Dinner is served: Traditional ingredients merge with contemporary practices

As the spring tea harvest reaches a conclusion, French Michelin-starred chef Ugo Rinaldo hosted a special countryside dinner at the Mocun Hotel in Deqing, Zhejiang province, highlighting fermented tea and locally foraged ingredients.

The event was co-hosted by Food & Wine magazine's China edition and kombucha brand Basao. As part of Basao's "Young Chef" initiative, the ongoing project brings together a group of young chefs committed to originality and flavor expressions.

Rinaldo began his culinary career in 1999 at La Barbacane, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Carcassonne, France, and later trained at Le Louis XV, a three-star establishment in Monaco. Since moving to China in 2013, he has worked extensively with Chinese ingredients, particularly during his time in Shanghai.

A highlight of the dinner was a dish combining tea, fish and shrimp. Sea bream was grilled over lychee wood charcoal, yielding a crisp skin and tender flesh. River shrimp were lightly cured with tea to accentuate the mountain-inspired freshness. The dish was accompanied by a sauce made from black oolong kombucha, fermented to develop a slightly sour, smoky flavor and blended with a fish bone broth.

The dinner highlighted elements of the local ecology, seasonal ingredients, and fermentation techniques, underscoring an ongoing interest among chefs in integrating traditional Chinese ingredients with contemporary culinary practices.