Sam Leong

The restaurant business has no aristocratic structures that would allow for titles to be passed on through the generations. Every award, every prize honours an individual artist who has developed his or her own style with  ingenious creations and tireless work. Although Sam Leong must have inherited some of his skill from his father, a chef of classic Chinese cuisine, he has gone far beyond such narrow defi nitions. Today, Sam Leong is considered a pioneer and trendsetter of New Asia Chinese Cuisine.

At the tender age of 24, this young king of the kitchens (an unoffi cial title that came with his part in a  singaporean reality TV show with the same name), was responsible for serving up to 350 guests as Thailand’s youngest executive chef. However, talent alone won’t make a genius – it takes hard work and dedication to really make the most of natural abilities. It is thus not surprising that Sam Leong today runs no less than three excellent gourmet kitchens: those of the Jade Fullerton Restaurant, the Paddy Fields Thai Restaurant and of My Humble House in Singapore.

My Humble House was the brainchild of Sam Leong and artist Zhang Jin Jie, whose infl uence can be seen in the poetic names of the individual dishes: creations such as “Dancing with the Wind” or “Footprints of Solitude” captivate the guests’ imagination and work like an aperitif. “Dancing with the Wind” turns out to be a steaming coconut broth with prawns, shrimps, scallops, mushrooms and red dates as the surprise element, all served in the shell of a young coconut. The “Footprints of Solitude” are delicious lamb cutlets in a sauce made from fresh mint. And to make sure that the evening will stay in the guests’ mind, dessert is the “Sunset to Remember”, whose secret will not be revealed here. Creations of this sort caused the renowned British magazine “Restaurant” to include My Humble House in the list of the world’s best restaurants 2007, as one of only two Chinese establishments on the list.

Sam Leong’s skills are also much appreciated on the other side of the Pacifi c. In 2004, he attended the Wolfgang Lazaroff American Wine & Food Festival in Los Angeles for the seventh time. In April 2005, Leong was the first singaporean chef to be accepted into the international culinary panel of world-famous executive chefs of Singapore Airlines, which are renowned for their excellent cuisine in all classes and on all routes. The “World Gourmet Summit 2005” in Singapore elected him “Executive Chef of the Year & Chef of the Year” after he had previously been voted ”Best Asian Ethnic Chef of the Year” for three years running. There is one dish for which Sam Leong, in uncharacteristically “unhumble” style, sees himself as the unbeatable world champion – peppered crab, the dish which helped him win his future in-laws’ approval to marry their daughter. With a mischievous smile, the charismatic celebrity chef and father of two also admits to a real weakness: Bavarian-style knuckle of pork with a freshly drafted beer.

Roland Trettl in Singapore

It’s all happening in China’s kitchens – hectic, always noisy, and always perfect. The master is Sam Leong, who’s coming to “Ikarus” in January. Roland Trettl met up with him in Singapore.

recorded by Christoph Schulte • Photos: Red Bull Photofiles/Lin Züyi

Of course cookery is an art form. But it’s equally obvious that cookery is a business. Colleagues such as Jamie Oliver or Ferran Adrià take every opportunity to make millions from their reputation, from merchandising, from advertising and from consultancy agreements.

I thought I’d seen it all, but Singapore proved me wrong. I wanted to visit top Oriental chef Sam Leong from the legendary “My Humble House”. Instead I made the acquaintance of Sam Leong, member of the Board of a major corporation, a company that is well and truly traded on the Stock Exchange, and whose shares are, in the words of the stock market experts, highly volatile. The company in question is Tung Lok Restaurants Ltd. It employs more than 600 people in 24 restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia, China, India and Japan. Sam Leong, former chef de cuisine at the Singapore Hyatt, is a member of the nine-man Board. Even better, he’s the only one there who can actually cook – when he has time. When we met in Singapore, he had postponed what, to my mind, was a typical Leong trip. He originally planned to visit Beijing, Tokyo and New Delhi. What is even more incredible is Sam’s appearance: despite his 42 years he looks more like a young lad, simply dressed in a white T-shirt and trainers, topped off by a bling-bling diamond in his left ear.

The first time I entered “My Humble House”, I immediately thought, “Hey, I’ve been here before!” Chairs with massive backs, an extremely large table, super-stylish crockery and cutlery. And indeed, it betrays the handiwork of style consultant Jin-R, from Beijing, who I visited 18 months ago (“essen & trinken” 10/06). Which answered another question – who actually invented wonderful wasabi shrimps? I had eaten them at Jin-R’s, and at Jeremy Leung’s in Shanghai. Now I knew – Sam invented them. Fantastic flavour and impact; very simple to make. Toss the deep-fried shrimps in mayonnaise with ground wasabi, then roll in crushed cornflakes, and serve with marinated mango or similar. Little wonder that the recipe has spread so quickly.

Sam Leong is synonymous with the ultimate in contemporary Chinese cuisine. Spinach soup with dumplings, chicken soup with lobster won-tons or prawn tofu balls, the latter made from a prawn and tofu paste, stuffed with cheese, then deep-fried, served with a hot and sour sauce. All great eating. Just like Sam’s desserts – usually a problem area in Chinese cuisine. Pan-fried pears, Chinese plums, mango with sesame dumplings, or lemongrass jelly with grapefruit and lime sorbet are wonderful. What always bowls me over is the speed and precision with which the chefs work in the hectic, noisy atmosphere of Asian kitchens, which ring with shouts and yells. Jet burners, rightly banned in Austria, with their roaring, cutting torch-like flames, right next to the open cans of oil, which are in turn right next to cold, running water – if we worked in these conditions, the kitchen would go up in flames every day.

Sam’s pork dumplings were worth running this risk, though, because they were the best I have eaten in recent years. Combine minced pork with egg, water chestnuts and mushrooms, add cornflour, dredge in egg white and deep fry. At the same time prepare pak choi in a chicken broth with oyster sauce and soy sauce, simmer the dumplings, thicken the sauce with cornflour, and add the crab meat – simply perfect.

I realise that this is the starting point for the discussion about monosodium glutamate, in which one practically drowns in Asia. So let’s use as little as possible and, when in Salzburg, I’ll try to persuade Sam that if we’re going to cook his fabulous recipes with the very best ingredients, we just won’t need flavour enhancers.

Steamed "pork dumplings"

Menu 1
Shrimps with cucumber and dark soy sauce
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Crispy chicken rolls with sesame and tomato salsa
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Steamed “pork dumplings” and crab in a brew of spinach
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Turbot wrapped in Chinese cabbage with stock of soy sauce and crunch
Steamed rice
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Lemongrass jelly with barley and sorbet of lime

Menu 2
Baked oysters with lemon sauce and crunch
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Deep-fried small balls of shrimps, tofu, cheese and bread cubes
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Hot and sour lobster-crab brew on Chawan-mushi
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Roasted marinated cod with egg white and pickled ginger
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Home made spinach tofu with sauteed mushrooms
Steamed rice
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Iced cream of avocado with coffee latte-ice cream

Menu 3
Crispy chicken rolls with sesame and tomato salsa
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Deep-fried small balls of crustaceans, tofu, cheese and bread cubes
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Variation of shrimps
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Double boiled chicken consommé with lobster dumpling
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Stew of “pork dumplings” with crab meat sauce
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Steamed Loup de mer with sauteed and preserved vegetable
Steamed rice
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Assorted wild mushroom wrapped in paper bag
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Cooked pear with black sesame and Chinese plums