chef’s deep dive.
Sauce code
WITH ANDREW WONG
They’re an integral part of cooking the world over, but the Chinese approach to creating sauces differs greatly from the long-simmered stock-based creations of European cooking. Legendary chef Andrew Wong shares his knowledge alongside three recipes to level up your stir-fries and fried rice – and you might find his throw-in-some-ketchup insights liberating!
WORDS TOM SHINGLER
PHOTOGRAPHS INDIA WHILEY-MORTON
As the chef-owner of A Wong, the only Chinese restaurant outside Asia to hold two Michelin stars (and where a certain delicious. head of food ate the best meal of his entire life), Andrew Wong certainly knows his stuff. So when he has some insight to share, we’re all ears. And while the dishes he serves require skill, time and manpower far beyond anything a home cook could manage, there are certain elements, techniques and approaches to his cooking that easily translate into what we cook in our kitchens.
A good sauce can bring a dish together, provide complementary or contrasting flavour or balance textures on the plate (and often all three at the same time). Whether it’s a French coq au vin or a Sichuanese mapo tofu, it’s really the sauce that provides most of the flavour.