Asia's Best Female Chef Revealed!

What’s the first dish you ever made? I guess I never really learned to cook until I attended high school abroad in the United States. The dining hall was the only source of our meals for entire semesters, and very often the foreign students would crave some good old home-cooked food. On weekends we started to meet in each other’s dorm rooms and cook up a storm with a mini electric stove and rice cooker. I can’t remember the very first thing I made, but we usually made things like steamed rice with curry or ramen noodles—we got really creative with those ramen noodles! I can tell you with certainty that they were a success.  If you could only eat one dish for the rest of your life what would it be? Giant bowls of fruit salad, or maybe sandwiches. Something I can mix up and deconstruct for variety. What’s the one dish you always turn to when hosting a dinner party? That’s a tough one as I always customise my menu specifically for the occasion, but one crowd pleasing dish would be my Tagliolini cooked in lobster broth with crispy sakura ebi and parmesan foam. This dish may seem like a common pasta dish, but we spend hours making the lobster broth and the sakura ebi must be just crisp enough to create harmony with the pasta. What’s the most unusual dish you’ve created? I suppose one of the dishes that stood out the most is “An Ode to Tomatoes.” I was inspired by a poem by Pablo Neruda who talked about the life of a humble tomato in a busy market scene. I interpreted that into food by presenting tomatoes in different textures—there was panna cotta, confit, crisps, consommé and gelée. I topped it off with pommery mustard ice cream, which is a great flavour pairing for tomatoes. Where do you like to shop for ingredients? In Hong Kong my favourite place would be the Aberdeen wet market. They have a great variety of seafood that’s so fresh, their fish is caught that same morning and the frogs are still alive. Which restaurant would you like to try? I’d really like to try Pujol. Mexican cuisine is one of my top three favourite cuisines. I love how deeply rooted Mexican gastronomy is in their culture. I also like the idea of ancient, traditional recipes being reinvented for the 21st century. What are your plans for 2015?

I’m looking to expand the work space at Tate so I can continue to explore new dishes. I have a notebook filling up with more than 50 new ideas that I want to explore!

Lau will be given her trophy at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2015 awards in Singapore on 9 March. Food fans should check out the masterclasses being held in conjunction with the awards. Visit www.theworlds50best.com

Shrimp and Lemongrass Consommé

SERVES 8

PREPARATION

10 minutes

COOKING

45 minutes

■ 500g fresh raw shrimp with shell

■ 1/2 stalk of lemongrass

■ 3g ginger

■ 1 tomato

■ 1 clove garlic

■ 1g Kampot peppercorns

■ ½ birds eye chilli (optional)

■ 350ml distilled water

■ 5g fish sauce

Method

In a blender, purée the washed and peeled fresh shrimp, along with lemongrass, ginger, tomato, garlic, Kampot peppercorn, bird’s eye chilli, and distilled water until it’s in smooth purée form. Transfer mixture into a heavy bottom stockpot on medium heat. Stir the mixture constantly with a spatula until it starts to simmer, then stop stirring. Simmer for 45 minutes—watch closely so that it does not come to a boil. After 45 minutes, take the pot off the heat and with a ladle, slowly scoop out the liquid and strain it through a fine cheese cloth. Add in fish sauce to finish.