Dining at an Asia's 50 Best Restaurant, savoring the dishes of a world culinary gold medal chef—what a wonderful feeling!

Travel is not just about admiring beautiful scenery and experiencing local culture; enjoying unique cuisine is also an indispensable part, especially for foodies. For them, food is even more important than scenery and culture, after all, scenery is not a necessity, but three meals a day are indispensable.

For foodies, wherever there is good food, that is the ideal travel destination. Currently, China has four most authoritative culinary capitals: Macau, Shunde, Chengdu, and Yangzhou. I like all four cities because I am also a foodie. Let's not talk about Shunde, Yangzhou, and Chengdu for now; today let's discuss Macau's cuisine.

Macau is a very special city. Although it is small in area and has a small population, its culture is diverse and integrated, and its cuisine is all-encompassing. It preserves the authentic Cantonese culinary tradition while absorbing the authentic Portuguese style. The collision of various food cultures here makes its cuisine unique and famous both in China and abroad.

When mentioning Macau's cuisine, one restaurant and one chef must be mentioned: Wynn Palace, which has been awarded as one of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. Specifically, it is the Chinese restaurant inside the Wynn Palace hotel. How many countries are there in Asia? How many cities? With only the top 50, many countries don't even have a single restaurant on the list, yet Macau, with only a few hundred thousand people, has two. The other one is also said to be in Wynn Palace, a Sichuan hotpot restaurant called Sichuan Moon. I must try it someday.

Now that we've mentioned the restaurant, let's talk about the chef—Mr. Tam Kwok Fung, the World Gastronomy Gold Medal winner and Executive Chef of Wynn Palace. It is said that Chef Tam has traveled around the world, won numerous awards, and has been responsible for hosting members of royal families and prominent business figures from various countries. For many years, he has been promoting his Cantonese cooking skills internationally.

It is said that after joining Wynn Palace, Chef Tam led his professional chef team to consecutively win the "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" awards for 2019 and 2020. Fortunately, during our meal at Wynn Palace, we met this legendary figure in Macau's food scene and chatted with him about his story and the story of Macau's cuisine.

Chef Tam was born in Hong Kong and entered the culinary world in the 1980s. At only 16 years old, he was passionate about cooking and actively learned from his masters, dedicated to studying the essence of Cantonese cuisine. In the 1990s, he bravely accepted the challenge of working in Bangkok, Thailand, and worked at two renowned local hotels, including the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and The Peninsula Bangkok.

He told us: "In my career, I have hosted many heads of state, royal family members, and diplomats, much like a chef working in a palace. I am committed to constantly accepting challenges and improving myself, always staying innovative. Because the food and beverage industry is no different from fashion—we must grasp the latest trends to create the best Cantonese cuisine. Today's guests pursue high-quality dishes made from pure organic ingredients, so I spend a lot of time sourcing top-notch ingredients, striving to create the most satisfying menus for our guests."

After several years of hard work, Chef Tam was promoted to Executive Chef of the Chinese Food Department at The Peninsula Bangkok in 1998. During this time, in 2005, he went to Guangdong, China to participate in the "5th World Chinese Cooking Competition." He stood out among top Chinese chefs and won the Gold Medal from the World Cooking Federation, earning him worldwide fame.

In 2007, Chef Tam was invited back to China and joined the Crown Macau, City of Dreams, and now Wynn Palace. He has won the highest honors in the culinary industry for his restaurants multiple times and has become a godfather-like figure in Macau's food scene. It is said that many people come to Wynn Palace specifically for him; he is the restaurant's most prominent招牌. He has extremely high standards for food. Even with his current industry status, he still goes to the market every day to select ingredients. He says that the same type of fish can be different—some grow in saltwater, some in freshwater, and some in the Pearl River estuary, which is between the two. Actually, their flavors differ, and different ingredients require different cooking methods to achieve the best taste.

After introducing Chef Tam, let's briefly talk about Wynn Palace, which has been rated as one of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. It is a very authentic Cantonese restaurant. The magnificent decoration creates a royal palace atmosphere. The designer reinterprets the styles of ancient Chinese architecture, porcelain, textiles, and decorative arts within a European-style opera house setting, showcasing the splendid beauty of Chinese tradition. The restaurant uses gold and white as the main colors, accented by gorgeous emerald green. Every seat offers a magnificent view of the Performance Lake. The fountain show, combining water dance, music, and light, is performed regularly on the lake outside the windows, accompanying the sumptuous feast, which is enchanting.

The entrance of the restaurant makes guests feel as if they are entering a theater. Passing through the beautiful garden entrance, there are giant vases filled with flowers along the way, making one feel like they are in a colorful sea of flowers. Then, the spacious environment of the restaurant and the captivating water dance show of the Performance Lake come into view. The private dining room where we ate reminded me of box seats in a European opera house, offering both excellent visual beauty and good privacy. Outside is the Performance Lake, and there is also a private outdoor terrace by the lake.

Enjoying the food here, I don't even want to introduce each dish one by one. Since Chef Tam personally customized this meal for us, my words seem pale. The best feeling is to experience it yourself. The per-person cost here ranges from 400-500 to over 1,000 RMB, depending on your order. You can also have Chef Tam prepare a menu according to your needs. If you're lucky, you might even meet Chef Tam in person, chat about food, and take a photo—a wonderful Macau memory.

In short, being an Asia's 50 Best Restaurant and having a World Gastronomy Gold Medal winner, these two golden signs of Wynn Palace are both tempting enough. Each one alone is a sufficient reason for people to come and experience it. What do you think?