Yun Jing

The service was impeccable from the moment you stepped into Raffles Hotel. I requested a reservation by the window on the day itself hoping to catch the sunset.Peking duck with caviar was absolutely decadent. The two drumsticks were served separately on the side which was juicy and tender. Scallops were fresh. Another well executed dish was lobster broth with rice. It is packed with flavours and I would happily go back again for this. Chef Guo came out to speak to the diners and because the two other dishes I wanted to try was sold out, he was very apologetic and came back personally and served me with another amazing dish. Mushroom soup with sea cucumber and fish maw. I usually am not a fan of fish maw but this was delicious. I left with a goodie bag. ☺️Definitely come back again for the food and ambience. 👏 to the chef and all the amazing staff in the restaurant and hotel.

Chef Guo's Evolution It feels like every time I leave Shenzhen, my last meal is at Chef Guo Yuanfeng's restaurant as a farewell. Brother Hui said Chef Guo is among the top three Cantonese chefs of his generation nationwide, and I completely agree. As the first Hakka chef in mainland China to receive a Michelin star, Chef Guo has consistently held the Black Pearl award since arriving in Shenzhen. We all have high hopes and expectations for him as the Shenzhen Michelin Guide opens this year. What makes Chef Guo so remarkable? He certainly cooks beautiful dishes, and as a protégé of the "Lei Garden" group, his traditional Cantonese culinary skills are impeccable, profound, and his flavors are consistently excellent. He's also a very straightforward person. Once, when we were judges for a China Southern Airlines in-flight chef selection, one contestant was carelessly and sloppily doing his job. Chef Guo, as a judge, slammed his fist on the table and angrily shouted at the contestant: "As a chef, I demand that you respect your profession!" But that's not all there is to Chef Guo. I believe his innovative attention to detail in technique is his greatest contribution to the industry. A hurried lunch included crab jelly made with crab meat and roe by Chef Guo, and sea urchin tarts served on a bed of crayfish—perhaps making up for the lack of cold dishes in Cantonese cuisine? The smoky, robust Spanish char siu in a wooden box was a testament to the chef's refined skills. Yunnan's wild mushroom season has arrived, and the seasonal offerings are exceptionally rich: termite mushrooms blanched in sunflower chicken broth, chanterelle mushrooms stewed with grouper, and porcini mushrooms served with cured pork rice—all showcasing the chef's diverse understanding of the different characteristics of wild mushrooms. The Cantonese crispy roast pork, a sensation across Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu, has been given a new twist—a whole piece of roast pork is served basted with Sichuan peppercorns, ensuring it's dry and dehydrated while infusing it with a richer, more numbing aroma. To ensure a quick and crispy experience, the chopping process has been replaced with table-side cutting, aiming for a pure, wafer-like, crumb-free experience. As a Hakka, I naturally have a fondness for the camellia oil from my hometown. Chef Guo blended camellia oil and chicken oil to prepare live abalone from South Africa right before my eyes. The focus wasn't on the fresh abalone, still wriggling wildly as it faced the knife, nor on the meticulously peeled, skinless garlic shoots, but on the cooking process itself. Strictly speaking, it wasn't stir-frying, deep-frying, or braising; instead, he placed preserved radish, skinless garlic shoots, and freshly sliced ​​abalone in a flat pan, grilling and combining them in a Japanese teppanyaki style, with the cooking time not exceeding 10 seconds. The tenderness and crispness of the ingredients were fully preserved and showcased. Thinking back, the last time I ate at Chef Guo's was three months ago. At his rate of mastering a new technique every quarter, becoming a grandmaster shouldn't take more than a few years.

