Chef Talk: Chef Chau Oi Fong, Chinese Executive Chef of Ming Yuan @ Banyan Tree Shanghai On The Bund

In September of this year, Chef Chau Oi Fong joined Banyan Tree Shanghai On The Bund as Executive Chef of Ming Yuan Chinese restaurant. Even before Talk’s welcomed invitation to go down and meet Chef Chau in person, news had reached our ears of “an awesome new dim sum brunch deal at the Banyan Tree” from some of our most reliable food sources. So, of course, we were more than happy to experience the new offerings at Ming Yuan for ourselves.

Chef Chau is a Honk Kong native, so naturally dinners can expect a strong dim sum menu and an array of other Cantonese dishes, however, Chef Chau is a very talented chef who has been working in the industry since 1999 and can also turn his hand to innovative Chinese cuisine.

Since Chef Chau’s appointment, Ming Yuan have released a new “All You Can Eat” brunch menu that includes a selection of cold dishes, BBQ, soups, hot dishes, porridge, rice, noodles, dim sum and desserts. This specially selected all you can eat menu is available on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays between 11:30am and 4:30pm for RMB 168 (+15% surcharge) per person.

We sat down with Chef Chau over a selection of dishes from the new all you can eat brunch menu and, when he wasn’t trying to fill our plates with dim sum gems – Chinese parent style – from the numerous steaming baskets dominating our table, he told us about his new signature dishes from the a la carte menu at Ming Yuan.

We were lucky enough to sample two of Chef Chau’s freshly made signature dishes, wagyu beef with black pepper (RMB 450) and sautéed prawns and scallops with black truffle sauce (RMB 238). The wagyu beef was extremely tender and oozing with a rich umami flavour with a slight pick of spice from the black pepper while the sautéed prawns and scallops were so fresh and sweet that a light truffle sauce was all they needed to enhance their natural flavours and worked perfectly with the crunch of the slightly al dente asparagus on the side.

After Chef Chau re-emerged from the kitchen, after cooking our signature dishes to order, he told Talk that the sautéed prawns and scallops with black truffle sauce was one of his favourite dishes to make and was a perfect warm, hearty but healthy dish for the impending winter months. After finishing the last juicy scallop on our plate, we asked him to share the recipe with us. Luckily, he obliged with one tip, buy sea scallops that are freshly imported from Japan. Happy cooking!

Sautéed Prawns And Scallops With Black Truffle Sauce

Ingredients                

·         Fresh Sea Scallops

·         Prawns

·         Asparagus

·         Red Peppers

·         Yellow Peppers

·         Black Truffle Oil

·         Salt

·         Sugar

·         Chicken Seasoning Powder

Method

Cut through the prawns’ backs to devein them. Marinate the scallops and prawns by mixing them with the sugar, salt and chicken seasoning powder. Cut red and yellow peppers into thin slices. Quickly boil the scallops, prawns and asparagus in boiling water before transferring them to a wok. Stir-fry the ingredients in hot oil before adding black truffle sauce. Cook until tender.