Former head chef at two-Michelin-star Raw opens Restaurant A in Taipei. André Chiang protégé Alain Huang on making it a reality and its artful menu
- The most anticipated opening in Taipei this year, Alain Huang’s Restaurant A resembles an art gallery or a well-appointed residence
- For its opening menu, Huang, a protégé of André Chiang, collaborated with 10 Taiwanese artists to convey their inspirations and journeys through his creations
For the longest time, Raw had a reputation for being one of the hardest-to-book restaurants in Taiwan. And for seven years, Alain Huang Yi-lun worked quietly behind the scenes as head chef.
Despite Huang’s low profile, he became widely known in the industry as a key player and was credited with fuelling Raw’s stellar rise to two-Michelin-star status in 2019.
While Raw is somewhat casual, and known for its cheeky interpretations of Taiwanese street food, Restaurant A serves fine-dining French food made with Asian techniques and influences.
The restaurant is set in a 5,400 sq ft (502 square metres) unit with private lift access on the fourth floor of one of two towers that make up the luxurious Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Diamond Towers, Taipei’s newest mixed-use complex. It is situated in Da’an, an affluent district marked by wide, leafy boulevards, elegant residences and swanky boutiques.
Huang’s restaurant officially opened on September 16 and, at the time of writing, was fully booked until the end of October.
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While seemingly effortless, it took the chef two and a half years to conceive and realise Restaurant A.
“I worked on my French and bread-making skills, broadened my knowledge of wines, teas and coffees, experimented with flavour combinations, and travelled to the United States, Singapore and Japan,” recalls Huang of his life after Raw.
He says that, despite the hiatus, he always knew he would go back to restaurant life. A graduate of the National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, one of the leading culinary institutes in Taiwan, the 41-year-old has not looked back from his chosen path since he decided at the age of 15 to become a chef.
When asked about his hobbies outside the kitchen, he says, “I enjoy art and design, so I indulge myself at galleries.” He also has a habit of reaching out to artists he admires, which is how he came to work with 11 of them for the restaurant’s opening.
The works of all the artists and designers involved with Restaurant A can be found in situ.
Britain-based textile designer Apu Jan designed the staff uniforms and the ceiling art piece hanging in the champagne bar. Ceramic artist Christina Liu designed a tableware series called “Cloud Blossom” after being inspired by the clouds seen outside the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
Arriving guests first enter Alcoholiday, a 24-seat champagne bar, where the layout resembles a living room, which is fitting, as Huang wants his guests to feel at home.
After Alcoholiday, diners head into the 30-seat dining room. There is also an eight-seat private dining room while four guests can be accommodated at the chef’s table tucked inside the kitchen.
The opening menu at Restaurant A is titled “Nature Sensation: A Dialogue with Nature”. Inspired by the 11 artisans, the menu blends craftsmanship with cuisine, while also paying a tribute to them.
In the menu, Huang reinterprets 13 classic French dishes. The objective is to showcase his concept of “continumic”, a portmanteau of what he refers to as a “dynamic continuum” of his journey as a chef.
“Where I am now and what I create is a result of what has happened to me, and the people I have met along the way,” explains Huang, who refers to the processes in a restaurant as a continuous loop.
Restaurant A’s guests can count on dishes with clearly enunciated flavours. The experience normally starts with a quintet of appetisers. For our meal, the aromas of pears and apples from the paired Dhondt-Grellet Extra Brut Champagne Dans un Premier Temps NV complement the bites, which are presented in a progressive pattern – from salty to umami.
I enjoy the salty bite titled “Bouchon” the most, its moreish edible “corks” made with comté cheese and Jerusalem artichokes.
In the amuse-bouche “Blanc d’ete”, Huang pays tribute to architect Wu Sheng-ming, who in turn was inspired by Norman Foster’s see-through dome at the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany, when designing Restaurant A’s interiors.
A main course of “English breakfast” is a cute, bijoux version of the quintessential British meal, and a nod to textile artist Apu Jan, who shows a predilection for the quirky in his designs.
For the smoky and greasy factor, Huang replaces bacon with beef short ribs cooked in butter. The sunny side up is a quail’s egg encased in a yogurt “egg white”, which melts when placed on a warmed dish.
Then you have a delicious mess that can be mopped up with the condiments on the plate. Eaten altogether, the English breakfast is comforting but refined, and perfect washed down with a Bordeaux such as the Chateau Cos d’Estournel Goulée.
“I wanted a break, and to assess where I am going in life,” says Huang when asked about his decision to leave Raw. “Then I came to the realisation that I was ready to start my own restaurant.”
Huang is quick to list chefs who have made a deep impression on him – Philippe Mille, of Domaine Les Crayères in Reims, Champagne; Jonas Lundgren, of the now-closed Restaurang Jonas in Stockholm, Sweden; and Singapore’s Justin Quek, who was one of the first foreign chefs to espouse the virtues of Taiwan’s produce and ran French restaurant Justin’s Signatures in Taipei for eight years – but Chiang is not among them.
But when I remark how well-prepared the team seems, Huang is quick to quip, “I picked this up from André,” crediting Chiang for instilling the importance of being ready for anything and paying attention to the details.
“André called me the other day after hearing the buzz,” says Huang, adding that Chiang asked if Restaurant A was ready for him. “I said we are,” says Huang, with a smile.