Finally, a Four-Handed Performance Speaking of the "Cai-Guo duo," many people first think of the golden CP duo "Cai Ming + Guo Da" from the CCTV Spring Festival Gala sketches. Last night, the "Cai-Guo duo" in the catering industry finally achieved a four-handed performance—"Cai Hao + Guo Yuanfeng," Cantonese chefs who have known each other for over ten years, presented a long-awaited four-handed duet at the Raffles Hotel's "Yun Jing" restaurant in Shenzhen. Master Cai is from Chaoshan, while Master Guo is Hakka; Master Cai is a three-time consecutive Black Pearl Star chef, while Master Guo is the first Hakka chef to receive a Black Pearl Michelin star; both are known for their elegant and beautiful dishes, their old friends overlap significantly, and even their romantic experiences are remarkably similar… Getting back to the point, this "four-handed" performance was more like Master Cai providing the conceptual solutions, with Master Guo assisting in the practical execution. I personally believe that this kind of "four-handed" approach better facilitates the exchange and fusion of culinary skills. If the two masters let their imaginations run wild, it becomes a stand-up comedy routine; if the two masters work diligently, it becomes a completely unrelated track and field race. Master Cai brought his "Sour Soup Beef and Sea Cucumber," a dish that made him a sensation during Guangzhou's Fine Food Week, achieving an impressive daily sales record of 3,000 servings. This street food has been elevated to a more sophisticated level, transforming from a trendy street food into a classic dish. Wei Xuxiang, Executive Vice President of the Guangdong Culinary Association and the organizer of Guangzhou Fine Food Week, highly praised and affirmed Master Cai's dish. In Chaoshan cuisine, it's customary to serve hearty dishes, and the evening's grand finale was the braised conch. Master Cai has many secrets to using conch, and Hui Ge, known as the "Einstein of the kitchen," explained how the conch's connective tissue contributes to its crisp texture. At this moment, I also asked a question: Master Cai, how many slices should be cut from a single conch? Chef Guo said that traditionally, "braised conch" involves cutting one slice from a single conch, but the price is prohibitive for most people. Master Cai said he has highly refined the subtleties of slice thickness, thus developing his own golden ratio, but as the saying goes: it cannot be spoken. Combining Brother Hui's connective tissue theory with Master Cai's Buddhist saying "It cannot be spoken," I recalled the Leiyin Temple in Little Western Paradise of *Journey to the West*, which supposedly housed five hundred Arhats and three thousand Jiedi. Following the numerical recipe, one Arhat paired with six Jiedi—that's like a conch shell split into six pieces! I counted the conch slices in the bowl, and indeed, there were six. Twenty years ago, Master Cai made his debut on Qinghe Road in Panyu with his "Crispy Sea Cucumber," marking his first major success since returning to China. While the legendary Ximen Da Guanren of Qinghe County in *Water Margin* enjoyed his glory for only twenty years, Master Cai's "Crispy Sea Cucumber" on Qinghe Road has undergone several iterations. Moreover, I noticed a clue in the dish—sea cucumber paired with fish maw, and two pieces of greens on the side are Brussels sprouts—two grandparents embracing two offspring! This is keeping up with the times and responding to the call! One is as still as a virgin, the other as agile as a rabbit; Master Cai speaks eloquently, while Master Guo is a dragon roaming the world. This Cantonese cuisine quartet, named "Cloud-based Cantonese Flavors," features high-level thinking, precise execution, and deep emotional connection. The entire meal incorporates "Cai Hao Selected" whisky, achieving a fusion and sublimation of "spirit and flesh."

