Chef elevates Cantonese cuisine with hands-on approach

In the hot dish competition, chefs had to cook two different flavored dishes with two main ingredients and using separate cooking methods within 90 minutes. Tam impressed the judges with his lobster roll and a dish of fried lamb chop with peppers.

In 2007, Tam moved to Macao to work as the executive chef of a Cantonese restaurant in a five-star hotel. After nearly a decade of hard work, he was awarded two Michelin stars for his signature Cantonese dishes in 2016.

Last year, after his restaurant was listed on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2018, Tam accepted a new challenge taking over the kitchen of the Wing Lei Palace in Macao, which involved creating a new menu from scratch with a new team.

"I challenge myself all the time, as I want to stay innovative. I think cooking is like fashion-we have to follow the latest trends to create the most delicious delicacies," he says.

"I spend a great deal of time sourcing top-level ingredients from around the world, to make the most desirable dishes for my diners," says Tam, who now has an unlimited budget for sourcing the best quality ingredients.

Tam has a habit of wandering around local markets each day to find the freshest and most seasonal ingredients, and using them to create new dishes for the daily menu.

"Usually I'll visit the market in the afternoon when the fishermen return from sea with their fresh catches," says Tam.

He believes that maintaining traditional Cantonese cooking methods is essential to creating new dishes. Once Tam finds a new ingredient, he experiments with it and cooks in different traditional ways, such as steaming and frying, to find how to bring out the best in the ingredient.

"The rationality of the combination of ingredients is important when you are creating a new dish, and that is based on how familiar you are with the characteristics of the ingredients," says the 54-year-old.

After having spent more than 30 years in the kitchen, Tam believes his understanding of Cantonese cuisine stems from the basic skills he learned early in his career-and especially how to deal with ingredients.

Speaking of the ideal feedback from diners, Tam thinks there is a simple goal: "I'd be happy if after the diners eat in my restaurant, they would recommend to their friends and family to come and try my food."