Join us for the live steam of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants virtual awards ceremony, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, on 25 March and discover which restaurant will be crowned the best in Asia.
In a time where travel is restricted, countries are locked down and everyone is just trying to figure out how to stay afloat, the announcement of a six-hands international chef dinner may come as a surprise but it’s not quite what it seems. The Eat Give Revive event on 30 January 2021 is anchored by chef Christopher Kostow’s team at Ensue, the host restaurant based in Shenzhen’s Futian Shangri-La Hotel, featuring recipes and input by six acclaimed chefs from around Asia to create an eight-course menu. Priced at 2,288 RMB, all funds raised from the dinner not deducting cost will be donated to support Green Food Bank, a Shanghai-based charity working to fight hunger among vulnerable communities.
When the food at a fine dining restaurant is described as art on a plate most likely, the plate is art in itself, as in recent years, chefs have taken to bespoke tableware as the vessels for their gourmet creations. Chef André Chiang, for one, handcrafted ceramic ornaments for his now-defunct Restaurant André in Singapore, and he turned to the professionals such as husband-and-wife ceramicists Loh Lik Kian and Debbie Ng when it came to tableware.
“Our tableware serves as canvases for the chef’s plating, much like the blank canvases for the artist to paint on,” enthuses Loh, whose interest in ceramics began when he chanced upon a unique Japanese teapot more than two decades ago. “I was mesmerised by its ‘natural beauty’ wood-fired with just the raw clay body, with a glaze pattern reminiscent of a string of fired straw, and an imperfect handle.”
Award-winning broadcast journalist and storyteller
One of the best-known news anchors in Indonesia, Andini Effendi has reported from all corners of the world. She covered the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. After falling in love with Africa during a trip to South Africa and Namibia last year, she hopes to visit Rwanda next.
“I want to see the conservation work there how nature and good policies can be an asset to a country. I believe Indonesia can learn from it.” She also wants to head to Guatemala and Chile, the latter for a scheduled marathon that was cancelled due to the pandemic. During lockdown, her travel philosophy has been transformed. “We will be travelling more to accessible places with a lesser impact on the environment where we feel secure about our health.” On that note, with a lot of Indonesia left for her to explore, she says now is the right time to see more of her home country.