PRIVATDINING ‘I want to st ay away from signature dishes. If you have too many, there’s no need to go on creating something even more spect acular. I want to keep myself hungry’ a restaurant run by Joël Robuchon’. Leung is philosophical about such setbacks. ‘I had some rave reviews and I had some horrible reviews. Patricia Wells slammed me, but that was good. I thanked her for it. It’s always important to know where you are, and you can only know that from what people tell you.’ He’s optimistic, though, that Londoners will appreciate his food. Th ough the full eff ect of his inventive twists may be lost on diners less familiar with Chinese cuisine, Leung is unperturbed. ‘Food is about tasting, stimulating your senses,’ he says. ‘It’s not a puzzle.’ Th ough reluctant to reveal too much of the menu (‘If I give away too much, you won’t get that element of surprise’), he says that British ingredients and infl uences will play a part. And if all goes according to plan, it could be the start of a global empire: London, he says, is the testing ground that will prove his culinary mettle. If on paper he attracts mixed reviews, in person he is just as contradictory. His success is clearly a matter of calculation as well as passion, and he likes to analyse the eff ect of his bad boy image and attentiongrabbing culinary experiments. At the same time, his more self-important pronouncements are undercut by a disarming honesty. After holding forth about the mystery conferred by his all-black wardrobe and ‘the challenges of creating in sheer darkness’, he sits back and smiles. ‘And it also makes fat people look thin.’ (For the record, he’s stocky rather than fat.) What is evident is his will to succeed. ‘Psychologically, people are lazy,’ he says. ‘It’s a scientifi c fact, called the conservation of energy.’ With that in mind, he refuses to divulge which dish he is most proud of. ‘I want to stay away from signature dishes. If you have too many, there’s no need to go on inventing new dishes and creating something even more spectacular. I want to keep myself hungry.’ He keeps a notebook to hand to record any fresh inspiration: so far, he says, he has fi lled seven or eight volumes. Is there any fantastical dish that eludes him, anything he dreams of creating? After all, Heston Blumenthal – another self-taught culinary maverick – spent years trying to perfect a savoury candyfl oss, but never succeeded. ‘I could never spend four years on a dish,’ says Leung. ‘I’m too hyperactive; my thoughts fl y everywhere.’ All the same, his mind is already at work, assessing the problem and contemplating possible solutions. And if he cracks the formula? ‘I’m going to sell it back to him for a big price,’ he smiles, only half in jest. Bo London opens at the end of October at 4 Mill Street, London W1, www.bolondonrestaurant.com Twenty-Six Left: fermented black bean and organic-honey cod, pickled bak choi and ginger shoot. Right: Leung’s xiao long bao – not your ordinary Chinese dumpling
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