The Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival, organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), has long been the city’s annual gastronomic extravaganza. This year, the festival is riding high on the city’s recovery, with an exciting month-long celebration in November that includes digital events as well as physical itineraries. This festival will serve as a bold reminder for foodies around the world that Hong Kong will continue to be at the top of the list of dining destinations in the post-COVID era.
The disruptions caused by the pandemic have not deterred the city from its enterprising ambitions. Despite the uncertainty, plenty of new restaurants have opened in the past year, adding to the already diverse and vibrant F&B scene.
As a “Showroom of New Culinary Perspectives”, this year’s festival will feature a wealth of refreshing experiences, including the innovative elevation of Chinese cuisine, an inspiring line-up of online masterclasses, and a roster of bright and bold F&B personalities, putting the spotlight on some of the brilliant minds that are carving a new niche in Hong Kong’s dining landscape.
New Era of Bartending
Cocktail lovers and green lifestyle enthusiasts should not miss the “Sustainable Cocktail” online masterclass hosted by Agung Prabowo of Penicillin bar, winner of Asia’s 50 Best Sustainable Bar Award for 2021. The award recognizes the creativity and effort that Prabowo and his partners put in to minimizing waste and reducing the bar’s carbon footprint. For example, potato peels are upcycled into bar snacks, excess pieces of bread and cheese are infused into new spirits, and waste alcohol and lemon peels are transformed into soaps and hand sanitizers.
“Being in the hospitality industry in such an advanced culinary city like Hong Kong, we are blessed but spoiled in that the amount of waste we produce is beyond our imagination,” Prabowo said. “I hope to inspire my industry peers to become more eco-conscious for our future generations.”
The “Sustainable Cocktail” masterclass will be available for a global audience alongside other “Tasting On-Air” programmes covering a wide range of topics on various trends related to wine and spirits.
New Experience in Chinese Cuisine
Worth noting is “Chinese Omakase by Masterchefs”, a concept-driven, outside-the-box Chinese fine dining experience. This concept is loosely inspired by the original omakase-style, whereby a meal’s direction is left entirely up to the chef’s discretion, giving the chef creative freedom and the diner a memorable dining experience. Eighteen master chefs from revered Chinese restaurants across the city will spearhead the programme and showcase their mastery of techniques and innovations. For instance, Chef Chan Yan Tak from the Michelin 3-starred Lung King Heen will take diners on a tasting journey from sea to sky, while Chef Jayson Tang from Michelin 1-starred Man Ho Restaurant has created an innovative menu that is meticulously curated based on the relationship between the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
New Energy to Shake Up Hong Kong’s Dining Scene
A promising line-up of rising culinary stars will be spotlighted in the campaign to acknowledge the city’s trendsetting talent. Hedge fund manager-turned-chef Sandy Keung is one of the few female players in the male-dominated siu mei (roasted meats) industry with her brand Good BBQ. She also owns a cutting-edge seafood restaurant, which touts a unique ozone-depuration technique that provides a clean environment for bivalves and other shellfish to purge them of metabolic waste and pollutants in order to ‘re-clock’ them back to out-of-ocean condition.
For more information about the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival 2021, please visit www.discoverhongkong.com/winedinefestival.