70 dishes in two days – a flavorist’s culinary adventures in Chongqing

As chefs, we travel far, jump a lot of hurdles,  and taste a lot of different foods in the never-ending pursuit of authentic tastes.  But last year, one of our flavorists traveled to Chongqing in central-western China, a city famous for its incredible food, and had a culinary adventure that few of us get to experience.  Evelyn Gunadi's trip was covered by the local press, shown above.  The translation is below.  Enjoy!

“Sichuan food is very well-known, and the best of its kind is in Chongqing” ~ Old Chinese saying.
IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances), an American company, recently sent Evelyn Gunadi, an Australian-Chinese Senior Flavorist based in IFF Singapore R&D center, to Chongqing for taste exploration. Ms Gunadi went to Chongqing for the purpose of bringing the ‘Chongqing taste’ to Asian packaged food market. She sampled more than 70 signature dishes in just two days!

Ms. Gunadi first stopped at Shanghai where she met with her Shanghai colleague, Mr Daniel Wang, the local Senior Application Specialist and her interpreter on this trip. Hence, they flew to Chongqing together and upon their arrival at their hotel, Mrs Xuan, a local friend, greeted and took them to the Haochi Street on Bayi Road for their first cuisine tasting. After three-hour of food exploration, Mrs Xuan was so full while Ms Gunadi was still ordering food. “Both of them only took two bites at each dish! My poor stomach!” said Mrs Xuan with a happy tone.

“Both my father and grandfather were experienced chefs, and they were good at International food,” said Ms. Gunadi. “I majored in Food Science and Technology in one of Australian Universities, and have been working in Australia, followed by Singapore since graduation. This year would be the 22th anniversary for my career. I can’t say that I’ve tasted dishes from all over the world, but I have tasted most of the famous ones. I began to study the tastes of Chinese food five years ago and I can’t stop thinking of a particular hot dish I had in Chongqing on my first trip two years ago.”

While in Chongqing, Ms Gunadi went to try the famous Sichuan dish “Qian Jiang Chicken Gizzard with pickled pepper.” As soon as she was seated, Ms Gunadi took a spoonful of soup from the bowl and took a deep smell. “It is still weak in aroma and taste. I cannot eat it yet.” After five minutes, she smelled it again and said, “Less pepper and the tallow is not strong.” Then she tasted the soup and said, “A bit sour and the sesame gave it a nice aroma.” After 20 minutes, she tasted the soup again and smiled. “Now the aroma comes out, and the smell of pepper covered the red oil,” she said.

Ms. Gunadi took notes of the tastes and ingredients while eating. And in order to prevent mixing the different tastes, she used five bowls to taste the dish at different times. According to Mrs Xuan, she tasted more than 70 dishes in five districts of Chongqing during her 40 hours’ stay. They also packaged seven boxes of dishes back to Singapore.
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Three changes in taste preference of Chongqing dishes
Ms. Gunadi pointed out three interesting changes of Chongqing dishes in the past two years.
Change No.1 - Less beef tallow in the hot pot

The tallow contains saturated fatty acids which may make people fat. It is good news for the ladies who want to keep fit. But with the less use of tallow, the impact (mouthfeel) of the dishes has become less as before. “I want to create a flavor which has a nice tallowy taste as well as being healthy,” said Ms Gunadi.
Change No.2 - Fresh green Sichuan peppercorn replaces dried ones

Two years ago, people preferred dried Sichuan pepper. Now fresh green Sichuan pepper is commonly used, not only in hot pot, but also in fried dishes. Fresh green pepper can add color and bring fresh taste to the dishes. As a result, the hot pot now has a less strong taste compared to two years ago.

Change No.3 - From “Hot” and “Spicy” to “Aromatic,” “Sour,” “Oily” and “Spicy”

Hot and spicy are no longer the only characters of Chongqing food. Clever Chongqing people have created richer tastes. For instance, they use pickled pepper to make the sour and spicy taste. They use fried shrimps to get an aromatic and spicy flavor in the oily and spicy hot pot. “Aromatic,” “Sour, “Oily” and “Spicy” are the new Hot and Spicy.

Related News: Foreign tourists come for Chongqing Spicy

According to Mr Dai Lu Hua, the vice president of the Chongqing food industry committee, more and more foreigners are attracted to Chongqing for the “Hot” and “Spicy” food. They especially add spicy food to their tourist to-do list.

New words: Flavorist

A flavorist is a person who uses ingredients to create flavors or tastes. They are required to have a sharp sense of smell and taste, a good balance of left and right brain and solid knowledge of chemistry. Ms Gunadi said, “A flavorist is like a sketcher who can get the accurate profile of a taste and re-create the profile, then shows his or her work to the world.”