A French-Tunisian’s favourite restaurants in Hong Kong for French food, pizza, noodles, dim sum, and Japanese
- Samy Redjeb grew up in Paris eating his grandmother’s provincial French cooking and his father’s Mediterranean cuisine
- He shares his go-to restaurants for spicy Asian food, warming noodles, authentic pizza, Japanese dishes, and of course, French food
French-Tunisian Samy Redjeb is the Greater China managing director of luxury and fashion brand distributor Bluebell Group. He spoke to Andrew Sun.
I had the privilege to grow up in Paris with very traditional French cuisine from my grandmother. She would cook countryside classics like veal blanquette, beef bourguignon, quail, potatoes purée and chocolate mousse.
From my dad’s side, I’d have a very different cuisine revolving around healthy Mediterranean tomatoes, olive oil, chillies, and fish. I was also trained to eat spicy food at a young age, and it surprises my Asian friends even after 20 years in Hong Kong.
Food became extremely important for me, and I learned from my mother and father how to cook. I never follow an exact recipe, but can recreate a dish by looking at it and watching videos.
I love the variety of Hong Kong’s food scene. I eat a lot, but never between meals. Currently, my favourite places for lunch are Mak Mak (Shop 217A, Atrium, The Landmark, 15 Queen’s Road Central, tel: 2983 1003) for salmon salad. I also like Samsen (two locations including 68 Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai, tel: 2234 0001) for boat noodles.