A pinch of salt for Michelin man

In London, it was a serious achievement. First Australian chef ever to earn two stars from Michelin. The year was 2003, only two years after the chef had earned his first star, to much surprise among the locals.

"In England, the consensus at the time was that the restaurant was going to go down because I was Australian, and what the f . . k do Australians know about running French restaurants?" laughs Shane Osborn, relaxed and confident in the kitchens at St Betty.

"There was that pressure all the time on me to not succeed because of where I came from and because I hadn't been through the ranks, like the rest of the group."

By the time Osborn's restaurant, Pied a Terre, got that second star, the pressure was really on. And it lasted another eight years. But in May last year, having made his point, Osborn sold out and left. Left the restaurant, left London, and opened his eyes to the world.

Australian chef Shane Osborn at Hong Kong restaurant St Betty

Fast forward 12 months.

In Hong Kong, where the word "Michelin" is the very elixir of hype, this scenario is manna from the PR gods: Shane Osborn, the Pied a Terre chef who earned two stars, had taken over one of the island's glossy new restaurants. Not as a consultant or FIFO chef, but as cook-in-residence.

In a city where every restaurant with (local) Michelin credentials shouts it from the rooftop - and, believe me, a lot of Hong Kong restaurants seem to have Michelin recognition - it must have had local devotees of haute cuisine salivating. Foie gras poached in Sauternes consomme? Yes, please.

"People get very excited by the whole Michelin thing here, they take it very, very seriously," says Osborn. "They are very brand-driven in Hong Kong."

But here's the twist: Osborn, the genial Perth lad steeped in the hautest of the haute, has turned his back on the very style of cooking that gave him his profile. Instead, he's cooking - among other things - steak. And pasta. And, for the first time in his life, brunch.

Osborn's gone bistro and is happy as a clam. "I'm loving it here, it's a brilliant city," says the 42-year-old. "The plan was always to end up in either Hong Kong or Singapore and this is a great place for me and my family."

Whatever your poison, Hong Kong is a sensational place for food, and with a booming economy as the gateway to China a lot of the world's name chefs have a presence - of sorts - in the harbour city.

Mario Batali has just launched two of his brands here; Briton Jason Atherton, like Batali, has come to Hong Kong having already launched with local partners in Singapore.

They add to an impressive list of chef "brands" already in the city, such as Ducasse and Robuchon.

Osborn's different. He's the chef. And with a breezy-yet-sophisticated restaurant among the international brand-name boutiques of the IFC mall to helm, and the best kitchen he's ever commanded (including a rare Josper charcoal oven), Osborn says he can see himself in Hong Kong for at least 10 years, certainly for the duration of his children's education.

After a year travelling, Osborn concluded that what he wanted to cook was the kind of food he wanted to eat with his family.

After two decades striving for classical perfection in Europe, a new attitude had set in.

The pressure was off, and the Australian was looking at the world a little differently.

He admits to a sense of relief at being off the Michelin treadmill, although he aims to get a star from the local guide for St Betty.

Having eaten there recently as a paying customer for The Australian, I reckon that it's a perfectly realistic expectation.

"I mean, I take the whole Michelin-star thing with a pinch of salt anyway," he says.

"Yes, it's a great thing to have, but at the end of the day a lot of good chefs take it far too seriously. It's your customers that count the most."

He says taking a year out "made me look at food in a really different way".

"We went through Africa, some really cool parts of South America and ... You see people that don't even have a pot to piss in. They can sit down and have a bowl of rice and they're happy and here we are using truffles and foie gras and stuff that's flown in from all over the world, and taking it all for granted, and it kind of puts it all into perspective."

As a chef, it left Osborn wanting a more spontaneous approach to food.

St Betty, in Hong Kong's Central District's IFC Tower, reflects two important international restaurant trends that have been seen in Australia too: first, the move from classical haute cuisine to more approachable, affordable cooking by highly skilled chefs, often working for someone other than themselves; and, second, the growing power of restaurant groups.

St Betty is owned by the London-based/Hong Kong-born restaurateur Alan Yau, who started the international Wagamama chain, the Hakkasan group of restaurants and Busaba Eathai, among others.

Earlier this year, Yau asked Osborn to take a look at his then faltering HK operation - Bettys Kitchen, a kind of American-themed comfort food restaurant - and consider what might work for the restaurant, Yau and the chef.

The relaunched St Betty is it.

"When I talked to Alan Yau about this project, it just kind of ticked all the boxes."

St Betty is a relaxed place doing breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, and while some of the dishes are astonishingly simple others exhibit the kind of subtle refinement that only inspired, and highly experienced, chefs can achieve. His use of century (preserved) egg white with truffle in a hazelnut vinaigrette, for example, is a particularly clever nod to his new home town (see breakout).

"It's buzzy, it's light, it's not a temple of gastronomy," says Osborn, "and good food should be approachable.

"I would never have dreamt of running a restaurant in a shopping mall before, but in Asia it's the done thing."

After London, Osborn finds the quality of local produce, particularly organic vegetables, not quite up to scratch, but he's sourcing fish from Japan, meat from the US and Australia, shellfish from New Zealand.

Another challenge has been learning the local market and, quite literally, its tastes.

Salt has to be used carefully, and citrussy, acidic finishes to dishes need toning down, he says.

"Locals don't understand fried fish, they prefer it poached or steamed, for example."

The flipside is the Chinese love of food, and a social culture not built around drinking but eating, he says.

"Young people here don't get together to drink, they share an affordable meal ... People here love their food, they talk about food, they're obsessed by food."

And Osborn says Hong Kong is booming. "A lot of people are moving here, and everyone is wanting to open restaurants here, like Mario Batali, on top of Ducasse and Robuchon. It's the real hub of Asia."

Sounds like a good place for a chef, Michelin-starred or otherwise.

Shane Osborn's go-to dishes at St Betty

21st Century Egg: chargrilled asparagus with crumbed, soft-boiled egg, lemon mayonnaise and a truffled preserved egg and hazelnut dressing. A witty nod to Hong Kong tradition.

Steak: in fact, anything cooked in the Josper, a charcoal grill/oven from Spain - is a revelation. St Betty's US Angus with bearnaise is one of the great chargrilled steaks of the world.

Sagabuta pork: with a salad of raw Japanese sweetcorn and a black pudding/cider jus.

Dark chocolate mousse: chocolate crumbs, salted peanut ice-cream and fresh cherries.

Source: The Australian, 24 November 2012