Dutch chef Richard Ekkebus shocked food lovers when he announced that the new incarnation of Amber, the fine-dining restaurant at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong, which reopened in May 2019 after a three-month renovation, would be dairy-free. He's since backtracked very slightly, and is now serving butter with the bread - but that's it.
You don't miss the dairy products in the light, elegant dishes that Ekkebus is now serving at the two-Michelin-star restaurant. Take this dish of snap peas with cuttlefish and wakame (seaweed). The peas, also known as sugar (and sugar snap) peas and as teardrop peas, which are as popular in Shanghai as in Spain, go into two components of the dish. They are cooked with precisely diced cuttlefish to make a light ragout, and also boiled, pureed then sieved so they provide a creamy element. Cooking the dish is easy, but shucking the peas will take at least an hour.
Ekkebus says if you can't find vegan butter, the dish can be made with unsalted butter.