After 13 years in Australia, renowned chef Donovan Cooke packed up his things and flew back to Hong Kong last year, setting up his eponymous restaurant in the heart of Causeway Bay. Excited to finally have access to produce from anywhere in the world, Cooke lets his imagination run free, crafting new menus on a monthly basis. Part of that creative process is reinventing his signature recipes. Those who dined at The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Derby Restaurant during Cooke’s reign will remember this foie gras ballotine, albeit a little differently. “I took a lot of inspiration from the Japanese way of cooking because it’s taught me about how to get flavour without having to add too much salt and still have that mouthfeel of depth of flavour.”

This time, the foie gras undergoes a two-week long transformation with the help of a marinade of miso, soy, mirin and Japanese brown sugar. Slow-cooked and ready for plating, the foie gras is served alongside caramelised nashi pears, Japanese dried plums, and a translucent blanket of sake jelly.  “I was told from a young age that when you have a dish you have a star, and the star needs friends. At the end of the day the star is foie gras but the foie gras needs friends to make it sing. So both the pears and the dried plums offer sweetness, texture and a little bit of sourness, while the jelly is just an alcoholic flavour bomb to basically bring the whole thing together.” For the full umami experience, the ballotine is often served with a cube of glazed brioche and whipped seaweed butter.

16/F, Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Rd, Causeway Bay; @donovan.hongkong

House of Culture

“In all my dishes I try to achieve some sort of comfort level, and that comfort usually comes from nostalgia. I try to find something that the majority of people can connect with and that’s usually a mother’s cooking in some format,” says chef Gavin Chin. Among his latest creations for House of Culture is a dish representative of what he calls “the basic umami format”, and one that plays on various layers of sentiment. A comforting balance of sweet and savoury, Chin’s daikon takes notes from his mother’s ABC soup and his first encounter with oden (thanks to his good friend Hiro Yoshikawa of Washi Denim and Taiko Sake). Cylindrical cross-hatched daikon slices are braised in a konbu, mixed mushrooms and soy broth, before they are seared and coated with a glossy reduction sauce made from that same broth. Crunchy puffed amaranth and bubu arare add textural contrast, while a dollop of mustard is an unexpected gamechanger, cutting through the mellow flavours of daikon and the dashi-like broth.

At first glance the daikon is wholly contemporary, with its blackened surface and restrained plating, but a single bite reintroduces those intimate home-cooked flavours. “There’s always a criteria we try to achieve where we want to create something familiar yet unfamiliar. We try to be as modern as possible from a presentation standpoint but flavour-wise we have to make sure it’s tasty and hits those notes of nostalgia. Like yes, my mum would approve this dish.”

G/F Shop B, Kenbo Commercial Building, 335-339 Queen’s Road West, Sai Ying Pun; @houseofculturehk

Photography: Samantha Sin
Styling: Ella Wong