J’AIME JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

F O O D & D R I N K
The taste of victory
MASTERCHEF: THE PROFESSIONALS 2021 WINNER DAN LEE COOKED UP A STORM IN
LICHFIELD AT A RECENT SAUCE SUPPER CLUB EVENT. HERE HE SHARES THE RECIPE FOR A
DELICIOUS MARINADE TO HELP YOU WHIP UP A TRADITIONAL CANTONESE DISH AT HOME.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BECKY TRANTER. WWW.BECKYTRANTER.COM
After an intense final, Birmingham chef Dan
Lee was crowned winner of MasterChef: The
Professionals 2021, impressing judges Marcus
Wareing and Monica Galetti with his Asian
and modern European inspired dishes; Wareing
described Dan as “a star in the making”, while
Galetti praised his “exciting, innovative flavours”.
With a Chinese father and British mother, Dan has
grown up around a mixture of Chinese and British
cuisine; his Chinese grandfather ran a takeaway
serving traditional Cantonese dishes, while his British
grandparents fed him stews and bacon sandwiches.
After gaining his Diploma in Cookery at University
College Birmingham, Dan worked in a Michelin-star
celebrity restaurant in Singapore, Table65. He is
now a private chef, doing pop-ups and residencies at
restaurants.
This month, he took over the kitchen at
Curborough’s Thyme Kitchen, home of Sauce
Supper Club, where lucky diners got to experience
some of the dishes which saw Dan walk away
with the MasterChef title. From mouthwatering
Hainanese chicken with rice, sesame and chilli, and
scallop with XO, chive and sweet potato, to duck
with hoisin and cucumber, and Lo Bak Go, it was a
feast inspired by Dan’s heritage.
MASTERCHEF THE
PROFESSIONALS
WINNER DAN LEE
And here, Dan shares the recipe for a traditional
Cantonese favourite - char siu pork.
Dan says: “Char siu is one of the most popular
roasted meats in Cantonese cuisine, it’s
something I ate regularly growing up and to
this day it’s still one of my favourite things to
eat! Traditionally char siu pork is served over
rice with some Chinese cabbage or pak choi
on the side, you can also find it inside Bao,
in fried rice and on top of delicious wonton
noodle soup. Below you can find my marinade
for char siu pork, I like to use shoulder when I
make it due to the tasty fatty nature of the cut,
this marinade also works with fillet and jowl,
although for jowl you would braise it in the
marinade rather than roasting!
46 www.jaimemagazine.com