I die.” If Rogan could open a very different type of restaurant to the ones he now operates, he has no hesitation in describing something he’s obviously fantasised about. “It would be a barbecue restaurant on a beach,” he says, glassy-eyed, seemingly picturing it as he answers, “cooking in my flip-flops, shorts and a Hawaiian shirt; fish coming in fresh on the beach, cooking for tourists – no pressure. I might be a bit old for that now, though.” The first four weeks saw Aulis Hong Kong booked solid, so local appetites are definitely piqued for Rogan’s menus – and this appears to be the plan to stick with.