His next stop is Hong Kong, where, for four nights from July 17 to 20, he will headline Street Food Series: Taiwan, an event at private members’ club Carlyle & Co at the Rosewood hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Instead of presenting Marc L³’s signature contemporary European dishes at the event, Liao will spotlight Taiwan’s multicultural heritage as reflected in its food.
He will not do so by cooking a single headline dish – he says it is too difficult to convey the rich diversity of Taiwanese culture in just one plate.
He will serve Taiwanese night market snacks such as crispy popcorn chicken and more substantial dishes, including three cup chicken and beef noodle soup, as well as desserts such as brown sugar pearl pancakes.
We want our food to produce the relaxing emotions you would have when you are sharing [ …] in a night market
As well as bringing his own seasonings, he will use local Hong Kong spices, which he says can be similar to those in Taiwan.
Liao has always leaned towards refined, experimental plating at Marc L³, creating vibrant colours and textures.
One of the restaurant’s speciality dishes looks like a corn dog but is actually Kaohsiung swordfish and Penghu squid in a Hong Kong-style ginger and spring onion sauce. The dish has a black coating made of concentrated chicken broth with black truffle and squid ink.
For the Hong Kong event Liao will be more casual, forgoing plating that is “super pretty with lots of herbs and garnishes” while keeping things sophisticated.
“We want our food to produce the relaxing emotions you would have when you are sharing these foods with other people in a night market,” he says.
Liao is known for not sharing the full list of ingredients on his restaurant menu, and he will continue his playful streak at the pop-up. “If I bring the street food 100 per cent as it is here, it won’t be fun,” he says.
I want to represent Taiwanese food to everyone the same way
The chef has gained a reputation for elevating humble ingredients commonly found in Taiwanese food.
For example, sweet potatoes can be “made equal to caviar”, he says, by plating them in such a way as to resemble charcoal.
This is part of Liao’s mission to make fine dining more accessible, by showing it is not only high-end ingredients that can make a high-quality meal.
“For me, it’s important to not only focus on the food but also [on] the equality and the customers as well. I want to treat everyone the same way, and I want to represent Taiwanese food to everyone the same way.”
Liao, who received the invitation to collaborate with Carlyle & Co just two months ago, had to think carefully about how to distil his many ideas for dishes into a menu. He considered whether each component was truly representative of Taiwanese street food.
At the event, Liao will work with only one of his sous chefs and four to five local chefs to make around 6oo plates per night. Despite the demand, he is confident he will be able to execute his dishes with finesse.
Liao is used to working in an open kitchen at Marc L³, from where he can speak to guests. Carlyle & Co has a more closed cooking environment, but Liao says he won’t let this get in the way of interacting with diners.
“Even if the customer cannot see us, I will go out and talk to them. I have to,” he says.
Liao says he is excited about pairing Tsai’s tea-infused cocktails with his dishes, but he wants to give customers the freedom to choose their preferred pairings.
This is the first time the chef will cook in Hong Kong, and he says the positive feedback Hongkongers have given the food in Kaohsiung inspired him when planning his pop-up.
In the future, he hopes to bring more Taiwanese street food and some of the night market vibe to Hong Kong, and hints that he might collaborate with some “good friends in the neighbourhood”.
