The Asian Invasion

Fine dining in the Far East has improved dramatically in recent years and with innovation rife this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

Mr & Mrs Bund, Shanghai

BACK IN the day it was hard to find a good meal in Asia. Some of the continent’s cities were chaotic and dangerous, others linguistically impenetrable, and others stuck in a culinary time warp. But Asia’s dining scene has come on in leaps and bounds and received wisdom is that, thanks in part to established overseas chefs and restaurateurs recognising the potential in newly wealthy Asian cities, the region is becoming a force to be reckoned with. While it is still largely dominated by chefs from overseas, these pioneers are at least looking towards their adopted homelands for everything from traditional recipes to techniques and local ingredients.

Yet the boom is also being fuelled increasingly by the growing internationalisation of Asian chefs and restaurants who are using stints abroad as springboards for their own professional development back home. “They are more exposed to wider influences, and other parts of the world are more exposed to their influence,” says William Drew, editor of Restaurant magazine, organisers of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. “Communication is so much quicker and more open, and chefs tend to be very generous with their knowledge. “The impression I get is that the gastronomic scene is getting more sophisticated overall. That doesn’t just mean high-end ‘fine dining’ restaurants, but lots of different types and styles of restaurant operating at a high level. We’re also seeing the greater influence of street food in higher-end restaurants such as Varq in India, Gaggan in Bangkok and Yardbird in Hong Kong,” Drew adds.

Gaggan Anand, Gaggan, Bangkok

In addition, the trends in the region are diversifying and while haute cuisine still holds sway, diners are prepared to be a little more experimental in their choices. The region has seen a strong interest in slow food, locavorism, seasonality and sustainability across all cuisines, mirroring trends elsewhere in the world. “With such a profound breadth of ingredients and influences to draw from, I’m sure we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far of what Asia is truly capable of,” says Grant Thatcher, publishing editor of LUXE City Guides and academy chair for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau for Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.

ON THE LIST
Asia’s fine dining scene is booming, highlighted by the inaugural Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, held in Singapore this February. The list reflects a dining scene more diverse than ever before, as the region’s traditional strongholds of Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo are joined by stand-out restaurants from emerging culinary centres like Bangkok, Seoul and Taiwan. The former three were the first to be able to support such restaurants, but the region’s growing economic power means that further flung establishments are now joining the top table.

This year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, announced in London on 29 April, featured seven Asian locations. And the very presence of an Asian edition of the list, which began life this year, points to the growing importance of the continent as a dining hub. “The launch of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants was designed, in part, to support and promote that process by shining a spotlight on the region as a whole and the rich and diverse talent within it,” says Drew, adding, “We believe the list did that, and we hope to do so to an even greater extent in future years.”

Andre Chiang, Restaurant Andre, Singapore

The awards are is being greeted with enthusiasm by the region’s culinary community and the inaugural list has shown that there is a wide range of top restaurants in Asia featuring an equally diverse spectrum of culinary styles. “While Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore play a very important role in high culinary standards, mainland China, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan are the ones to watch over the next few years,” says Andre Chiang, head chef at Restaurant Andre in Singapore, which made the top five in the inaugural list, an accolade Chiang hopes will serve as a bellwether for fine dining throughout the continent.

While many Asian cities were once dominated by big hotel chains and reliant on them for fine dining experiences, high-end restaurateurs are increasingly eschewing the comfort and ready-made clientele of a city’s five-star accommodation and setting up independent sites.  “Good restaurants serving Western food are leaving the confines of hotels and finding themselves on the streets,” confirms Nahm’s David Thompson, whose elegant Bangkok-based restaurant came third on the inaugural list. Chiang agrees: “Asia is a melting pot of cultures and because of that we can see new trends appearing. Top-notch restaurants are shifting from hotels to independent restaurants,” he says.

