Hidden Gourmet Chef Fu Ge Unveils New Dishes in Kaohsiung, Reviving Hong Kong Tycoons’ Favorite Home-style Cuisine

▲ Scallop and Water Chestnut Pork Patties, often making diners unknowingly finish an entire bowl of rice.

Reported and photographed by Huang Shiyuan, Kaohsiung

The "Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macau 2016" was recently released, with the celebrity restaurant led by hidden gourmet chef Zheng Jinguifu (Chef Fu) maintaining its Michelin two-star status. In fact, at the time the list came out, Chef Fu was adjusting the menu at the Celebrity Cuisine in Kaohsiung’s Howard Plaza Hotel. He believes Taiwanese have a special fondness for intricate and home-style dishes, so he especially added menu items loved by the Lin family during their evening meals, such as scallop and water chestnut pork patties, Chaozhou-style marinated seafood, and satay beef brisket hotpot, among which is also the “Imperial Mother’s Birthday Peach,” a must-have dish for the Lin family’s birthday celebrations.

Celebrity Cuisine has been in Taiwan for over four months now, and Chef Fu is deeply impressed by the warmth of Taiwanese people. Their satisfaction upon tasting good food is clearly evident, and they also particularly love intricate and home-style dishes. Chef Fu said that wealthy people actually love home-style cuisine the most — as long as you can make a dish both delicious and healthy, it truly tests a chef’s skill.


▲ Chaozhou-style Marinated Seafood.

Scallop and Water Chestnut Pork Patties
Steamed meat patties are one of the most common home dishes; every mom in Hong Kong knows how to make them. But Chef Fu’s version, the “Scallop and Water Chestnut Pork Patties,” is different because the requirements of wealthy families are not the same. Chef Fu uses the front section of pork collar meat, which is neither too fatty nor too lean, and has a nice firmness. When cooking, Chef Fu emphasizes that the minced meat must be chopped by hand — only this way can the pure handmade meat maintain good elasticity. Then, he soaks large Japanese scallops until soft, shreds them finely, and mixes them into the minced meat. He also pours the scallop soaking liquid into the meat mixture to develop chewiness, resulting in steamed patties that are juicy, tender, and fluffy.

Chaozhou-style Marinated Seafood
As for another home-style dish, Chaozhou-style marinated seafood, it is a classic Chaozhou cuisine. It uses freshly caught seasonal seafood, tastes light yet flavorful, and comes with a variety of broth-based side vegetables. For this dish, Chef Lin Kai, the resident head chef at Celebrity Cuisine in Taiwan, goes to the market daily to find the day’s freshly caught seafood. Chef Lin says that green grouper, red snapper, or grouper are all suitable — as long as they’re alive, they’re fresh. This dish includes salted vegetables commonly used in Chaozhou cuisine, layered with radish, celery, and dried tofu skin for braising, and finally topped off with shredded dried tangerine peel for a touch of elegance. Chef Fu mentioned that Celebrity Cuisine uses tangerine peel priced at NT$10,000 per kilogram, which is extremely aromatic.


▲ Wagyu Pan-fried Buns, made using Australian Grade 9 wagyu beef.

Wagyu Pan-fried Buns
In addition to hot dishes, Chef Fu has also brought several special dim sum items, including Shanghai-style Wagyu pan-fried buns. Although Celebrity Cuisine is a Cantonese restaurant, Chef Fu believes that occasionally offering non-Cantonese dishes, as long as they are delicious, gives guests a little pleasant surprise. The filling of the Wagyu pan-fried buns uses Australian Grade 9 wagyu beef, chopped into minced meat, then seasoned with black pepper and onion, giving it a somewhat Western flavor.

Imperial Mother’s Birthday Peach
Additionally, the “Imperial Mother’s Birthday Peach,” a dish that was always present at the birthday celebrations of Hong Kong tycoon Lam Pak-yan’s family, has also been brought to Taiwan by Chef Fu. Unlike local birthday peaches, the filling inside is made from a whole salted duck egg wrapped around lotus seeds and cooked in white sugar lard lotus paste. Its plump white appearance is then sprayed with a red juice extracted from pickled red cabbage, resembling a fresh peach. Chef Fu said that putting a duck egg inside the peach was a common practice in the past, but fewer people do it nowadays, and now doing so is even mistaken for an innovative dish.

This season’s new menu is expected to run until before Lunar New Year. Chef Fu said he updates the menu each season according to seasonal characteristics.


▲ Looks just like a peach.


▲ The filling is made from a whole salted duck egg wrapped around lotus seeds and cooked in white sugar lard lotus paste.
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Howard Plaza Hotel Kaohsiung – Celebrity Cuisine
Address: 12F, No. 266, Chenggong 1st Rd., Qianjin District, Kaohsiung City
Phone: (07) 213-5732

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