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Talib Hudda

Refer

Talib Hudda is the Canadian-born chef who has been passionate about cooking since early childhood and started cooking with his grandmother at the tender age of six and enrolling into culinary school when he was only 16 years old.

He has since worked in acclaimed restaurants around the world, from The Pear Tree in Vancouver to Marchal in Copenhagen. To broaden his culinary horizons, he also ventured to New York for short stints at the city’s most famous eateries, Café Boulud and Eleven Madison Park. Chef Talib first moved to Beijing when he was invited to become the executive chef at The Georg by Georg Jensen. Despite it being his first posting in Asia, he thrived in Beijing’s booming.

A new project, based on the experience Talib has garnered over his 20 years of experience in fine dining establishments: Refer

Refer is a restaurant by Talib Hudda, a chef that uses a holistic approach to gastronomy & delving into a referential cuisine that is inspired not defined to a specific time or place. A cuisine not steeped in conventional cuisine but one that encompasses traditions & cultures from around the world. Focused on ingredient locally sourced & products with a history of artisanship & craft. A cuisine inspired by nature, art & reference points.

Minimalist & textural

The food aesthetic of Talib’s cuisines is minimalist & textural, extracted through the sensory kitchen & its techniques. The visuals are “more than the sum of its parts,” An example is aged ham, a combination of 3 Ingredient: a well raised ham, salt & the least thought about ingredient (yet the most important) – Time.

The time it took to raise the boar, the time the farmer took to nurture it & feed it. the time it took to seed & grow the food for the pig. The process to salt it & wait is only skimming the surface of how much goes into the product. All that time for a bite with a complexity of flavours & textures. Aromas not common to the ingredients such a simple leg of ham.