Rosewood honors Chinese heritage, highlights crown jewel chef

August 19, 2022

An image from Rosewood Hong Kong's BluHouse restaurant. Image credit: Rosewood Hong Kong

Hospitality group Rosewood Hotels is highlighting PlaceMakers, a diverse group of individuals who are advancing the ideals of culture and unity worldwide.

Rosewood Hong Kong, in particular, is highlighting chef May Chow. As one of the city's best contemporary chefs, Ms. Chow's culinary ethos is grounded in her respect for both traditional ingredients and the sanctity of her culture’s cuisine.

Cuisine of China
The campaign film begins with Ms. Chow looking over a bridge at blue, flowing water on a bright summer day. As boats pass, she smiles and reveals that her love for Hong Kong comes from the fact that it’s truly a multicultural city with diversity interwoven into the everyday experience.

Ms. Chow defines herself as a triple threat: a chef, an entrepreneur and an innovator of modern Chinese cuisine. Historic culinary staples from local producers like fermented bean curd and high-quality soy sauces and spices are vital to Ms. Chow’s cooking style.

“Rosewood Hong Kong PlaceMaker” campaign video

She is seen inhaling aromatic sauces and sifting her hands through an enormous bag of cloves.

Pointing to a large bucket containing spotted eels, Ms. Chow selects a diverse array of seafood at her regional market and then surveys a display full of bright red fish.

“Hong Kong’s uniqueness is the juxtaposition of old and new,” Ms. Chow says in the film. “Our unique history will continue to be the seed that differentiates us from others.”

She is shown sharpening a stainless steel knife and then cradling a handful of red Szechuan peppers. As Ms. Chow finely dices green scallions and removes the silk from an ear of corn she waxes on about the uniqueness of Hong Kong cooking.

From her perspective, reimagining traditional Chinese ingredients in a global context invites a whole new generation to partake in Chinese dining culture.

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A scene from Rosewood Hong Kong’s campaign film, featuring chef May Chow

As Ms. Chow sits smiling at a bar and is served a drink by a man in a tailored black suit, she muses that Hong Kong has one of the most dynamic food scenes that “beautifully juxtaposes Chinese heritage against internationalism.”

The video ends with Ms. Chow smilingly gazing at the city skyline, perhaps imagining the continued evolution of Chinese fine dining.

Momentum in China
Luxury brands continue to pursue expansion in China, one well-loved avenue for creating a presence in metropolitan Chinese cities like Hong Kong is pop-up stores (see story). These temporary events have the ability to generate buzz for new products and drive traffic to bricks-and-mortar stores.

The growing demand for luxury goods and services in China is coming from the Gen-Z population who have an insatiable demand for affluent experiences despite collectively holding less spending power than their older counterparts (see story).

The latest brand to create buzz in China is perhaps French fashion label Dior. The accessories and apparel brand is under fire for copying traditional Chinese painting styles and perpetuating cultural appropriation (see story).

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