Chef Talk: Mark Best

Staged for the first time ever in Shanghai, Hats Off, an extraordinary culinary showcase, brought together international and local master chefs, through a series of intimate dining experiences at Le Royal Méridien Shanghai.

The “Hats Off” culinary event saw three internationally acclaimed chefs take to the kitchens of the award-winning restaurants at Le Royal Méridien Shanghai to share their signature dishes and personal brand of culinary specials with the guests.

Talk was lucky enough to steal Australian chef, Mark Best, away from the kitchen for long enough to grill him about the event and his culinary habits. In 1995, Best won the Josephine Pignolet Award and opened his own restaurant, Peninsula Bistro, Balmain, which soon developed a strong local following and rave critical acclaim. In 1998 he worked at ‘L’Arpége’ in Paris, Alain Passard’s three Michelin Star Gastro Temple.

Talk: How did you become involved with this “Hats Off” project?
Mark Best: Way back in the mists of time, I was invited to go to Kuala Lumpur, which started my association with Starwood. I then did another one in Beijing, in the financial district, so I’ve had a fairly long association with Starwood.

Talk: What are you bringing to the kitchen this year?
MB: Well it’s four years on and my cuisine has changed a bit, the dishes will be different. I’m four years older and wiser!

Talk: Australia is a culinary melting pot with lots of different Asian influences. At home, do you often go to Chinese restaurants and what is your go-to Chinese dish?
MB: I would probably go to Din Tai Fung in Australia; there are several outlets there now. Sydney has a huge Cantonese population, who have been there forever, so if I go to China Town, I might go for yam cha and I particularly like the silken tofu, which they do well there. Or I go to Golden Century, which is a notorious late-night spot with Lebanese tow-truck drivers, and whoever else is out at 3am, to have crispy vermicelli with XO sauce, an abalone steamboat and fresh or drunken prawns.

Talk: Can you tell us more about the dishes you are presenting to Shanghai?
MB: I’m presenting deliciousness and excellence! One of our classic dishes, which dates back to 2004, is crab and almond jelly, almond gazpacho and a corn custard made from thickened corn juice and starch. It's basically crab with different textures and different variations on almond. We will also do our blackened pigeon. They are lacquered and served with carrot hearts, the hearts are peeled out of the carrots and the rest is used to make a sauce with red miso. We have fermented cabbage with Australian Wagyu beef, seared on one side and very, very fine or fermented cabbage with fermented shitake mushrooms. There is also a dish with century egg.

Talk: So you have incorporated Chinese cuisine into your dishes?
MB: Oh I have mucked around with it a little bit. I mean, it’s difficult as the ingredients are so different here. I try to go, as much as possible, with local ingredients, but you can’t just rubber stamp all the food going on in Surrey Hills and Sydney. I mean, the ingredients are just so different; you have to give yourself options.

Talk: On a different subject, what is your best food memory?
MB: I would say it was when I first went to L'Arpége in Paris. I went there in 1996 and chose it by accident. I read a guidebook, went in there and sat with my wife Valery. We had the most amazing lunch ever,
which burns brightly in my mind, and it set me on my path from being a café owner to where I am now. My epiphany.

Talk: If the world were coming to an end, what would your last meal be?
MB: Salt and vinegar chips with a beer would probably do me I think!