Cha Chaan Teng

Chef, teacher, writer, and Food & Wine Best New Chef, 2021, Lucas Sin writes his first cookbook to highlight the beloved dishes of Hong Kong-style comfort food.

The food of Hong Kong is a mashup of Asian culture, Western culture, and the forces of colonialism and migration, and some of the most representative dishes of the cuisine are best found in cha chaan teng (aka Hong Kong’s diners). The resulting Chinese-Western dishes are known to feed everyone from day laborers to school children and include soul-satisfying Beef Brisket Soup and Curry Chicken Pie, but also Peanut Butter-Stuffed French Toast and Pineapple Buns. Lucas Sin is a chef; teacher; writer; Food & Wine Best New Chef, 2021; and proud son of Hong Kong. While he watches the city he grew up in change before his eyes, Lucas wants to record the recipes for the comfort foods he grew up eating in cha chaan teng. The recipes are Lucas’s best interpretations of Hong Kong’s favorite dishes and a window into a world with comfort food that is affordable and efficient to cook and universally beloved from Slippery Eggs over Rice and Golden Rice to Cantonese Bolognese, Milk Tea, and more.