From port wine to Thai spices, inspirations from this chef’s time abroad shape his ever-evolving Michelin menu

Having 40 years of cooking experience means that executive chef Jackie Ho Hong-sing of Cantonese restaurant Lai Heen at The Ritz-Carlton, Macau, started working on his craft when he was only 12 years old. His first job at that age was as a kitchen apprentice at a Chinese restaurant.

Some industry veterans with that much experience might tend to get stuck in their ways, but that’s certainly not the case for Ho. The chef still maintains a playful element to his mastery, always daring to shake up the Cantonese cuisine served at the one-Michelin-starred restaurant perched on the hotel’s 51st floor overlooking the city.

“Whenever I have new ideas or new ingredients, I will create a new dish for my team to taste,” Ho says. “I collect their feedback, make some revisions and if it works, we will make the item available on the menu.”

These bold experiments have led to a wide array of innovative offerings at Lai Heen, including its signature stewed prawns with port wine sauce in casserole. “With port wine as the base of the broth, the freshness of the seafood comes out very well,” Ho explains. “The fusion dish is a tribute to Macau, which has both Chinese and Portuguese cultural influences.”

This desire to continually push himself – not only to learn new techniques and work with unexpected ingredients, but also to help traditional Cantonese cuisine evolve – is borne from his years of travel while working and living abroad in mainland China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

“I learned a lot about food cultures and ingredients in different places; everything is stored in my mind,” Ho says. “Before Macau, I worked in Thailand, which is famous for its herbs and spices. So I added these to the Chinese dishes I made here, and ended up creating one of the restaurant’s signature dishes.”