Roganic’s next chapter comes with a new menu and sustainable look
Roganic in Hong Kong’s Lee Garden One turns over a new leaf with not just its interior – it’s also scrapped tasting menus in favour of family-style courses
Now, he looks back on the past six years and reveals how he intends to take Roganic into its next era.
Roganic has finally opened its doors in a new location. What prompted the move?
We felt we’d gone as far as we could with it. We’d outgrown it, and it was a little tired. We took over an existing restaurant back then and only did minimal renovations. It was a good start – a one-star, good-value-for-money kind of place. But we wanted to up the standards and offer something more exciting.
The design of the restaurant is stunning. It reminds me a little bit of The Hobbit
Yes! The design is meant to carry our ethos right through the whole restaurant. When it was being constructed, I got a little worried it might feel like a themed restaurant, but now it looks great with all the accessories in place.
A lot of the furniture has been repurposed from the previous Roganic, the floor is made from recycled marble tiles, and the bar counter from repurposed oyster shells.
The entrance is quite understated. What was the thinking behind that?
We’re always about “less is more”. We don’t want to give away too much. Coming through that entrance is meant to be a surprise – like entering a fairy tale or film set.
What was the brief you gave the designers?
Atelier E did their research on us – there’s lots of information about what we stand for and the different styles of restaurants we have around the world. They came up with this, incorporating the story of the wood and the recycled trees. A lot of the furniture has been repurposed from the previous Roganic, the floor is made from recycled marble tiles, and the bar counter from repurposed oyster shells.
What about the menu? Is it new, too?
Absolutely. We wanted a clean start, so we created a new menu specifically for this location – no existing dishes from the first Roganic or any of our other restaurants around the world. The process behind designing the menu involved revisiting our farmer relationships. That hasn’t changed; if anything, it’s grown. The number of local suppliers has exploded since we first came to Hong Kong. There’s so much more choice now, and we work closely with people we trust.
And you’re moving away from tasting menus
Have you incorporated any new sustainability initiatives into this location?
Is there a particular dish you would say captures your change in direction?
If you pushed me, it would be the maitake mushroom, which is lots of grains cooked in a maitake mushroom stock, and different textures of maitake mushrooms: some roasted in miso, others deep-fried. So it’s got loads of layers of flavour and umami.
Do you have plans for Aulis in Hong Kong?
We’re looking at SoHo. It’ll be buzzy and funky, just like Aulis London, where you go down a little alleyway with lots of graffiti. That’s sort of what we want in Hong Kong. That will be where we showcase L’Enclume.
It sounds like there’s a real dialogue between Hong Kong and London
We’ve got great ambition for here. Once it’s absolutely finished, I think it’s going to fly. I have to confess, this is a little bit of a guinea pig for me. I just wanted to see how this concept worked, but I’m already convinced this will be amazing in London. Roganic closed just before Covid in London, mainly because it was a bit of an awkward site and it wasn’t really working for us. We always had the intention of bringing Roganic back – we just didn’t know when or what concept. Now we know.