Famous meatball dish connects two generations of chefs on a mission to keep traditional Chaozhou cuisine alive
- Chef Xu Weixin takes an apprentice under his wing, offering kitchen experience as part of the Cantonese cuisine chef training programme
- He also hands down the technique for his restaurant’s famous meatballs made from pounded beef, a signature of Chaozhou-style cooking
Chef Xu Weixin uses two metal rods to methodically pound a slab of beef into a smooth paste, adding seasonings along the way. This is how the main ingredient is prepared for one of the most-loved dishes in Chaozhou, a coastal city in Guangdong province that is the namesake for a style of Cantonese cuisine.
The beef paste gets squeezed into balls by hand – another step that requires much experience and practice. After they are simmered in a savoury broth, these popular Chaozhou meatballs are ready to be enjoyed by diners.
The process for making this dish is strenuous even for the most experienced Chaozhou cooks, yet Xu never seems to tire from it, always maintaining the same pace of work in his kitchen at Chaoshan Tower Restaurant. But these days, he has some help.
His twenty-something protégé, Chen Youtian, recently joined the province’s Cantonese cuisine chef training programme and has been working with Xu to learn this technique. “You certainly need strength to create the best Chaozhou beef meatballs, but you also need patience,” Chen says.
Despite coming from different backgrounds and generations, the master chef and his student are on the same mission to safeguard traditional Chaozhou cooking, and even share plans to elevate this style of cuisine to new heights.
