SLOW FOOD, CANTONESE STYLE
In 2006, when Xu Jingye and Yao Min started 102 House, a one-table private kitchen focusing on Cantonese cuisine in the city of Foshan, about an hour west of Guangzhou, they looked to Hong Kong for knowledge and inspiration. They decided to claim their venture as “fusion”—an experiment in blending Guangdong’s traditions with those of their plusher neighbour. “It was so-called creative cuisine,” recalls Xu, “but customers weren’t returning. We knew that what we were doing wasn’t right.”
Looking to hone the recipes they were playing with, Xu found a sifu, or mentor—a man whose name Xu wouldn’t disclose, who has been a veteran of high-end Cantonese kitchens for decades. Under his guidance, the chef and his partner Yao, boThin their 30s, began shifting their attention to Cantonese cuisine in its purest, oldest form.
“Neither of us was born in the age when Cantonese cuisine was at its most glorious,” Xu says. “We never experienced it, so our knowledge and understanding of Cantonese classics was the same as most other people,
