Cultural baggage is knowledge of tradition, to me it is actually positive. I agree Michelin (or even the Best Restaurant 50 list) at times gives too much acknowledgement to “creativity” lacking of culture context (and to services). A true master should be able to balance his knowledge of tradition and his signature (creativity).
Sometimes the rejection of tradition can comes as a cycle with a generation of rebellious chefs, and later the second generation will try to go back to find the root and values…(or even the same chefs when they mature).
By the way, it seems you have talked about Guan Hoe Soon many times, I searched HO but couldn’t find a post on it. Have you written about it somewhere that you can point us to?
