A recent gala dinner in Guangzhou featured dishes from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Cantonese and Sichuan cuisines prepared by masters in their own right, Li Yingxue reports.

Food documentary director Chen Xiaoqing thinks most delicacies come about because of the combination of different ingredients and seasonings, and each food is looking for its other half.

"When I look at a table of gourmets, I'm always wondering what kinds of minds can create these wonderful meetings of different ingredients," says Chen.

Speaking at a gala dinner themed "The Rediscovery of the Taste of Chinese Cuisine" in Guangzhou recently, he explained his understanding of the relationship between food and life.

The dishes at the dinner were prepared by three chefs specializing in Jiangzhe (Jiangsu and Zhejiang) cuisine, Cantonese cuisine and Sichuan cuisine.

Wang Yong, the executive Chinese chef of the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake; Chen Xiaodong, the executive chef of Co-create Restaurant & Yue Restaurant; and Michelinstar chef Andre Chiang from Taiwan joined hands to prepare a nine-course dinner.

Each dish was paired with a Hennessy cognac－either served at cold or room temperature.

The dinner started with Wang's drunk spot shrimps. The shrimps were marinated in huangjiu (yellow liquor) for 10 minutes with wasabi, sugar and preserved plum to give them a slightly sweet flavor.

"This dish usually doesn't use spot shrimp, but I think this kind of shrimp has a richer flavor, especially when it slides down the throat," says Wang.

His second dish was stewed pork with cherry, a traditional dish in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, where the red color comes from red yeast rice and the pork has to be stewed for 100 minutes to get the flavor into the meat.

Wang says that pairing cognac with Chinese dishes is now widely accepted by Chinese diners.

"And I prefer to use dishes with the lightest or the heaviest flavors to pair with cognac."

For Chen Xiaodong, traditional Cantonese dishes are the tastiest ones, and he just tweaks them to give a modern presentation.

Chen's grandfather used to cook for weddings in a village in Guangzhou where he grew up. The flavors he's most familiar with come from his grandfather's recipes.

The first dish Chen Xiaodong prepared was stewed foie gras with caviar, which looks much like a Western dish.

"It's actually a daily snack, but I add caviar to give it more freshness and balsamic vinegar to balance the fat," he says.

His second dish, roast beef with fermented soy beans and pepper, was the highlight of the night.

To prepare it, he used the traditional Western cooking methods to roast the beef with seasoning to cover the beef with a crust.

"Most of the diners were surprised that the beef tasted the same as a common Cantonese dish, but from the presentation, they did not expect that," says Chen Xiaodong.

Guangzhou became a Michelin city last year, with eight restaurants gaining a star. Chen thinks that the Michelin tag has created a new challenge for chefs in Guangzhou, especially Chinese chefs.

"It means that my dishes need to be more international, and I feel I have to present our traditional flavors to get the nod of the judges," he says.

Chiang has been focused on reviving Sichuan cuisine for the past two years.

He joined the Bridge in Chengdu in 2017 and joined Sichuan Moon in Macao this year.

For the gala dinner he had three dishes from the Bridge－loquat soup, snow crab and fried cordyceps flowers, and tuna Sichuan noodle.

Fried cordyceps flowers with truffle oil was a dish created by the Bridge. The flowers are crisp and highlight the taste of the ingredients which cannot be experienced in a soup.

For the tuna Sichuan noodles, he replaced the traditional minced pork sauce with tuna and lowered the spiciness of the noodles.

Chiang says both cognac and Sichuan cuisine have five elements－level of flavor, spiciness, mellowness and a rich or sweet aftertaste, which make them perfect to pair with each other.

"After two years of researching Sichuan cuisine I realized that there are more seasonal dishes than I expected to find, not only the classic spicy dishes.

"Each month I would fly to Chengdu and find fresh ingredients in local markets, and each ingredient has its own cooking method."

He says researching Chinese cuisine is not only about finding new flavors or adding to traditional flavors, but also about elevating Chinese cuisine.

"I think we need to figure out how to make Chinese cuisine more acceptable worldwide.

"Besides traditional Chinese flavors, we also need to think what kind of food can represent modern China."