The best of a Michelin Star chef

Chef Tam Sek Lun said his secret of cooking is the use of the best ingredients. Besides, "don't over-cook seafood," he advised recently at the Marriott International Hotel Beijing. He was on a culinary tour of Beijing and Tianjin, after being awarded One Michelin Star by The Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macao 2010.

One of the best received dishes was pan-fried scallop with ginger, served on a sauce of mashed ginger with spring onion. The scallops were both fresh and flavorful.

In fact, all of Chef Tam's seafoods - shark fin, grouper fish, and a sauted prawn ball with XO sauce - reflected his belief in sourcing the best ingredients. Even the lettuce served with braised sliced abalone was super crisp and crunchy.

Wanton with spinach stock was another winner. Even though it appeared toward the end of the meal, many wanted to polish off even the soup.

Tam will leave behind six of his signature Michelin dishes to be featured in the hotel's menus, including fried shark's fin with sweet-scented osmanthus in casserole, yellow-smoked chicken with soy sauce, braised shark's fin in shark bone soup, sauted Shunde pork rib, and wanton with spinach stock.