Gina Tsang trained as an academic philosopher and a painter before turning her hand to cooking. Training in the kitchens at Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, she specialised in vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free cooking before moving back to Liverpool to take up the role of Head Baker at Mello Mello vegetarian Jazz Cafe.
In order to accomplish a menu in which the dominant flavour wasn't overpowering, we had to think carefully about balancing the main flavour without compromising our aim of showing neat correspondences.
How did you do that?
We did this by utilising different textures and subtle balancing notes. For instance, we made a grapefruit jelly with a tamarind and mint fruit salad; the sour notes being grapefruit and tamarind, balanced by the freshness of the mint, the sweetness of the fruit and the texture of the jelly. We could have just given the participants a lemon to chew on, but we wanted it to be more subtle and ultimately an enjoyable meal!
The most challenging course was the salty flavour. Salt is typically a seasoning rather than the main flavour of a meal. It tends to be more dominant in side dishes - think smoked almonds, olives.
We managed to balance this by making a course of tempura with flavoured salts: a typical Japanese pairing. The crispy tempura provided a base for the main flavour, which, in turn was differentiated into further flavours (garlic, rosemary, chilli).
What was your favourite 'synaesthetic experience of the night?
I enjoyed serving the final course: the delicate flower flavoured macaroons. They provided a nice contrast to the former dessert course (the sour jelly and fruit salad) in terms of texture (light, crisp and creamy as opposed to gelatinous, heavy and astringent).
Also, by serving on wooden boards with dried lavender and berries with a floral tea accompaniment, the woodland setting for the music was really evoked. It smelt beautiful and intoxicating.
"I used flower flavours as the auditory correspondences blended in well with sweet"