A recipe for success
York’s chefs get a taste of China behind the scenes in a university kitchen
Andrew Wood, the University’s Executive Chef and his Deputy, Ian Dickson, have just returned from a two week trip to the Universities of Zhejiang and Nanjing as part of a unique exchange project.
York has already forged strong relationships with the two Chinese universities as partners in the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), and our academics are involved in joint research across a range of disciplines. This is the first time that a non-academic exchange has been organised and it came about after a visit to Hong Kong and China last year by Head of Hospitality, Phil Kember and Head of Campus Services, Sue Johnston. They wanted to find out how to enhance the experience of international students coming to York.
The aim of our two senior chefs was to get a crash course in
authentic Chinese cuisine and come home with a collection of 15 to 20 recipes
that could be incorporated into the repertoire of campus cuisine for special occasions
such as Chinese New Year.
Chinese students coming to York tend to opt for self-catered packages, although when in China, students eat all their meals in university dining outlets. One of the main reasons, according to a recent focus group, was that they miss the taste of genuine Chinese home cooking.
Vanbrugh College used to serve Chinese dishes, but they were not popular with Chinese students, says Andrew Wood who introduced food with an Asian flavour a few years ago. “We made the mistake of using Indian rice which is quite different to the fatty short-grain rice in Chinese food.” Another culinary faux pas was the York method of cooking dumplings, arguably the most important traditional Chinese dish. “We were deep frying them,” he admits. “Turns out that real Chinese dumplings are poached.”
So, with a couple of translators standing by to help with communications, Ian and Andrew joined the university cooks behind the scenes in the university kitchens to learn some of the tricks of their trade. There were misunderstandings, such as the time one of the translators appeared with a bunch of flowers after being asked to find some flour. There was also confusion over the Yorkshire pronunciation of ‘duck’. As for cooking techniques, one of the challenges was wielding a huge and lethal cleaver: “I kept getting it stuck in the wooden block!” says Andrew.
They also learned that the ingredients in many of the dishes bear little resemblance to the Chinese food we eat in the West. There were no saturated fats or dairy products; instead, they found a lot of fresh vegetables, pork and seafood. Another discovery was that cooking styles were very diverse depending on the region. “In the campus canteens students could choose from 100 dishes from all areas of China,” he says.
Both chefs agree that the experience formed a lasting impression
and one that will give them a better insight into the culinary customs of other
cultures. “The most important thing we discovered was that food - and sitting
down together to have a meal - is central to Asian culture,” he says.
Armed with a sheaf of new recipes, photos and sketches of how to present the dishes and a good supply of herbs and spices, Andrew is well prepared to produce the real deal in terms of authentic Chinese fare for the next important campus event at York.
Says Harriet Cross from the International Relations Office, who helped to organise the exchange, “Serving authentic Chinese cuisine will help many of our international students feel more at home, but more importantly it will make the campus a more international place for all our students.” Both Zheijang and Nanjing Universities were very keen on the idea of doing service level staff exchanges and plans are in the pipeline for a return visit from Chinese chefs.
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