Meet: Kiwi Chef Kate Fay Visits TRB Tonight

It was on a kibbutz in Israel at age 23 that Kate Fay of Cibo restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand, realized that she wanted to become a chef. Since then, her ascent has been steep, and she’s been called “an artist, an adventurer, a genius in the kitchen.”

Tonight, Fay will be launching Temple Restaurant Beijing’s “New Zealand Month” with a six-course degustation menu featuring a number of New Zealand products. If you're free this evening, it's RMB 888 plus 15 percent, reserve at 8400 2232.

Her cuisine draws on the flavors of Southeast Asia where she has traveled extensively, but this is her first time in China. Fay talked yesterday with us about expectations (traffic) and surprises (mountains of chilies) in China, how to taste and the most memorable things she’s ever eaten.

What do you think will come out of being in China for a week?
We’re taking photos and then we’ll get some local recipes, so hopefully we’ll come out with the same sort of ideas – something Chinese.

Last night we had Sichuan food, and we were just blown away when this huge dish came out. There were mountains of chilies, and I’m just thinking, “Oh my god is that like a kilo of dried chilies fried? How many would you buy a week or a day just to do the dish? Or would they re-use it?”

What were you expecting coming to China? Have there been surprises already?
The hugest thing was, my God, the airport was enormous. We were leaving Shanghai to go to Beijing, I said, are we walking to Beijing? Just to get to the damn gate.

The traffic is busy, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I think it's because I have been to Bangkok and Southeast Asia, to Hanoi and Vietnam where every motorbike comes towards you at such great speed. In Hanoi, you have to walk through the motorbikes, but you have to walk very slowly and then they go around you.

Also, Alex Worker [of Marianas Group] said to us, walk south – and we walked to the Forbidden City. Later, he asked did you get there? I said, “Yeah, with three thousand other people just about.” Coming from New Zealand that is the biggest thing – the intense population and the intense amount of people.

How did you first become interested in Asian cuisine?
From the traveling. And then, I had a job for a few years, and my boss was Singaporean. She was a big influence because I would make something, and she would say, “No, no, no, those flavors. You’ve got too much fish sauce, you’ve got too much of this.” And the whole issue of tasting became a lot more refined.

So then, there’s a process of refining or recalibrating your tastes?
Yeah, it’s learning how to break down a dish and going, first I’ll taste it for the foams, then I’ll taste it for fish sauce and then I’ll taste it for other flavors. Tasting more than once is a bit of an issue.

The cuisine that you cook has been described as “fusion”...
No, it’s more Pan Asian. I think fusion is kind of strange. I’m not keen on the word. 'Pan Asian' is good. I’ve just come back from a month in Thailand and Myanmar, so what we do is we’ll eat local food and try it all. Then we’ll take it back and say, well, can we do a version that suits our palate, using the same spices, but making a different presentation?

So, we did a scallop dish with Pad Thai. It’s not the same recipe they would use, but it’s using the same ingredients. So if a Thai person came in, they’d say, "What the … this isn’t Thai!" But it’s flavors that we’re after.

What’s the most memorable thing you’ve ever eaten?
A three dollar fifty sweet and sour pork in Cambodia. And I can still bloody taste it. It was just very plain on a plate, but it was so clean and crisp. I thought, “Oh my God,” so I went back and had that three nights in a row. I’d sit in the restaurant and think, Oh I’ll try something else, and then I’d go, “I’ll have the sweet and sour pork.” It was just unbelievable.

Photo: Jennie Kang, Temple Restaurant Beijing