How top chefs Joris Bijdendijk, Richard Ekkebus, Virgilio Martínez Véliz and Norbert Niederkofler are collaborating to make unique tasting menus
From Moscow to Mexico City, Hong Kong to Tokyo, famous chefs are working together to offer cross-collaboration tasting menus to promote with their own
Only in recent years have we seen big-name chefs undertake globe-trotting adventures in four-hands collaborations, broadening their culinary horizons after spending so much time confined to their kitchens. These chefs take to the road – or more often, the skies – in a bid to get the creative juices flowing, or at least avoid having to stare into the dry river bed of menu imagination.
Seeing new countries – markets, suppliers, ingredients – is part of the allure, evoking inspiration while offering a pretty nifty holiday opportunity, too. Perhaps it’s because of social media or the spiralling rise of the celebrity chef. Either way, four-hands are sprouting up everywhere across the world, from Kyoto to the Faroe Islands.
Vladimir Mukhin has teamed up with Jorge Vallejo in both Moscow and Mexico City, and Gaggan Anand with Riccardo Camanini in Bangkok. Zaiyu Hasegawa travelled to Bruges to cook with Gert De Mangeleer. Chef Noboru Arai of Tokyo restaurant Hommage gathered in Hong Kong to cook with Hideaki Sato, head chef of Ta Vie for a degustation journey. Michelin-starred chef Richard Ekkebus welcomed Danish chef Bo Bech and Korea’s Mingoo Kang, chef-owner of Mingles, respectively, for some “joint venture” at his base, the Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong; later, he returned to the Netherlands after 33 years to cook with Joris Bijdendijk, executive chef of RIJKS, who also invited Mauro Colagreco to Amsterdam. There was a British tag-team in Singapore, when Simon Rogan cooked with Kirk Westaway at Jaan, just to name a few.
These one- or two-night events open up new opportunities to both them and the public, allowing chefs to offer a cross-collaboration tasting menu in which they present an insight into another chef’s repertoire, promoted alongside their own.
“A four-hands is like a duel, two chefs or bartenders trying to do something amazing, it pushes each other,” Ekkebus says.
“It is about bringing another chef, another culinary thought process, into your kitchen and is highly motivating for the team, a wonderful learning curve for all of us at Amber and the visiting team to understand each other’s concept, techniques and method. It has enabled us to grow and to build a unique community.”
According to food writer Mattias Kroon, who recently completed a documentary series titled Four Hands Menu with Niklas Ekstedt, the best and most successful collaborations are when “chefs come up with creations together, a true creative effort,” Kroon adds. “Often, they’re common and boring, a parade of premeditated hits and signatures – the chef playing the safe bet.”
One of the first events of 2020 was in January at AlpiNN Food Space & Restaurant in South Tirol, between Virgilio Martínez Véliz, of Central Restaurante and chef Norbert Niederkofler, who helms the Michelin three-star restaurant at Hotel Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano, Italy. The two chefs met during Cook the Mountain in 2014, an event at Alta Badia in the Dolomite mountains of Italy, which focused on mountain food. The two established a close friendship, as they share similar concepts in recipe sourcing, both looking to their naturalistic surroundings for inspiration.
