XO Soused

For years now , and since Andrew’s visit to the brilliant Albert Adrià in Barcelona in 2017, Andrew and Albert have been talking about collaborating on a menu that meshes the world of dim sum and tapas and upends European industry norms about pastry. Finally on Friday 7th July 2023 - after months of emails and calls - Albert arrived with his team and boxes of specialist ingredients to prep for a s...

In a new format for XO Soused, we welcome a guest! Susan Jung - arguably the most powerful voice in East and South East Asian food and cookery - sits with Andrew and Mukta to explore; * why apprenticeships are sometimes better than formal culinary education * how a well-timed lunch can help launch a food writing career * what makes Susan angry as a restaurant reviewer * Susan’s favourite meal * Wh...

Macanese gastronomy is reputedly the oldest fusion cuisine in the world and has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage. This tiny territory - smaller than Hong Kong, which it neighbours - also has one of the most dynamic economies in the world where some of the best chefs using the finest ingredients cook for the very rich. How does Macanese food cut through this noise? But h...

From being the little princeling in the kitchen during his culinary training to asserting his creative and commercial voice - Andrew’s authority has not always been clearly exercised, reflecting the complexities with succession in family businesses. Considering all these complex succession hangovers, why was Andrew so adamant that his own new venture - A. Wong - should be launched on the site of h...

Episode 2 goes inside Andrew’s family as they battle to carve a space in London’s hospitality sector . As Britain’s Asian restaurant sector transformed in the lead up to the new millennium, so too did the ambitions of many a restaurateur -not least Andrew’s father, who constantly cast about for new ideas and concepts. What kind of pressures, limits and opportunities did this present to the family?...

Introducing a special three-episode mini series of XO Soused. One episode per generation, and one episode each day from Monday to Wednesday this week. Andrew’s family have been involved in the Chinese catering trade in Britain for three generations. Every generation of Andrew’s family had an ambition for their business. During the years that his grandfather owned these businesses, these ambitions...

How do contemporary cooks interpret historically researched cookbooks ? How relatable to contemporary dining are Song era historical recipes, and how far do recipe writers, cooks and chefs have to do this translation work? Andrew talks through a present day book of Song era recipes that he has been reviewing and researching as both he and Mukta explore how these recipes reflect Song dynasty social...

How does a chef cooking Chinese cuisine incorporate bitterness into their dishes? Is bitterness truly necessary as sweetness, sourness, pungency and saltiness in Chinese gastronomy? Or is it trapped in a traditional medicine cul-de-sac? What did key Chinese gastronomic thinkers and writers think about bitter tastes and how did this thinking shift in recent centuries? What ingredients and technique...

What are braised bear paws doing on a (likely) imperial banqueting menu from the 1700s? What does the appearance of this exotic meat, and other dishes like steamed camel hump, tell us about the changing categories of ‘wildlife’ and ‘livestock’ in global food history, and about how Chinese heartland foods and peripheral cuisines are constructed? Are there more to the names of these dishes than stra...

We kick off season 2 of XO Soused with an update from Andrew about the swap he has made to his evening menu - from à la carte dining to a fixed banquet menu - at his restaurant A. Wong . This has meant changing from catering for a variety of guests who bring different appetites: ‘some people eat more, some people eat less, some people…. have five or six different dishes, others just want to have a...

Andrew is taking his restaurant in a new direction in 2022. Gone is his à la carte menu and in its place will be a a dining experience akin to some of the historical Chinese banquets written into court records and novels, and painted on to silk. In this special festive episode Andrew and Mukta discuss why Andrew has taken this direction, what historical recipes are inspiring, and what underlying r...

As we come to the end of the first season of XO Soused, we share a rough cut of a recording by Andrew and Mukta as they look back on almost 8 years of working together —from the very first research Mukta did for Andrew for the launch of his basement bar the Forbidden City to almost ending it all over their presentation at SXSW - a presentation they didn’t even deliver as a result of COVID travel r...

What is Beggar’s Chicken? What are the myths that surround it and why are they important? How has Andrew attempted to bring Beggar’s Chicken - chicken stuffed and wrapped in leaves and clay - into his professional kitchen, and what iterations of the dish is he trying next? Why is the technique such a fundamental part of its origin story and how has that technique and the recipe changed over time?...