The rise in Asian fine dining cannot wholly be credited to location, however. “Greater access to better imported ingredients, coupled with the shaky euro, the diminished pound and strong local currencies are resulting in greater buying power and thus better quality,” says Thomson. “We’re also now seeing the beginnings of more interesting restaurants serving local food. Happily, there is increasing diversity in fine dining in Japan, China, India, Singapore and even in Thailand,” Thompson adds. However, among the top offerings in the San Pellegrino-sponsored list, haute cuisine, Japanese and Italian top the list, with the holder of the top slot – Narisawa in Tokyo – combining “classical French cooking” with “seasonal ingredients drawn from Japan’s rich pantry”.

Seiji Yamamoto, Nihonryori RyuGin, Tokyo

Second place Nihonryori RyuGin, also in Toyko, relies on daily trips to the market to provide inspiration – and ingredients – for chef Seiji Yamamoto’s uncompromising goal to “push the boundaries of Japanese cooking while staying true to its roots”. Five of the restaurants in the top 10 are French or French-influenced, which speaks volumes about how French food continues to hold sway in Asia. “French fine dining is still very important and in my opinion will remain a pillar for the culinary scene for a very long time,” says Chiang, who describes his own style as “Mediterranean”. “It’s not just about techniques or style of cuisine, but more importantly, it is an attitude, a philosophy of respect for nature, the seasons and the produce itself,” says Chiang.

OPEN-MINDED
While chefs from around the continent agree in the ongoing primacy of French food in the region, there is a feeling that Asia’s culinary openness is a key to its rapid development. “French cuisine is still considered the most refined cuisine of the Western world, but the qualities of Spanish, Italian, American and Japanese cuisines are also growing rapidly,” says chef and restauranter Umberto Bombana, who runs restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai, and whose Hong Kong-based 8 1⁄2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana (sixth on the Asia’s 50 Best list), is the first Italian restaurant outside of Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars.

Restaurateurs are increasingly prepared to experiment and try unusual combinations of local ingredients and techniques with more established culinary norms. “Experimentation is perhaps the most obvious influence, but there has also been a return to foraging, the revisiting of forgotten or lost ingredients and cooking techniques, and a keen interest in the heritage of recipes,” says LUXE City Guides’ Thatcher. “Asia’s extraordinary diversity means there is huge potential for growth in the fine dining market. A quick checklist of Japan’s stellar culinary scene is an easy example, but gastrolabs, like Gaggan in Bangkok, are appearing, where chef and owner Gaggan Anand is redefining Indian cuisine into what he calls ‘progressive Indian’,” Thatcher adds.

Yoshihiro Narisawa, Narisawa, Tokyo

WHAT TO DRINK?
Diversity is another key to Asia’s increasingly fecund fine dining scene, with a dizzying array of local produce, alongside an enviable geographical location meaning the pick of ingredients from Australasia, the US and Europe. As the tastes of Asia’s restaurant patrons develop and mature, embracing both local and international fine dining, the question of pairing wines and cocktails comes to the fore. Otto e Mezzo’s Umberto Bombana notes the benefit of Hong Kong’s centrality, which allows access to both Old and New World wines, but those who are embracing Asian cuisine – David Thompson among them – see both benefits and drawbacks. “Thai food and wine is not an easygoing marriage; at times it’s contentious and rocky,” he says. “You can find wines that can work with a dish or two but by Thai food’s nature, a meal contains several dishes of contrasting flavours and textures and very few wines are Catholic enough to deal with such broad and opposing tastes.

“Having said that, we have a large wine list at Nahm and the sommeliers advise guests according to the combination of dishes that are ordered, with German, French or Australian Rieslings often recommended on the white front and Pinot Noir playing a starring role for the reds,” says Thompson.

Throughout Asia trends are changing and it is increasingly common to see chefs – and patrons – demanding sustainability at the core of the dining experience. “I’m compelled to use local ingredients and happily in Bangkok this means food from the nearby markets or grown in farms specifically for us. I know we aren’t alone in that,” says Thompson. The trend isn’t just being led by chefs and restaurateurs, but by a knowledgeable public who are becoming more demanding, health- conscious and environmentally aware.

Asia also appears to be taking cues from the US and Europe in the form of pop-up restaurants, with Nahm taking up temporary residence in the Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong for three days this April, a move Thompson sees as the tip of the iceberg for Asian pop-ups, and a “happy excursion”.

Jaan, Singapore