The San Francisco-based chef is a big fan of the char kuay teow in Taiping
Chef Ho Chee Boon will not give you a straight answer when asked what the most popular dishes are on the menu of his restaurant, Empress by Boon. The Taiping-born tastemaker believes in always shaking things up.
“For 20 years, everybody keeps asking me this question. I don’t know how to answer. I love all my dishes. But when I think it’s time to change my menu, I change it,” Ho says with a laugh during a Zoom interview from his base in San Francisco with Tatler.
“I always want to create something new. I cannot have anything on my menu longer than three years. No matter how good something is, there will be something new I want to replace it with.”
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Ho is the former international executive chef of Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Hakkasan with over 30 years of experience in the industry. He has helped to open many of Hakkasan's celebrated addresses including Hakkasan Hanway Place and Yauatcha Soho, both in London.
The chef relocated to the US in 2012 to open Hakkasan New York. In June this year, he opened his own restaurant, Empress By Boon, in Grant Avenue, San Francisco. It features a prix fixe menu with modern Cantonese dishes, prepared with fresh local ingredients from the restaurant’s own organic farm in Gilroy, California.
While what he serves is considered elevated Chinese dining, Ho confesses that he still has deep love for fuss-free Malaysian street food.
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