dbHK interview: Ben Orpwood & Michael Hoepfl

The launch chef of London’s oft-talked about Sexy Fish, Ben Orpwood and chef at Zuma London, Michael Hoepfl are over in Hong Kong for the latest in Test Kitchen’s pop-up dining experiences. dbHK quizzes them on the merits of tofu ice cream and the argument for and against cooking seasonally.

Men at work: Michael Hoepfl and Ben Orpwood

Before working at Sexy Fish, Ben Orpwood helmed the Zuma kitchens in London, Istanbul, Dubai and Sydney and it was in London where he met Michael Hoepfl, the former executive head chef from Berlin’s one-Michelin starred Pauly Saal. Together they have dreamed up a 10-course feast for Hong Kong’s diners, marrying ingredients such as tofu and white chocolate, black pudding and dumplings and smoked eel and pig head with wines supplied by Corney & Barrow.

Ahead of their four night pop-up at Test Kitchen which will run until Sunday, dbHK quizzed them on the merits of tofu icecream and the age-old argument for and against cooking seasonally.

How do you work together?

Ben: We have completely different styles of food but the same approach. I could be doing something very Japanese and he’s doing something really German and we find a way to harmonise and make it work. When we put the menu together (for Test Kitchen) we sat down over ramen and spoke for maybe half an hour and got it all done. There was no umming and ahhing, we just got on with it.

We work very naturally together and there’s never any conflict. We’ve known each other for over a year at Zuma when I was the head chef and Michael was the trainee. He’ll be head chef one day!

Michael: We both like the techniques. Japanese and German approaches are quite similar and exacting. We understand how each other cook from when we worked together before and we both know where each other are coming from.

Black pudding dumpling with truffle sauce and chive oil

Aside from London, what other cities do you keep an eye on the scenes?

Ben: I look at Hong Kong, Sydney, Barcelona, New York, Melbourne via social media so I have sort of an idea about what’s going on and seeing how other people work. It’s very easy to look at something on Instagram and think that looks amazing and then find it’s totally different in reality.

Hong Kong sometimes gets criticized because of its lack of seasonality and that fact that chefs can find any ingredient they want around the year – is cooking seasonally still important?

You have to balance it out. Chefs in London make a big thing about only using tomatoes in early spring or summer but everybody will always want them, and so it’ll be silly to not be able to use them when people want. We try and work as seasonally as possible but at the end of the day, if the customer wants sea bass, you give them sea bass.

I lived in Australia for six years, and there’s no seasonality there, either. It’s always summer somewhere. When I moved back to London, I started to work more seasonally but then when Brexit happened, the price of everything went up like mad. Burrata has gone up so much in price that some restaurants have had to remove it from their menus. Jason Atherton has just opened a ‘Brexit-proof’ restaurant just using British ingredients. It’s a very smart idea, and it’s doing really well.

First impressions of Hong Kong?

Michael: I come from a mountain village in Bavaria where there are only 240 people – in fact 239 now, because I am here! Everything seems more alive here, literally. The markets are amazing with rally fresh ingredients. You buy fresh fish and it’s still living. That’s why I love Asian food.

Hong Kong’s finest: local pigeon with asparagus, smoked emulsion and roasted hazelnuts

If you had to invite a guest over for dinner who would it be and what would you cook?

Ben: Nile Rodgers and I’ll cook him whatever he wants. An offer he can’t refuse.

Michael: Marco Pierre White and I’d serve him pork trotters! He called Pierre Koffman’s pig trotters the best in the world! Or I’d cook him a seven-course vegetarian menu.

What’s a surprise ingredient that you love?

Ben: I love tofu. I’m a tofu freak. One of the desserts is white chocolate tofu with cocoa nibs. I was in Kyoto a few years ago and came across this one shop run by a mother and daughter making and selling tofu. When you understand how to make fresh tofu, a whole new world opens up. It takes about three days to make really good. A lot of tofu you buy is really terrible. It’s far too salty. A lot of soy sauce goes into vegan foods so vegans eat a lot of salt without realizing. Silken tofu is the best.

Which is your favourite dish on the Test Ktichen menu?

Ben: The rhubarb! It’s from the Yorkshire Triangle, there are only three places in Yorkshire where it’s grown. Rhubarb grows very quickly and with too much sun, gets very tough. But forced rhubarb is grown in a pitch-black barn only with candlelight. It grows very fast towards the light but is very tender.

Michael: The pig head. Maybe it’s because I’m German. We serve it with smoked eel on toast. We also found some local pigeon in Sai Ying Pun market which has come off really well. We were worried about it at first because it looked skinny and a bit stringy but it’s delicious. It tastes even better than French pigeon.

Ben: We’re pretty happy with all of the dishes to be honest. This whole thing is an experiment, it’s called Test Kitchen, after all.