Richard Ekkebus, chef of acclaimed Hong Kong restaurant Amber that closed temporarily for refurbishment on 10 December has embarked on a global three month discovery tour.
Prior to Amber’s scheduled reopening in late spring 2019, Richard and his team will host a series of pop-ups across Europe, North Africa, Asia with stops in Amsterdam, Marrakech, Aachen, Tokyo and Taipei.
The tour started in January with a series of dinner at Rijks. It was Richard’s first time cooking in the Netherlands after leaving the country.
These experiences will help to shape Amber’s new menu.
“Our intention is to visit local markets, discuss best practices and find inspiration in new ingredients,” said Richard. “We will be travelling to a variety of regions to broaden our exposure to new flavours, innovative cooking techniques and explore global culinary trends. Along the way, we will chronicle our journey and use these discoveries to shape the new Amber menu,” he said.
Next week, Richard will stop in Aachen at Villa Louise to cook a lunch on Friday 8 February. He will then cook at other Mandarin Oriental properties on 1 to 3 March in Tokyo and on 6 to 10 March in Taipei.
The Dutch chef from Vlissingen has trained with some of the greatest three- star chefs in France including Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Passard and Guy Savoy.
After an impressive career he became executive chef of Amber. The restaurant, which ranked 56th in the World’s 50 Best restaurants list 2018 and 7th in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 list is currently closed for refurbishment.
At Amber, Ekkebus strives to use the best and freshest ingredients that mainly come from Japan and Europe.
Amber is currently closed for refurbishment. In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette Ekkebus had said that for him and his team it is going to be like starting from scratch.
Amber was once called the ‘Da Vinci code menu restaurant’ because of the avant garde approach he took to Hong Kong traditions, Ekkebus said that he felt that ‘we are coming to a point where everybody loves us and we need to find something new to push a little bit further and to get clients a bit outside their comfort zone.”
The Dutch chef said a number of important changes will be made. “We are asking ourselves whether we should have a menu or not, whether we should serve food a la carte and so forth. We are at the stage where we are questioning a lot of things. For me, it is not just about the food but also about the service, about what our customers expect and about creating wow moments.”
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