Staffing is not the only issue chef Tam deals with. Seasonality and ingredients are two key factors in building a great cuisine, particularly Cantonese cuisine. Chefs should rely on their sensitivity in cooking by the season, with heightened awareness in the seasonal availability of ingredients and knowing how to make substitutions where needed. Some ingredients that were popular before may not always be available as frequently today. This poses a problem for chefs who seek to recreate flavours of the past in their cuisine. Tam agreed this is a challenge he faces every day. “Some ingredients are not as common as before, the demand is still there but the supply has diminished, our responsibility is to both seek the best alternative and adjust the seasoning and techniques to make the best use of what’s available to us. Availability is not something we can control, so we live with it, and exercise our minds to be creative about it. Something as basic as pork and goose have changed in quality due to raising methods in farms, but that should not stop us from making barbecue pork and roasted geese. We adapt by using a different cut, and different methods to recreate our popular charsiu and roasted goose.”

Mastering the techniques required time and determination, as Tam owed his success and expertise to decades of learning and practice in eating and cooking to master the arts and science of Cantonese cookery. “We love stories from our teachers, they are lessons that teach us how to think on our feet. Now I am teaching my chefs what I know, and I want them to learn the principles well before they get creative with it. It is like our Chinese saying, that one must master how to walk before learn how to run.” Tam lay down the standards for his chefs. “Chef training is all about developing knowledge, techniques, and the right attitude. The latter being the most important, as the right attitude of humility and high curiosity to explore will polish the technique and knowledge of a chef.”   
 
The road to success and recognition is long with many winding turns. For Tam Kwok-Fung, it is a chef’s state of mind that exceeds the measure of recognition. “I think success in my industry means having influence on a restaurant level, and on a personal level, inspires your peers to do better in their own respective fields. Gaining recognition and earning accolades certainly help with the team’s morale, it is a good source of motivation to keep doing well, but should not be something that defines who we are,” Tam explained. 

With awards and recognition under his belt, Tam finds solace in another form of appreciation, one that he gets on a daily basis. “Trust, is what I feel drawn to accomplish and it is a result of our efforts. Guests return to Wing Lei Palace every now and then because they trust how we approach and execute Chinese cuisine. At times they repeat their same orders, other times they trust us in designing bespoke on their food based on how well we keep track on their preferences. We believe open-mindedness and willingness to go an extra mile for our guests is key to success in hospitality. If a guest would like a unique dish, we try our best to create for them. We only have one rule, which is that seasonality always comes first, we will not prepare hairy crabs in the summer even if a guest can pay. It’s about principles and we must uphold them at the very least.”  
 
As Tam spends much of his time managing his team at Wing Lei Palace, he candidly admits he does not miss being in front of the stove. “I am not retired from cooking, I still do some cooking myself to keep my skills at tip-top standards, and to keep going you must keep cooking, that is our life, and a mission to pass the torch to more chefs to come.” On that note, we will be seeing more of chef Tam while tasting the happiness he projects from his kitchen to his food and to us food lovers.