Aussie chef Mark Best was in town for a recent food promotion at Belvedere in the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong.
The famed gourmet from Marque restaurant in Sydney, which is run by Best and his wife, was recently given the title of Chef of the Year by the Sydney Morning Herald. He has worked with some of the best mentors and exponents of traditional French cuisine in the business - including Raymond Blanc and Alain Passard - but describes his food as decidedly modern.
'I love French cuisine and its layering of flavours and unflinching attention to detail. It's very much about the produce and that's the thing I want to follow,' said the electrician-turned-chef.
'A quote from Pierre Gagnier which sums up what I try to achieve was that he has this wonderful produce that he wants to bring to a point of unnatural expression. There's another one that I loved of his ... you know the cliche with produce-driven cuisine especially from the New World chefs is that they get produce that is so fantastic that you do little or nothing to it. And Gagnier said that: 'Produce that you do little or nothing to ends up as little or nothing'.
'I am an Australian chef cooking in Australia using Australian produce and yet I still call my cuisine French - and that's probably as meaningless as the term 'Australian cuisine'. Certainly we have a very short culinary tradition and therefore no culinary tradition.'
And does he foresee a time where chefs could legitimately call their cuisine 'Australian'? The answer is short and to the point.
