The trials and tribulations of ingredients hunting in Beijing

You pay for what you get–and Guillaume Galliot, Chef de Cuisine at JAAN of Raffles renown, knows that better than anyone. We started talking about the necessity of importing ingredients in order to fulfill a foreign recipe when living in China while enjoying a lunch chat last week. Time to start penny-pinching: the story ain't cheap.

I'm not just talking about the selective delectables available for those who can pay at places like JAAN–such as the sharp, fresh and fluffy St. Maure goat cheese (from the Chef's very own hometown) which paired with hazelnut to fill baby ravioli nestled in a hearty purple artichoke soup. Even those ingredients that are plentiful locally don't suffice in terms of freshness, quality and organic certification. I'll spare you the juicy, drool-inducing details of my entire three-course meal, but only one ingredient was NOT imported–and that was the mint used in the home-made vanilla mint ice cream paired with an Araguani chocolate soufflé with 150 years old Grand Marnier.

This phenomenon is not restricted to snobby and anachronistic Western cuisines. Over dinner with Max Levy, who is slated to open a restaurant in the much-buzzed-about Sanlitun boutique hotel (I'll give you one hint regarding theme: it's not Western), I heard similar complaints. I learned about the quality of meat here. Bad. Very bad. And most imported meats are low-quality and with hiked-up prices. He'll have to import specialized orders through individual distributors–thereby jacking up costs for customers. Even though Levy always likes to work with whatever is available in a locale–be it recipes and cuisine, ingredients, dining culture–he, like Galliot, still expects to import plenty of ingredients.

I'd been wondering why Beijing's food scene diverges into either the low-priced, local end or the expensive, Western-imported restaurants. Other than pan-Asian offerings–Thai at Purple Haze, for example–we only have the two extremes. Until local food production and distribution quality improves it looks like Beijing will remain a city either for penny-pinchers or the prosperous.

–Manuela Zoninsein