Champion of the Chef King Competition, Du Jiaying, Reveals Money-Saving Secrets for New Year’s Dishes and Dim Sum

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

As the Lunar New Year approaches, prices of festive ingredients and goods have risen by an average of 10–20%. How can you prepare New Year’s dishes while saving money? Chef Du Jiaying, who won the team championship at last year’s “World Chef King Taipei Competition,” has just published her new book “The Home-Style Flavor of Chinese Dim Sum,” sharing cost-saving secrets. She says, “Using just an electric rice cooker, small oven, or a frying pan, you can make at home radish cake and red bean sponge cake that rival those of five-star hotels — at just one-quarter of the price.”

Hailing from Taipei’s Dadaocheng district, where her family has been running a pork bun and four-herb soup business for half a century,Du Jiayinggrew up learning to knead dough and wrap zongzi with her grandmother. She mastered the skills of steaming, stir-frying, pan-frying, and baking traditional Chinese pastries, as well as the secrets to preparing Chinese sweet soups and frozen desserts. Currently an assistant professor in the Culinary Department at Taipei City University of Science and Technology, she is hailed in the industry as the most beautiful female culinary goddess.

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With many middle-aged and elderly fans, she has decided to publicly share her family’s treasured recipes for New Year’s dishes and dim sum.She says, “For a good start to the New Year, a single big radish only costs twenty dollars. Just shred it, sauté it with dried shrimp and mushrooms, then stir-fry with salt, fine sugar, and white pepper. Pour in water and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and stir in a slurry made from rice flour, water chestnut flour, and wheat starch mixed with water. Finally, mix in fried shallot bits and cook until the mixture thickens like paste. Steam over high heat for sixty minutes to serve ten people. The secret is adding water chestnut flour to make the texture softer and chewier.”

▲ The secret to delicious radish cake is adding water chestnut flour for a softer, chewier texture. (Photo / Provided by Shangyou Culture)

An upscale red bean sponge cake can cost nearly 700 dollars, but Du Jiaying makes it for just 150 dollars. Simply mix rice flour, glutinous rice flour, and powdered sugar, pour in milk, and knead until uniform. Sift the mixture into a fine powder, then mix in diced sweetened red beans to create a sweet red bean powder. Pour half of it into an aluminum foil mold, then place a ring of black bean paste — about the size of a donut — in the center as filling. Fill the rest with the sweet red bean powder, and sprinkle some shredded papaya and ground red dates on top. Steam over high heat for forty minutes. She says, “The trick is using milk instead of water to enhance the milky aroma, and poking holes in the bottom of the aluminum foil mold before laying down parchment paper — it makes steaming through and removing the cake much easier.”