Fresh is best, says at-home chef (hktdc.com)


	Word of mouth has chef Stefan Herzog grow his business, dine-athome

Swiss chef Stefan Herzog arrived in Hong Kong in 1985, working for several years at the iconic Peninsula Hotel and Repulse Bay Restaurants. In 1990, as chef/patron of Stanley's French, he was instrumental in bringing fine dining experience to the southside. Currently, working as food consultant and chef to the King Parrot Group – whose stable of restaurants includes German, Spanish, Russian and Asian Chinese - he founded catering service dine-athome in partnership with his wife Inge, who is also a chef.

'Hong Kong is a wonderful place for someone in the restaurant business as it is rewarding (compared to Switzerland) and more importantly, it is a city which loves eating out. People simply love good food. Most Hong Kong people dine out because of their busy lifestyles and they like to try new things, new cuisine. On one hand, it is very exciting and rewarding; on the other hand, it creates a great pressure having to come up with new ideas, and dishes all the time.

Because of the high rents, we can't afford to be like restaurants in Switzerland which close for one or two days and all the staff take off. There is a great emphasis on turnover and work is very tough. I typically work 70 hours a week.

Quality of life

I have been in Hong Kong for over 20 years and I have witnessed many changes. What I love about this place is its quality of life. When I first came here, all the good restaurants were mostly in the hotels but that has changed tremendously over the years. Now, chefs from around the world descend on Hong Kong and this has brought great excitement, new food concepts and new ways of cooking which can only be good for the local culinary scene.

The tastes of the Chinese people in Hong Kong have changed too; they readily embrace Western food and have developed a great taste for wines as well.

There's lots of money sloshing around especially now and because Hong Kong is such an international business city, you get a good crowd of people from around the world who are always ready and willing to try new cuisine.

Hong Kong is a modern city with great shopping and you can get basically anything that you want 24 hours a day. For example, if you run out of charcoal or gas for your BBQ at 11pm, you can get it anywhere, anytime within two hours. Hong Kong is also a safe and clean place and unfortunately, I can't say that about many places in Europe these days.

Loyal customers

We started the catering service dine-athome.com in 2000 offering quality gourmet food, prepared with a very personal touch as my wife or I always attend the caterings personally. Advertising is through word of mouth as Hong Kong is such a small place and we have a good and loyal customer base.

Besides our many private customers, most of our clients are from the consulate generals, financial institutions, automobile companies and other multinational companies based in Hong Kong. My wife Inge who is also a trained chef works with me and we prepare all our food in the kitchen of the King Parrot Group in Stanley. We sometimes do cocktail parties catering from 50 to 600 people, stylish dinner parties to the finest private homes around Hong Kong, but also casual raclette, BBQ or risotto parties at the beach or in the garden.

I like fresh food properly cooked and natural. I would never go to a restaurant where the chef does not respect the natural food product as I believe the only good chef is one who works with feeling. Likewise, I am not a fan of industrialised food which is prepared two days before consumption.

Here for the long-haul

I hate mass productions and artificial flavours like MSG - that is why I like the freshness of Thai, Japanese and many other cuisines which work with fresh produce, as the dishes they produce are very natural.

I guess I will stay in Hong Kong for quite some time. There is a saying among our chef circle – if you stay in Hong Kong for longer than five years, chances are you'll stay for 20 years or more.

I am certainly a living proof of that.'