Hong Kong chefs get creative with everyday local ingredients in response to climate change and rising costs of imports and labour

As climate change and inflation affect the cost and availability of imported foods, Hong Kong chefs are using unsung seasonal produce to create novel dishes

Three of them talk us through how they elevate such ingredients through inventive cooking techniques, while reducing their restaurants’ carbon footprints

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Chef Junno Li of Hong kong restaurant The Chinese Library is one of the city’s chefs getting creative with underrated local ingredients as climate change and inflation affect the availability and price of imported produce. Photo: The Chinese Library

Published: 12:45pm, 12 Oct 2023

September 2023 saw turbulent weather around the world, with record-breaking heat giving way to historic storms and flash floods in Libya, New York and Hong Kong among other places.

Extreme weather is bad news for farmers, as well as for those who hunt or forage seasonal ingredients. Climate change causes concern not just for one harvest, but for the future of the food industry.

For example, a recently published scientific study by the University of Konstanz, in Germany, has revealed new details about how climate change and more frequent droughts are affecting the truffle trade, resulting in skyrocketing prices.

While white truffle menus are usually commonplace at fine-dining spots at this time of year, some chefs have opted to focus on more underrated and economical ingredients and present them in new ways.

A brandade dish at Hong Kong’s Asaya Kitchen restaurant is an example of chefs getting creative with typically unsung seasonal ingredients. Photo: Asaya Kitchen

One of them is Junno Li of The Chinese Library at Tai Kwun, in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood, who decided to highlight seasonal, local gourd – not an ingredient one would typically associate with a high-end restaurant.