Exquisite flavors of china

Huang Ting at The Peninsula Beijing has a creative menu to go with a new look, Lindsay Andrews reports.

As part of The Peninsula Beijing's recently unveiled luxury revamp, its Cantonese restaurant Huang Ting, which means Phoenix Court in English, has been given an artful makeover to befit the regal associations of its name.

Inspired by Beijing's traditional noble houses, the décor utilizes reclaimed materials to capture a suitably refined ambience. The walls are made from the bricks of old courtyard houses, dating back several hundreds of years, that were sourced from across the capital, while the pine floorboards and beams originally belonged to a large mansion in the garden city of Suzhou.

The restaurant boasts other antique design accents, including giant bamboo birdcages and stone window grilles that are centuries old sourced from Shanxi province, while the entrance is flanked by a set of four stone posts topped by carved lions' heads. Over 200 years old, these posts originate from a mansion in Shanxi, and were where horsemen would tie up their horses. The carved wooden chairs and tables are reproductions of traditional Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) designs.

Feng shui elements have also been incorporated into Huang Ting's design, with a water feature and waterfall panels inside, and a "jumping fountain" visible outside the restaurant.

Huang Ting is now divided into three parts: the lobby, public dining area and private dining area.

The public dining area seats 140, while the largest private dining room seats up to 25 people and can be divided into two rooms, each with cocktail and seating areas. Reversible embroidered panels from a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) imperial robe - gold one side, blue the other - decorate the walls, while the wooden screen is over 100 years old.

The two smaller private dining rooms can seat up to 10 to 12 persons, and feature a four-panel jade screen dating from the 1920s depicting birds with bamboo, chrysanthemums and plum blossoms, while three small alcove areas offer ivory silk curtains for privacy.

To complement its elegant new look, there is a tempting new menu featuring the fine Cantonese cooking of Chef Bryan Lee and his team of 18 chefs.

With more than 33 years experience, Lee is an expert in Guangdong style cooking. Over his years in the kitchen, he says that people have become more discerning about what they eat.

"They pay more attention to the freshness of the ingredients and want to taste their original flavors in dishes," the chef said.

As a result, his menus feature the extensive use of healthy and seasonal ingredients, with less salt and less oil used in cooking, and no MSG.

"I believe your taste buds will enjoy a refreshingly new experience," he said.

With sustainability and high-quality produce at the heart of The Peninsula's culinary philosophy, the hotel embraces the "farm-to-table" concept.

The hotel's chefs work directly with 22 farms in China that supply sustainably produced and predominantly organic vegetables, fruit, meat and honey on a fresh, seasonal basis.

All of the farms are fully certified by either the Chinese or the US government, and each farm is visited on a regular basis to ensure the provenance and quality of the ingredients.

The Peninsula Beijing's own onsite greenhouse cultivates fresh herbs used to garnish many of the recipes crafted by the chefs.

Huang Ting's new menu features smoked flavors complemented by sweet teas. Signature dishes combine authentic Cantonese classics, such as stir-fried prawn with mashed salted egg yolk and broccoli, and stir-fried mandarin fish rolled with Jinhua ham, black mushroom and celery, as well as Chef Lee's own inventive dishes, such as stir-fried diced Australian wagyu beef with crispy garlic and wood-fried crispy chicken.

The tea house offers more than 50 types of Chinese tea, which are displayed in an antique display stand that is more than 200 years old. Sourced from Shanxi province it has an intricately carved roof.

With a new tea master on board, a program of seasonal samplings and tastings are to be introduced, including teas to accompany Lee's specially created selection of sweet dim sum.

With the brand's long-standing reputation for luxury at stake in Beijing, the company splashed 890 million yuan ($123 million) to give the hotel an "imperial rebirth".

The group says the scale of the renovation, which was conceived in 2013, was larger than any other it has undertaken, but the results speak for themselves. The new lighter, airier and more palatial-looking lobby sets the scene for a revitalized hotel experience.

Contact the writer at lindsayandrews@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

Huang Ting

B2, The Peninsula Beijing, 8 Goldfish Lane, Wangfujing, Dongcheng district, Beijing

010-8516-2888 Ext 6707

(China Daily 12/10/2016 page10)