Chef Chan Yan-Tak A Whole New Dimension

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Chef Chan Yan-Tak, a professional Chinese chef, was the first and only Chinese chef to acquire all of the three possible Michelin stars. Both his mother and father passed away before Yan-Tak turned 13, leaving him with four younger children to raise on his own. With no formal culinary education and barely any education at all, he was first introduced to the culinary world due to his necessities for money and the stress of providing for his family. He disliked his culinary career at first, but gradually learned how to enjoy and cherish it.

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Unlike most other chefs, his training consisted of working long hours in the kitchen since youth, causing him to gain practice and experience through continuous cooking. Chef Chan Yan-Tak, now 59 years old, was born in 1960 in Mong Kok, Hong Kong. He first came into contact with the art of food when he began working at Dai Sam Yuen in Wan Chai, Hong Kong at the age of 13.

Although at the time, cooking was a career for the less fortunate and more desperate for money, Chef Yan-Tak twisted the situation around and brought himself to find delight in it instead.

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When he first started working at Dai Sam Yuen, he woke up at four in the morning everyday in order to prepare the day’s dimsum, which are differently assembled Chinese dishes served in small portions. In 1975, after working at Dai Sam Yuen for roughly two years, he became a chef at Fook Lam Moon. Almost a decade later, in 1984, he went to Lai Ching Heen and worked as an executive chef there for 15 years.

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However, his life took a catastrophic turn for the worst once again when his wife passed away, forcing him to make another life-changing decision. He packed up his career and decided to retire, becoming a stay-home father and taking care of his twelve-year-old daughter by himself.

However, four years later, he was brought back into the culinary industry by William Mackay as an executive chef working for Lung King Heen at Four Seasons Hotel in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. He was then awarded three Michelin stars, becoming the first ever Chinese chef to receive the honor. Now, he is still working for Lung King Heen, creating more classic and creative Chinese dishes with a modern twist on the traditional cuisine. Chef Yan-Tak is famous for his traditional yet new and twisted Cantonese dishes. He is most famous for his “char siu bao,” which are baked or steamed barbecued pork buns with a sweet and sticky honey-like sauce.

Additionally, he is also known for his pineapple buns, which are soft white bread rolls with flaky golden toppings that resemble pineapples after baking due to how they crack. However, instead of the traditional pineapple bun, Chef Yan-Tak’s version consists of pine nuts to add an extra layer of texture. Furthermore, his other signature dishes include scallop and lobster filled steamed dumplings, diced chicken filled baked abalone puffs, and various other different dimsum dishes. By changing these traditional Cantonese foods into more modernly-accepted ones, Chef Yan-Tak has given us a whole new understanding of the Cantonese cuisine and its characteristics. After numerous taste tests performed by anonymous individuals, Chef Yan-Tak finally became the first Chinese chef to get three Michelin stars, impacting the culinary world by introducing a new and unique culture that no chef was fully seen as capable of representing before Chef Yan-Tak. With his three Michelin stars, he received the responsibility of showing the outside world the Cantonese cuisine and its specialties.

Chef Yan-Tak once said, “Without good leadership, good teamwork, and good communication, you will never have a truly strong kitchen.” This quote is attempting to convey that without these qualities in a team, the numerous individuals trying to accomplish the same goal will never success. It plays a crucial role in the culinary world due to its demonstrative abilities of how cooperation is vital for success between different people with different ideas. Although Chef Yak-Tak has said and accomplished great things, he tends to keep a low profile, distancing himself from social events, such as competitions, and focusing on his culinary career. As a professional chef from Hong Kong, Chef Yan-Tak caught my attention because since my parents and almost all of the rest of my family are from Hong Kong, I’ve always wanted to better understand the culture and style of the food. Even though I have visited Hong Kong at least once per year since I was eight months old and have enjoyed some of the different styles of Cantonese food, I believe there is much more history behind the art of Cantonese cuisine than what I've seen and learned so far.

My parents, extended family, and I almost always go out for lunch and dinner every weekend, trying new forms of Cantonese foods and learning more about them. Through gaining knowledge about Chef Yan-Tak and his experiences, I hoped to also gain knowledge about my parents’ hometown and their styles of cooking. Therefore, I believed Chef Yan-Tak was the correct choice due to my family's relationship with food and our love for our culture’s cuisine. I believe that Chef Yan-Tak was both courageous and great because of how he gave up his education and his career at different times of his life to care for family while still managing to successfully give the outside world a better understanding about Cantonese food. He has impacted many individuals, like me, by giving us a greater understanding of our culture. Compared to my normal eating habits, however, Chef Yan-Tak presents an actual modern version of Cantonese food, whereas the Cantonese food I come into contact with is purely traditional. In conclusion, not only has Chef Yan-Tak represented the practices of Chinese cooking, he has also introduced the world to a whole new dimension of Asian cuisines.