YILAN (Taiwan News) – A new culinary philosophy, dubbed "Neo-Locale: A Different Kind of Local," has been launched by internationally acclaimed Chef Andre Chiang (江振誠), beginning with a powerful three-city tour featuring Italian Chef Matteo Alberti of Kanazawa’s Origo restaurant.
Alberti's unique approach — merging his Italian perspective with the spirit of Kanazawa and the bounty of Taiwan — is fundamentally redefining what local cuisine means.
The selection of Origo for this significant tour was highly personal for Chiang. He and his wife first discovered the restaurant during a trip to Japan and were immediately captivated.
"Although Alberti is Italian, his cooking demonstrated a surprisingly deep commitment to authentic, traditional Japanese culinary methods, a fusion of identities that strongly resonated with my "Neo-Locale" vision," said Chiang.
Alberti, whose background spans design, photography, and cooking, founded Origo (Latin for "origin") on the principle of exploring cultural and culinary roots. During his visit to Taiwan, Alberti emphasized that true local cooking requires shedding one's own cultural framework, momentarily forgetting his Italian identity to humbly absorb new narratives from the land.
His intensive tour of Yilan’s fishing ports and distilleries left him "spoiled, like a kid in a candy store," deeply impressed by the premium quality of Taiwan’s ingredients, particularly the fresh, live-caught seafood. This inspiration fueled daring fusions, such as incorporating Taiwan’s unique wax apple into a Japanese daifuku dessert, resulting in a surprisingly crisp and innovative blend of tradition and local produce.
Following Yilan, the tour is set to continue to Taichung and Kaohsiung, where Alberti promises menus inspired by mountain terrains and metropolitan vibrancy.
The Yilan event, featuring local specialties like skewered snacks, fried oysters, and algae jelly, highlighted two main courses that best embody Alberti’s Origo philosophy: the pursuit of luxury and the commitment to sustainability.
The first, cherry duck and wild mushroom brown rice tea, is a tribute to a traditional Kanazawa dish. It is regarded as a luxury in Kanazawa due to the scarcity and value of the high-quality wild game used, often served as a cherished dietary therapy dish.
To maximize the game's natural flavor, the chef made a major breakthrough: completely omitting salt and seasoning exclusively with a delicate mackerel fish sauce. The brown rice’s satisfyingly chewy texture intentionally echoes Italian risotto, offering an elegant East-meets-West interpretation.
The second featured dish, coffee soy sauce braised wild boar, demonstrates Origo’s commitment to sustainability. Origo collects daily coffee grounds from the adjacent shop and ferments them with rice mold to create a unique coffee soy sauce.
This ingenious transformation of a waste product is used to season the slow-braised Kamalan black pig belly, transforming culinary waste into a core flavor component.
Furthermore, the symbolic “Friendship Farfalle” showcased the collaboration. The dish’s tricolor presentation paired Archi’s spicy red cream sauce, which was made with local Taiwan mullet roe, with Origo’s fresh green pesto, which was made with Taiwanese kale and basil, a colorful expression of shared creativity.
The Yilan event concludes its limited run on Friday, after which this three-city culinary journey will continue to Taichung and Kaohsiung.
(Taiwan News, Lyla Liu video)
