Over the clouds, tofu on my plate!

Q&A: Sam Leong Chef

followed him into the kitchen for his take on Chinese food.

Your food is not really Chinese...

It is "more than Chinese". I used to think why serve the same dim sums the same old way. So I tried to serve the cuisine Western-style. Of course, the kitchen staff was not happy, individual plating meant more work. Then, Chinese men who came in for business lunches didn't understand the Western service.

If the waiter served the secretary, the woman, first, the man would wave and say, "hey, I am the boss!" Then, I started experimenting with flavours. I love coffee and one day, I thought why not cook pork ribs in it?

It turned out to be terrible. But I experimented some more, put in plum sauce, then the coffee and, this time, it was fabulous. I presented this dish at the World Gourmet Summit awards and everybody started talking about the chef from Singapore.

Why did the Tung Lok group decide on this concept (My Humble House)? Is it popular at all?

When we started it in Singapore, the group already had 15 other restaurants. We wanted to do something new. The Chinese are conservative, black is never used in restaurant interiors as it is inauspicious.

We decided to have black, not to have big red lanterns, lazy susans, or Chinese music but have a modern feel with expensive Wedgwood crockery. We decided to call it My Humble House, though, of course, the prices were not so humble. When people came in, they got a shock. Japanese tourists who like anything new loved it. In Shanghai and Beijing too, tourists love it.

What's with the menu? Names like "Freely, I Roam the Green Pastures" (seared tenderloin wrapped with enoki mushroom) and "Splish Splash, Sounds of Innocence" !

The practice of "good" names for dishes is followed by Chinese restaurants around New Year. They play upon the sound of the main ingredient (Har means prawn, Yu fish in Cantonese) to come up with poetic one-liners. We thought it would be interesting to do the same. Though we do have people who complain when "Phoenix flew over the cloud" turns out to be tofu!

You pick up ideas when you travel, any combinations from here...

The Dum Pukht chef taught me chicken curry... May be that will go well with scallops! But first I'll send a team of vegetarian chefs to do a full promotion here.