The 2019 viral flowing-center mooncakes—top choice: Michelin master’s Cantonese-style creations

Although Mid-Autumn Festival is not here yet, major mooncake brands have already launched an intense battle. Recently scrolling through Instagram and Xiaohongshu, I noticed many food bloggers showcasing Hong Kong’s Royal’s flowing-center mooncakes—their appearance alone is mouthwatering. As a devoted fan of flowing-center mooncakes, I decided to investigate for myself.

According to the Hong Kong Economic Times, Royal is a brand rooted in Hong Kong, with its own large-scale modern factory, bringing together chefs from five-star hotels, and committed to 100% made-in-Hong-Kong production. With both solid soft power and hard strength, it promotes the “Made in Hong Kong” spirit.

The viral “flowing-centercustardmooncake”is the creation ofa master who has presided over the dim sum department at Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotelfor many years.30Master with many years of experience！

When it comes to custard mooncakes, many people think of him—Master Ye Wing Wah, the creator of the mini custard mooncakes at the Peninsula Hotel’s The Peninsula Hong Kong’s Gaddi’s. He started learning dim sum at age 13 and has been in the industry for over 50 years. In 1986, Master Ye was invited to join Gaddi’s as head of the dim sum department. As Mid-Autumn approached, he used custard as the filling, buttery pastry as the crust, and after dozens of trials, he created the mini custard mooncakes that remain popular to this day. During his 30 years at Gaddi’s, he used his hands to bring people delicious dim sum that earned widespread praise.

Last year, Master Ye joined the Royal Group as its Chief Pastry Chef. Building on the foundation of the Peninsula’s mini custard mooncakes, he innovated and developed an upgraded line of flowing-center mooncakes. This includes the flowing-center custard mooncake and Hong Kong’s first-ever flowing-center sesame mooncake. Upon launch, they were instantly loved by numerous food bloggers, becoming all the rage across Hong Kong and on Instagram—you can see Royal’s flowing-center mooncakes everywhere.

Masters joining forces,craftingMichelin-levelmooncakes

Master Ye Wing Wah (left) & Master Lai Wing Koon (right)

This year, Master Ye’s only official apprentice, two-Michelin-star pastry chef Master Lai Wing Koon, was also invited to join Royal, focusing on product R&D and quality control. Master Lai has served as head chef at five-star hotels around the world (Peninsula Hong Kong, Peninsula Bangkok, Malaysia, etc.), and was the head of the dim sum department at the Peninsula Shanghai for over ten years, where he personally established the hotel’s dim sum department. His international hotel experience gave him deep knowledge of diverse culinary cultures and ingredient characteristics, which he integrated with pastry techniques. For example, the flowing-center Musang King durian mooncake uses top-grade Musang King durian, fresh whole-shell flesh, and manually deseeded to preserve the purest durian flesh, perfectly incorporated into the mooncake and harmonizing beautifully with the flowing-center texture.

Qualitythat standsout,the flowing-centermooncakehas wonthe “Nobel Prize of Food”—“the highest gold award.”Grand Gold Award

With more and more varieties of flowing-center mooncakes on the market, quality varies greatly. The flowing filling must not be too “runny,” which would ruin the texture, nor too “thick,” which could cause it to solidify. To achieve the perfect flowing effect, Masters Ye Wing Wah and Lai Wing Koon conducted hundreds of repeated studies and trials, ultimately creating flowing-center mooncakes that excel in appearance, color, aroma, and taste, all while maintaining excellent flowing properties even at room temperature.

In 2019, at the latest edition of the Monde Selection, known as the "Nobel Prize of Food Quality," the royal-style flowing-center mooncake from 皇? won the highest honor — the Grand Gold award. This marked the first time in 58 years that a flowing-center mooncake had received this top-tier Grand Gold accolade globally, earning recognition for its quality from an authoritative international institution.

Five-starWith consistently positive reviews,it has won overthe taste buds of food enthusiasts.

I also learned from the 大众点评 (Dianping) reviews of 皇? that, aside from its products, the service is also on par with five-star hotels. The overall rating of the shop is five stars, and in the latest Hong Kong bread and dessert category rankings, it holds the top spot in both the ratings and taste lists. Some food bloggers have already gotten a first taste of 皇?'s latest mooncake series, all giving it very high praise, winning over the palates of food lovers.

Such a mooncake, which has "risen to fame" thanks to its high-end appearance and premium quality, has become a rising star among Hong Kong-style mooncakes. It has successfully been added to my list of must-tries, and this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake pick is set — it’s this one！