“It’s mission impossible to please everyone,” says Andrew Bao. Yet those who lamented the closure of Bao and partner Dingjun Li’s celebrated Kensington eatery, Chairman Mao, will be pleased to find that the pair has opened a new Hunanese restaurant, The Chairman, opposite Hyde Park.

“We want to present customers with authentic Hunan cuisine, carefully choose the ingredients, and keep the original type of food. For more than 10 years we’ve been doing it this way,” Bao tells Broadsheet.

This commitment to featuring unique dishes from their home province has earned Bao and Li a hardcore following. Their original Anzac Parade location was a regular haunt for chefs such as Matt Moran and Neil Perry, and their family-style Botany eatery, Mrs Ding, is a smashing success.

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The cuisine’s smoky, spicy, tart and sweet flavours are unique to the Hunan region, and created with ingredients and techniques not found in other Chinese provinces. A rugged topography, marked with mountains, river systems and lakes, means the area was historically difficult to access, and as a result, Hunan’s traditional dishes developed in isolation.

The house-smoked pork is a good example. “For hundreds of years, smoking was the traditional way people preserved food, and it’s a very special flavour you can’t find in Sydney in other restaurants,” says Bao. “In China we use wood chips or rice husk, but it’s hard to find here so we burn rice, which is even tastier.” Served with smoked bamboo or smoked tofu and chilli, the celebratory dish is classic Hunan cuisine.

So is the succulent, deeply caramelised signature braised pork that’s been on the menu since Chairman Mao opened in 2008. Then there are crisp slices of okra seasoned with sea salt. They’re stir-fried with shiso, a brightly fragrant herb that’s common in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cooking, but unique in China to mountainous regions like Hunan.

Before owning restaurants, Bao ran a wine export business, and The Chairman’s wine list is his pet project. “I’m a wine lover, and I’m always adjusting the wine list. For Hunan food, it’s got a strong flavour. It’s spicy, so if you go with white wine, riesling or Chatelet [blanc] is good for refreshing your palate. If you go with red, you need to choose something like a shiraz that can stand up to the heat.”

The Chairman took over Lotus Dining Group’s Madame Shanghai spot, and at the request of the landlord they’ve retained the former restaurant’s opulent fit-out. Bao has tweaked the modern decor to his taste, adding hardwood tables and chairs, creating a good balance between traditional and contemporary.

Bao says Mrs Ding more closely resembles the original Chairman Mao, despite the similar name of the new eatery. Why change something that was so well known and well loved? After years of being asked by journalists and customers why they named their restaurant after Mao Zedong, the pair decided to drop the reference to the founder of the People’s Republic of China.

“People are always so curious about the name. Chairman Mao came from our province, and we thought the name would be memorable. But we decided it’s too political. From the beginning, we’ve never changed – we just want to focus on serving authentic Hunan cuisine.”

The Chairman
18 College Street, Darlinghurst
(02) 9697 9189

Hours:
Wed & Thu 12pm–3pm, 5pm–9pm
Fri to Sun 12pm–3pm, 5pm–10pm

thechairmanrestaurant.com.au