Step out To "sell legs", you have to "step out". As a loyal fan of Spanish ham, I have had a deep relationship with 5J ham over the years and witnessed the efforts made by the leaders of the Chinese catering industry to integrate Western ingredients with Eastern cooking. Western ham has always been considered afraid of high temperatures and overcooking, and is only suitable for raw consumption. However, since Teacher Dadong created the cold-eaten ham rice dumplings, the rich potential of Chinese chefs seems to have been stimulated, using starch, powdered sugar, and the aroma of herbs... The "Westernization of ham" seems to be slowly showing the dawn on the land of China. The first step of the Year of the Snake was made by Chef Guo Yuanfeng of Yunjing Restaurant in Raffles Hotel Shenzhen. I have known Chef Guo for more than ten years. After coming to Shenzhen, this Hakka chef who was the first to receive the Michelin honor in mainland China seemed to have opened up new dishes. The Spring Festival of 5J Ham and this energetic chef are even more exciting. The modest and cautious Chef Guo was afraid of any mistakes, so he asked Brother Hui in advance. Brother Hui also taught him a secret, which is said to contain two recipes and cooking methods. Chef Guo did not disappoint us. In addition to the traditional ham shreds with bird's nest and cold salad, there are several innovative dishes with original spirit. Guangdong also has the tradition of southern sashimi. Chef Guo found a very large golden fish, the fish meat was used as sashimi, and the fish head and fish bones were boiled into fish gelatin as the base of the sashimi. When tasting, no traditional soy sauce is added, and it is experienced in the way of "wrapping and eating" with a piece of ham and a piece of sashimi. The sweetness of the golden fish is enhanced by the soft salty and fresh taste of the ham. The ham oil-braised glutinous rice is stuffed in the spring bamboo shoots, and then garnished with a little caviar. This Hakka-style "stuffed bamboo shoots" fully draws on the graceful combination of Jiangnan pickled pork ham and bamboo shoots. The appropriate temperature and starch decomposition enzymes, the lingering fragrance of the ham begins to last. In Western bistros, you can often see small platters of ham and cheese. Chef Guo thinks that Western cheese tastes too hard and too sweet, so he found local old yogurt and made it into yogurt lumps to match ham. This astringent method works surprisingly well. The freshness of milk and the aroma of ham fat are intertwined and rising, but the taste is much lighter. Master Guo's Hakka background was revealed in this "New Year Ham Feast" - the ham scraps were fried crispy and then used to match fish maw, fish belly and roasted scallion roots. The strong aroma whetted people's appetite; the melon flowers were not stuffed with meat paste, but the six ears of "three mushrooms and six ears" with the blessing of ham oil. The Hakka stuffing method was like a stroke of genius, and my favorite was the black truffle egg custard cooked with ham oil. The highlight was the few fragrant small yellow flowers. I thought it was some new-style spice for Western cuisine, but Master Guo said it was just the stone chive buds in his Hakka hometown. Master Guo's creativity is wonderful, so what will Brother Hui's tricks be? The answer was found in "Taro Dumplings". Brother Hui stuffed nine-year-old lilies and ham in taro dumplings in the form of Cantonese dim sum, with sweet, salty and fresh interweaving, just like the sugar-cured buns in my hometown of Yunnan. This step forward in the New Year is really exciting. I look forward to taking big steps with 5J Ham in the Year of the Snake and selling more legs.

There is nothing bad here except the price. Haha. If you have money, do things well! If you don’t have money, be a good person! Snakes don’t know they are poisonous, and people don’t know they are wrong. Your goodness is like a piece of candy to others, which will disappear after being eaten. But your badness is like a scar that will exist forever. This is human nature!

The hotel environment is clean, the room layout is very good, elegant and romantic, the service is thoughtful, it makes people feel very comfortable and creates a feeling of home for me. It is impeccable in both big and small aspects. The waiters in this hotel are all polite, warm and thoughtful. 🏡 Especially Mia Huang from the guest relations department impressed me. The service is warm and thoughtful. The location is good, the transportation is convenient, the room is comfortable and hygienic, the service staff is very enthusiastic and willing to provide all kinds of help. Mia is very enthusiastic and worthy of praise! The service of this hotel is really great. We brought our children to stay for three consecutive nights. Before we checked in, the room helped us prepare the children's toiletries, which was very considerate. The hotel design is very unique and the environment is very comfortable. Everything from check-in to check-out was very smooth and smooth, a perfect experience.