Suggested locations:

Hao Chen

Born:

Shanghai.

History:

I started as an apprentice Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai. I believe constant improvement and research have gotten me to where I am today.

Have you always wanted to be a Chef?

Originally, I studied IT, but I always had a passion for cooking and decided to follow that dream.

How would you define your style?

Using the best and freshest Australian/local ingredients to create the best Japanese dishes.

What is your feature flavour these days?

Fresh seafood with truffle.

Obsessive-compulsive about?

Chefs following well-defined systems to recreate dishes, perfectly every time.

Your greatest culinary influence:

Travelling through Japan.

What do you love about this business?

I love seeing people enjoying something I have created for them.

An ingredient you can’t live without?

Rice.

Most ‘eyebrow-raising’ menu item?

New Zealand scampi with foie gras, soy jelly and truffle oil nigiri.

Signature dish:

Scallop with pickled green apple, garlic and jalapeño dressing.

Raku Dining

Tantalise tastebuds with modern Japanese fare at Raku Dining on Bunda Street in Canberra. Combining the precision of Oriental cuisine with the vibrant energy of Mod Oz dining, Raku is all sleek lines, pale wood tables and stools, mixed with glossy tiles and floor-to-ceiling glass windows, to create a chic and trendy vibe. Best described as art on a plate, be prepared for starters like venison with baby cucumber, dengaku miso mayo, pickled capers and truffle oil, or salmon tartare with yuzu miso and squid ink cracker; followed by miso-marinated duck, pickled pear, plum and Nashi purée and sansho pepper salt. Be enticed by robata grill options of snapper with orange ponzu, onion, grilled tomato and yuzu kosho dressing, or Scotch fillet, with wafu sauce, wasabi sour cream and rhubarb salt.