What are the differences between family cooking and restaurant cooking? How has lockdown and chef-prepared cook-at-home meal kits blurred the boundaries of home and restaurant? Is there a difference in the way Chinese chefs approached this compared to chefs of other cuisines? How did the divide between family food and restaurant food get created in China, and how has the divide been muddied in Chi...

Why are there so many ingredients in Chinese cuisine that are dried? What is the cultural and culinary importance of these foods? Weaving their way through key dried items such as abalone, bird’s nest and even controversial ingredients such as shark’s fin, Andrew and Mukta discuss why Chinese chefs have chosen certain seafood, livestock and plant matter for drying and rehydrating, and what flavour...

Raw fish and vegetables appear in some regional cuisines in China, with a variety of dipping sauces. Were the Chinese the first to champion raw meats and fish in East Asia? With such a rich culture of preparing raw meats and fish to present to diners in Confucian and Han times and on-and-off up until 14th Century China, what knife and saucing techniques, and skilful finishes with hot oils and fats...

Why should dessert go at the end? Why have western and westernised restaurants embraced this structure of cooking and eating, while in some Asian cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes are served together? More importantly, why do western professional kitchens barely use sugars in their savoury dishes? Meanwhile chefs cooking some Asian foods use sugars - cane sugar, beet sugar, honey, and maltose - i...

Who are the iconic female chefs in Chinese food history? What influence did they have on Chinese cuisine? And why are they not more prominent in the histories? What are the gender dynamics that Andrew encounters in professional kitchens in China and in the UK? And does he think about gender when he recruits or supports his kitchen team? And take a look at the book that Andrew has a hankering for:...

How does creativity work for a professional chef cooking Chinese food? What was creative culinary life like in the palace kitchens in China? What was the role of tradition and how did other rules and boundaries either restrict or even elevate innovative thinking? When there’s too much choice - a defining characteristic of working from vast and well stocked palace stores - how does a chef find a cu...

Chinese restaurants in the UK (and in other places) often offer a hundred or more dishes on their menu. What is the reason for this? Why does Andrew’s restaurant, A. Wong, offer 70 items every day and what has he had to negotiate to get to this number? How is the professional Chinese kitchen and its arrangements of stations, and the construction of meals in the dining space, geared to offering thi...

With so many oil and fat substitutes available to the modern chef, what role does lard still play in professional Chinese kitchens? What classical Chinese - and particularly dim sum - recipes require lard? And how is the fat from the pork put to other uses by Chinese chefs, including and legendary Cantonese chef, William Poon? What techniques using pork fat has Mr Poon taught Andrew recently? How...

What is tofu? What reputation does tofu have among western diners and chefs? What varieties of tofu can you find in supermarkets and how does this effect the way that tofu is used and enjoyed? When was soybean curd first formed and pressed into existence and when did varieties of dried, smoked, fried and fermented tofu become ubiquitous? What are the differences in the way these varieties absorb f...

XO Sauce - a combination of dried seafood, ham, chillies and other seasonings in a stock - has grown to be a Hong Kong condiment par excellence. How is this condiment now used in the Chinese kitchens, and what ingredients does it go well with during the cooking process? What does the XO in the name signify, and what are the origin stories surrounding the sauce, and how does it play up the distinct...

For an ingredient that entered into China in the 16th century - the chilli pepper has become a fundamental part of Chinese cooking . How does a chef learn to use this vegetable and it complex palate and texture? What was Chinese cuisine like before the chilli arrived? And how did it change the idea of Chinese ‘pungency' or 辛 [xīn]? How would you use salted chillies, dried chillies, pickled chilli...

Many Chinese dishes use a spiced chicken stock as a building block. This is a meat broth infused with cinnamon, cassia bark, fennel seed, angelica root, liquorice, and star anise. How are these spices used? What use do pre-mixed spice powders have, and why does Andrew prefer 13-spice powder (a classic western Chinese spice mix) over the Cantonese 5-spice powder for some dishes? How is history refl...