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Greater Bay Area
Hong KongSociety

Are Greater Bay Area standards for Cantonese classic dishes cooking up a fuss among Hong Kong chefs?

  • Guidelines aim to preserve region’s food heritage, but some say they stifle chefs’ creativity, innovation
  • Little-known list of guidelines causes a stir with detailed instructions for making familiar food items

Reading Time:4 minutes
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The guidelines, which include dishes such as suckling pig, are overseen by the Greater Bay Area Standardisation Research Centre. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Harvey KongandNatalie Wong
To prepare the perfect Cantonese-style suckling pig, start with a piglet no more than two months old and under 4kg (8.8lbs).
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Make sure to use 15 ingredients, including five-spice and star anise powders, sesame sauce, fermented bean curd and two types of vinegar.

And when it is served, the crisp, fragrant skin must be chopped neatly into 32 slices.

These instructions, and many more for everything from char siu bao barbecued pork buns to scalded prawns, Chiu Chow fish balls and egg tarts, are not from a recipe book or YouTube video, but a little-known set of official guidelines for the Greater Bay Area.

The region comprising Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province is better known for Beijing’s ambitious plan to create a hi-tech economic powerhouse to rival California’s Silicon Valley, but the region’s cuisine has not escaped attention.

The guidelines from Greater Bay Area also say that pork belly slices in char siu bao should be cut to a thickness of 3mm. Photo: Shutterstock
The guidelines from Greater Bay Area also say that pork belly slices in char siu bao should be cut to a thickness of 3mm. Photo: Shutterstock

The governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau have jointly published the Greater Bay Area Standard for food items, to foster “interconnectivity and integrated development”.

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