THE INTERNATIONAL LOCAL
Richie Lin on putting Taiwan on a plate at Mume
‘My approach to cooking is to let the ingredients shine, it is always about the ingredients,” says chef Richie Lin. Lin’s Michelin-starred Mume in Taipei, Taiwan, is known to change its menu according to the seasonality of ingredients available.
“Our approach is to use as much as we can and at the moment we use 100% Taiwanese produce. Having said that we have to be very flexible to change because there could be a typhoon on the horizon and certain types of vegetable and seafood won’t be available.”
Lin’s biggest threat is climate change as a lot of his seasonal seafood are getting smaller and fewer.
“Fish that we used to see a lot of in 2014 [when Mume first opened], we don’t see much now. Prices have gone up because demand has gone up but supply hasn’t. This is also the case with vegetables. Climate change makes the weather hotter and summers longer. When we first opened, the temperature was cool after mid-September, but this year it’s so hot. I find Taiwan hotter than Bangkok at times, compared to four or five years ago,” he said.
With climate change, the key word in any situation is “adapt” and that is what Lin is doing at Asia’s No.7 best restaurant, according to Asia’s 50 Best 2019 restaurant list.
“It is what we have been doing since opening Mume. We change ingredients depending on what we have and after five years we have backup plans based on what we source from farmers and fishermen, who we closely work with. A lot of produce like edible flowers and herbs are grown specifically for us. These are more delicate, uncommon and are bespoke,” says Lin.
Mume’s goal since inception was to use and showcase Taiwanese produce.
“Every year we dig deeper and deeper and find more interesting ingredients. There are many ingredients in the market that no one wants to cook or eat. Quinoa has been in Taiwan for hundreds of years, even before the Chinese. The aboriginals grew it and once science discovered that it was a superfood, it became a trend. We want to discover these ingredients and showcase them to not just Taiwanese people but to the world. Most local ingredients are underrated and undiscovered.”
In Taiwan, Mume has a reputation for using only local produce, so farmers or producers approach them with new things. The restaurant set up a test kitchen in its second year to help with this discovery process, though a few things have changed since Mume set up shop with the chef trio Lin, Long Xiong and Kai Ward. The restaurant is now run by Lin, with executive sous chef Robert Tsai and pastry chef Sarah Tsai.
“Our menu structure was originally based on à la carte and since Kai left I started to think that the format needed a change. With different chefs it was difficult to have a cohesive tasting menu. Now, it’s just me so the tasting menu is my personal reflection and the style is more together,” says Lin.
Lin’s favourite flavour is umami, which he describes as “a savoury taste that lingers in your mouth but creates an appetite and makes your brain think that it’s delicious. That is one of the most important elements in my cooking. When I create a dish I always put this into consideration — it’s all about amplifying the umami”.
During his recent masterclass at the 20th World Gourmet Festival held at the Anantara Siam Bangkok, Lin recreated his “carabinero prawn, tomato dashi and jicama”.
“Tomato water has been around for many years and tomato essence is already umami, but I thought about taking it to the next level. I wanted to combine different techniques and different styles of cuisines, and to present them in a different way.
“The prawn head is the same; it is straight up umami, very in your face. These are the flavours I like to play around with and balance in the end. Instead of just adding MSG, how do you extract the extra umami from natural ingredients? This is part of my cooking.”
Lin’s cuisine is best described as modern European, with a minimalistic approach to food. Though, he says, it is hard to put into a box as it’s like defining who he is.
“My parents are Indonesian-Chinese, I was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Canada, did my training in Australia and Europe and now I am in Taiwan, a country I have never lived in before. Am I Canadian, Taiwanese or from Hong Kong? I am a little bit of everything and my cuisine is the same. Eventually it will have a bit of the Chinese side of me, also being an Asian maybe my palate is different but the cooking technique is European,” he adds.
Every now and then, Lin still discovers new produce. It is a continuous process, he says.
“Sometimes we research with a lot of different aboriginal groups, which number around 16 in Taiwan. They all have different knowledge as the way they eat and live differs. But, even for them life is changing with modern technology. So some of their cooking is what their grandparents did and not necessarily what they currently do. If you really want to know about the island you have to learn from the people who lived here the longest, which are the aboriginals, not the Chinese.”
Mume and Lin are focused on local — “it makes a big difference when we use 100% Taiwanese ingredients, because once you commit to this there is no other choice”, he asserts. To push this philosophy, Mume has a dedicated sous chef who is trusted with just sourcing ingredients.
Meanwhile, away from the restaurant Lin is working with Taiwanese universities, who are studying wild plants.
“We are still figuring out how we can work together. We are at the beginning, though at Mume have been doing it for around five years, we have barely scratched the surface. One day there may be a book or an encyclopaedia on Taiwanese ingredients.”
After all, this is what pushed him to move to Taipei and to create and use Taiwanese produce that was underrated and incorporate it into a different type of cuisine.
“It made me create something that was me and to leverage it and showcase it to the rest of the world.”