How Silas Li is transforming Chinese cooking: the Best Chef award winner for 100 Top Tables 2023 blends contemporary and traditional at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 – while nurturing the next generation

Raised in the UK, Li spent 20 years experimenting in the kitchen as a private chef to Hong Kong’s elite before helping Baldwin Cheng relaunch his Happy Valley restaurant

His innovative East-meets-West approach includes a collaboration with Highland Park to use whiskey in Chinese dishes; he also plans to hire more out of the VTC’s apprenticeship programme

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Chef Silas Li of Hong Kong Cuisine at his restaurant in Happy Valley. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 11:36am, 30 Mar 2023Updated: 6:09pm, 22 Nov 2023

With Hong Kong open to the world again, foodies from across the globe have been flocking back to the city to sate their appetite for Hong Kong cuisine. So, it seems only fitting that this year’s recipient of the Best Chef award for 100 Top Tables, South China Morning Post’s annual fine dining guide, is none other than Silas Li, who is redefining exactly what that means at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983.

Having worked for 20 years as a private chef to Hong Kong’s elite, Li joined forces with Hong Kong Cuisine owner Baldwin Cheng last July to revamp the latter’s restaurant in Happy Valley. Together, they’ve created a contemporary Chinese restaurant that pays homage to the time-honoured recipes of traditional Hong Kong cuisine, while becoming a platform to train and nurture the next generation of chefs.

“Winning this award within a year of joining [Hong Kong Cuisine 1983] reinforces my decision to leave my comfort zone and create something of my own,” said Li, who says he spent the last 20 years “exploring and experimenting in the kitchen”.

The interior of Hong Kong Cuisine 1983. Photo: Handout

“The 100 Top Tables Best Chef Award is a testament to the hard work and dedication that my team and I have put into the restaurant, and I’m incredibly grateful for this recognition and proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

Born and raised in the UK, Li grew up around Chinese cooking thanks to his family’s takeaway and left school at an early age to pursue a culinary career. Although he was professionally trained in French gastronomy, his extensive travels throughout China to meet with local chefs and suppliers lead to him picking up traditional Chinese skills and techniques.

“Every cuisine has its own technique, but what makes Chinese cooking so fascinating is the fact that there are so many different ways to cook things,” says Li. “Take deep frying, for instance – we use so many different temperatures, oils and batters to create that crisp and airy texture. It all depends on the dish you’re making.”

Crispy sea cucumber stuffed with tofu fish mousse, served with ma po minced pork sauce at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983. Photo: Handout

Constantly experimenting with new flavours and techniques, Li is best known for an East-meets-West philosophy of cooking that combines innovation with tradition. His signature dish of braised boneless duck web stuffed in chicken wings is an excellent example of this, which is a play on the Chinese idiom, “chicken speaking with duck”.

“I’ve loved duck web since I was a kid, but have always found it quite ugly when it was being served to diners,” he said. “Most restaurants don’t debone the duck web so when I came up with this idea, I knew it had to be boneless.”