2-Star Vegan Restaurant in Beijing

At the two-starred Michelin restaurant Lamdre in Beijing, Chef Daijun is redefining modern Chinese plant-based cuisine by shifting the focus from mock meats to the deep complexity of pristine, slow-grown botany. The centerpiece of this philosophy is demonstrated in a dish that pairs yellow fungus and ginkgo nuts with a lily bulb that has spent nine years developing underground. For professional chefs, this dish offers a masterclass in culinary patience, minimalist assembly, and the refined presentation of rare earth ingredients.

The Art of Extreme Ingredient Patience

In modern commercial kitchens, we often focus on rapid turnarounds and high-intensity prep techniques. However, Lamdre challenges this paradigm by centering dishes on ingredients that require years—sometimes nearly a decade—to mature. The nine-year lily bulb represents a commitment to ingredient sourcing where time itself acts as the primary culinary agent. Chefs must learn to respect these slow-grown ingredients by doing as little to them as possible. Over-processing or heavily masking an ingredient that took nine years to grow defeats its culinary purpose. The lesson here is one of restraint: allowing the natural, concentrated sweetness and delicate starch of the aged lily bulb to guide the plate's flavour profile.

Textural Balance in Plant-Based Gastronomy

A major pitfall in plant-based fine dining is textural monotony. Chef Daijun solves this by composing a plate with distinct mouthfeels: the crisp, clean crunch of the lily bulb scales, the soft, gelatinous bite of the yellow fungus, and the dense, slightly chewy structure of ginkgo. Rather than drowning these components in heavy sauces, they are lightly glazed or steamed to preserve their native textures. When replicating this approach, chefs should focus on dry-heat or gentle wet-heat cooking methods that highlight natural gelatinous structures, such as those found in specialty fungi, rather than trying to replicate animal fats.

Minimalist Plating and Visual Space

The visual presentation of the dish is deliberately sparse, emphasizing the natural geometry of the ingredients. By placing the elements in a clean, off-centre arrangement, the kitchen draws the diner’s eye directly to the unique shapes of the yellow fungus and the individual scales of the lily bulb. For chefs looking to lift their plating, this teaches the value of negative space. A dish does not need to fill the plate to convey luxury; instead, the rarity of the components and the precision of their placement speak volumes.