The Red Chamber is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Hilary Biller spoke to owner Emma Chen about the milestone and the launch of her first book, Emperor Can Wait
You started your restaurant when the average South African’s idea of Chinese food was a Cantonese take-out, deep-fried and dripping in sweet-and-sour sauce. How difficult has it been to educate our palates about real Chinese food?It has been a gradual process. I do get Chinese people criticising me for not serving authentic things like whole chicken, chicken feet and tripe. I’m not here to shock people but to slowly introduce authentic Chinese food to the customers’ palates.
In the beginning, we had the standard Chinese set menu, now hardly ever.
Book details
Please register or log in to comment
