Keeping it simple
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Steven Liu's creations show his eagerness to preserve culinary traditions but give them a new twist.[Photo provided to China Daily] |
He enrolled in Taiwan's top culinary school and was soon asking himself, "what would I like to be in the next 10 or 20 years?"
"I had lots of classmates staying in their comfort zone: Chinese cuisine. But I went for the most difficult: French cuisine — culinary art! This required lots of study, especially studying English," he says. "A lot of what I needed to know was published in French, so I started studying that, too."
Stanley Yen, a famous hotel CEO chairman, was a mentor and friend at that time. Yen said he could "smell" Liu's talent, telling him he could "go a long way" if he got on the right track. "But use your talent to go abroad," Yen told his protege, "and learn as much as you can."
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The luckiest day of his life came when he was back working in Taipei, and London's classy Savoy hotel launched an exchange with the hotel where Liu was working, bringing a monthlong introduction to British afternoon tea to Taipei.
Liu says he attached himself to the visitors like a barnacle, helping them organize and set up, running market errands for them, and asking a thousand questions.
The night before the British hotel team returned home, the managing director asked, "Steven, would you like to come to London, to work for the Savoy?"
Liu says he didn't take the suggestion that seriously, imagining his resume at the legendary hotel in a pile of more qualified candidates. But two weeks later he had a firm offer, and he was heading to England.
