Four local chefs celebrate Soho House Hong Kong's first anniversary

A woman chopping vegetables in a kitchen

To mark a year of resilience and celebrate our first birthday, we’ve invited local culinary friends to add their flavour to our club menu

By Gavin Yeung    Above image: May Chow     Wednesday 16 September, 2020    Short read

Today, 16 September, marks the first anniversary of the opening of Soho House Hong Kong – and a perfect opportunity to celebrate. We’re kicking off a week of events: from local bar pop-ups in the Pool Room, to a Cecconi’s takeover in the Brasserie and a nightly line-up of DJs. 

Of course, no celebration in Hong Kong is complete without the involvement of local culinary experts. To this end, we have invited four acclaimed chefs to each contribute one original dish to our club menu for a week, bringing the breadth and diversity of Hong Kong’s food culture to the House. 

Here, find out more about the chefs taking part and the dishes they’ve created:

Matt Abergel, Yardbird Hong Kong and Ronin
Best known for his binchōtan-grilled chicken skewers at famed yakitori eatery, Yardbird Hong Kong, Matt Abergel struck out in January with a One Night Only dinner at Soho House Hong Kong where he recreated the honest Israeli fare of his childhood. His dishes included falafel, abalone shawarma, pickles, salads and sauces, served with warm pitta bread from the Levant. This week, he opts for a subtle continuation in a classically Mediterranean dish of aubergine and tahini with garlic and parsley, carving out a distinctly meat-free concept in contrast to the menu at Yardbird Hong Kong.

Peggy Chan, Grassroots Initiative
A vegan pioneer in Hong Kong, Peggy Chan’s Grassroots Pantry served as an incubator for zero-waste, organic, sustainable and responsibly sourced food advocacy under the mission ‘to make food do good’. Having since spun off her restaurant into the Grassroots Initiatives Consultancy, Chan’s determination to normalise sustainable food in Asia marks her as a mover and shaker in a rapidly changing industry. For our anniversary, she presents a dish of banana blossom ceviche on a soft corn taco, bringing together sweetcorn, cilantro-avo cream and sweet potato chicharrónes in a rich yet guilt-free combination.
A close up of a man laughing

Matt Abergel

A chef in a kitchen handing over food

Peggy Chan

May Chow, Little Bao
May Chow kick-started an obsession with the gua bao, a pork belly bun originating in Fujian province, with the opening of Little Bao in 2012. By giving it a contemporary spin using pan-Asian influences and her cheeky brand of hospitality, Chow, who identifies as ‘openly gay’, turned the humble bao into a platform to promote LGBTQ+ voices within the F&B industry, boosted by her naming as Best Female Chef by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017. Showing a plethora of cultural influences, Chow has created the Cuban bao for this coming week, stacking kosher pickles, ham, Gruyère cheese, char siu, and Dijon and English mustard between two fluffy steamed buns.

Brian Woo, Cô Thành and Return of Lemak
Harbouring a passion for the diverse cuisines of Southeast Asia, Brian Woo opened Vietnamese eatery Cô Thành in 2017. It marked the culmination of four years spent flying back and forth between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City to apprentice under Nguyen Thi Thành, better known as The Lunch Lady. Thành – whose unassuming street stall gained international recognition after being featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations – served as the primary inspiration for Cô Thành, as well as Woo’s dish for our anniversary, the Bánh mì xíu mai. Bringing together meatballs, sambal, tamarind and cilantro between two halves of a Vietnamese baguette, it is a throwback to the heady aromas of Saigon and Woo’s ode to the vivid flavours of Indo-Chinese cooking. 

Click here for the full line-up of anniversary events at Soho House Hong Kong. The four dishes will be available on the club menu until 22 September. 
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