INTERVIEW/The next dance: André Chiang on RAW's end, Taiwanese 'flavor'

By Sunny Lai, CNA staff reporter

When you step into the Michelin two-star restaurant RAW in Taipei, the eye is immediately drawn to portraits of smiling chefs, most notably that of André Chiang (江振誠), one of Taiwan's best-known chefs and founder of the restaurant run by a team averaging just 25 years old.

"Many young people still want to get into the culinary industry... and that's reflected in our restaurant's structure," said Chiang, who shocked many in late July when he announced he would retire and close RAW at the end of this year.

He also revealed his plan to transform RAW -- established a decade ago and known as "Taiwan's hardest-to-book restaurant" -- into a culinary academy.

In a recent wide-ranging interview with CNA, the 48-year-old Michelin star chef explained why he was shifting his focus to culinary education and discussed whether after years at the top of the industry he had satisfied his quest to identify Taiwan's quintessential flavors.

A gap to be bridged

In pivoting away from serving as a top chef, Chiang made clear that helping the next generation of chefs in Taiwan and the region would become his top priority.

While fine dining in Asia has significantly evolved over the past two decades, he said, "there's still a gap from those students graduated from (culinary) schools to becoming a professional chef."

The gap often leads young chefs to leave the industry after professional kitchens fail to meet their expectations, highlighting the need for professional chef training programs to bridge the divide, Chiang said.

Many European countries already have such programs to prepare aspiring young chefs before they get into fine dining, which demands higher standards and different practices, according to Chiang, who himself spent 17 years training and working in France.

Teaching for the stars

The academy will also cater to chefs who have already opened restaurants because there are few places in Taiwan for head chefs to continue their professional development or receive guidance if they aim for Michelin recognition.

There is no one to tell them "whether it's about using more expensive ingredients, improving your service, or refining your dishes," said Chiang, whose RAW has received Michelin stars each year since the Michelin guide was first issued in Taiwan in 2018.

Even overseas, "the know-how of a successful restaurant is not something that commonly gets shared," he said.

Breaking stereotype

Chiang became a household name in Taiwan in 2016, the year his now-closed French restaurant in Singapore, Restaurant André, received two Michelin stars, making him the first Taiwanese chef to achieve such recognition by the Michelin Guide.

Recalling the days of running Restaurant André from 2010 to 2018, Chiang said it successfully broke the stereotypes about "people," as around 20 years ago "you hardly saw Asian chefs doing European cuisine and becoming known internationally."

"French restaurants do not need to have a French manager standing there, and French cuisine doesn't have to have a French head chef," Chiang said. "Before Restaurant André, this concept was very difficult to establish."

Breaking stereotypes, again

Reflecting on his decade-long run at RAW, which offers a mix of Western and innovative cuisine but gets about 95 percent of its ingredients from Taiwan, Chiang said the restaurant broke the stereotype of how people perceive "ingredients."

In the years before RAW opened, Western cuisine in Taiwan was still centered around imported ingredients such as Italian white truffles, as people used to equate imported products with luxury, according to Chiang.

"I remember on the first day we opened, a lady finished her meal and asked me, 'Why are you charging this price for ingredients that can all be bought at a local market?" he recalled.

But everything changed once the restaurant gained traction, Chiang said as diners gradually came to appreciate the value of Taiwanese produce through the skill of the chefs.

Taiwanese 'flavors'

Yet while the reputation of Taiwanese ingredients has been forever enhanced through RAW, actually defining the essence of Taiwanese "flavors" has proven far more elusive.

Having spent extensive periods in France and Singapore during his culinary career, the Taiwan-born chef said he has always viewed Taiwanese flavors as his "comfort zone," but has found it difficult to describe what that meant to others.

"It's always been a challenge for me to introduce myself with my cuisine and how to define what Taiwanese cuisine is," Chiang admitted.

"If we, as a Taiwanese, can't even define what Taiwanese flavor is, then who else will?"

Over the years, Chiang said he has developed the idea that the concept of Taiwanese flavors is not only about Taiwanese ingredients but how Taiwanese react with nature and with flavor, as well as how flavors are combined in unique ways.

"That is our culture and that is what Taiwan flavor is," he added.

One example is the traditional Taiwanese sanbei (三杯) flavor, consisting mainly of soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil, Chiang said. It has been used to complement different kinds of proteins over many generations, going from chicken to seafood and later to mushrooms.

The spectrum and beyond

With other Taiwanese flavors such as "ginger and sesame oil" (薑麻), Chiang stressed the importance of defining the spectrum of Taiwanese flavors, and he suggested that the Ministry of Culture be given the task as "it should be driven by the country."

It took nine years for authorities in China to define the spectrum of the 24 flavor profiles used in Sichuan cuisine, he said, and he described as one of his missions completing the full spectrum of Taiwanese flavors over the next decade.

"Once you define these colors, over generations all these chefs can use this color to create their own painting," Chiang said.

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